12 responses to “EEVblog #73 – How to screw up your winning product”

• Ray Jones April 10th, 2010 at 16:08

  Ah yes, the 99SE version of a “certain company” became the standard for a long time.

  Certainly my first encounters with the new “better” version, especially the “better” network based licencing became so frustrating that I still stick with 99SE till this day.

  Perhaps if I was doing more PCB work than software these days I’d revisit the latest.
  I have seen the latest and it looks glitzy, but pure unadorned functionality can’t be beat.

  Do the keyboard shortcuts from the earlier Hobart based DOS versions like ‘P’ ‘T’, ‘P’ ‘P’ etc still work on the latest and greatest?

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  • EEVblog April 10th, 2010 at 18:45

    Yep, shortcuts still work.

    Reply

• edward April 10th, 2010 at 20:41

  Change…

  Change is good, when it’s good. It’s bad when it’s bad. I don’t think you’re still using VHS video or analog cell phones, or cassette tapes, are you?

  The key to successful change is to do your homework. Test test test test. And if you can’t test, then release to a small audience and increase the size as you become convinced it works.

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• Brian Hoskins April 10th, 2010 at 21:29

  Hi Edward,

  I think you’re missing the point a little bit there. I don’t think you can use the change from VHS to DVD as an example, because that’s an actual step forwards in technology and completely *different* products will have been designed to make use of that technology.

  Still, if you design and build a really good DVD player (for example), and it tops the sales chart, then you’re probably not likely to be making good decision if you decide you’re going to completely change it. That’s what Dave is talking about I think.

  That doesn’t mean you can’t build different products that later serve a different audience or perhaps make use of a newer technology.

  Brian

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• L April 10th, 2010 at 22:39

  That’s one of your posts that make me keep watching your blog, Dave. You’re not only talk about transistors, but about a bunch of interesting related topics like product design and dickhead MBAs

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• Ray Jones April 11th, 2010 at 08:17

  Did anybody else notice the “step motion” of the background images whizzing past?

  An artifact of change dare I say!

  Dave, does this happen with your original source video?

  If so, then it proves the old analog video despite the lack of crispness at times handles fast motion in a superior manner!

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  • EEVblog April 11th, 2010 at 09:55

    It doesn’t really happen on the original MP4 from the camera. The video gets compressed and converted multiple times before it gets to you.
    You can’t stream uncompressed “analog” video on the internet, the blog wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for compressed MP4 video!

    Reply

    • Ray Jones April 11th, 2010 at 18:05

      Yeah it would be a bit of a stretch to stream analog signals on the net.

      So yeah must be part of the multiple trans-codings that take place to get onto YouTube’s final feed.

      I know if you do a quick DVDShrink you can get the same effect, reference frames only exist every so often, and the incremental differences pile up giving the abrupt step back to reality in the compressed version.

      Mind you things are much better than the first digital feeds I recall when watching OS Grand Prix’s via satellite feeds in the 80′s. Huge stop motion jumps in the background when tracking a car around a corner!

      Reply

• ivan April 11th, 2010 at 19:30

  Hi,
  My case is worst
  I am working in subsidiary of another “certain company” which is located in a post socialist country. Therefor we don’t have many MBAs, so we bring our managers (and team leaders) “from the street” because (according to the management gurus) this is the “American way [to success]“.

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• Mike Duan May 3rd, 2010 at 03:42

  Protel / Altium (well known Australia company) is one good example same as this story.

  Hi-Tech (grown up in Australia, Now part of Microchip) and its newest PICC and PICC18 compiler (9.6x or newer) is another good example how MBA(s) screws up a good company.

  Now the newest magento 1.4x release is the same as this story. Everything stops working after upgrade from 1.3.2.x. Even though the 1.4x is claimed to be “matured”. What a MBA dominated world!

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• Darren June 15th, 2010 at 10:48

  As someone whose entire career has been based on redesigning successful products, I have to agree absolutely with everything that you have said in this post.
  Frequently we’ve suffered top brass completely overriding design decisions with absolutely no technical, economic or ergonomic justification. These decisions were based on marketing plans or worse, motivated by internal politics. And too many times this has resulted in the catastrophic failure of the entire product line.
  While it is true that many of the changes that I have made are embarrassingly stupid in retrospect, I am not ashamed of them as I have made these mistakes in earnest.

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• John M October 7th, 2010 at 20:17

  My rant actually has nothing to do with Product Design, but the MBA problem is very real. My ex-company ( the details of why I no longer there won’t be discussed here) had these Six Sigma Black Belts come in and make sweeping changes to the way my department was organized and run and the results were appalling. It ended up taking 5 to 6 times longer just to get the paperwork done! Which added 1 to 2 hours of extra labor every day and they were working us overtime to begin with! Yes, yes, it allowed them to micromanage down to a much lower level, but, having that in place absolutely did not improve our efficiency – it made it worse! I remember the Six Sigma person in our staff asking us what we thought of their plan or if we had any questions. Dead silence. Top Down management is inherently ineffective in promoting communication.

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