WORDS ON PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT (From Rodrigo) [quote on] 1. The product is only as

http://www.fastcompany.com/node/28121/printCHOICE WORDS ON PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT (From Rodrigo)

[quote on]

1. The product is only as good as the plan for the product.

2. The best teamwork is a healthy rivalry.

3. The database is the software base.

4. Don’t just fix the mistakes — fix whatever permitted the mistake in the first place.

[quote off]

I was telling the guys yesterday that their rivalry was a good thing. Denis is always fighting for user simplicity, and Kyrill is always fighting for shipping the product and rich feature functionality devoid of ‘hacks’. Dennis is intuitive and impluslive and throws ideas out quickly to see if they stick. Kyrill is a physicist and engineer, and he thinks every idea through all the possible steps. I said “you know, I couldn’t go out and hire for this if I wanted to. THis is the most awesome value to the business I could ask for.”

Of course, it doesn’t help that they’re arguing furiously over some bit of nuance while Vitaly, Alexey and I shake our heads, look for the waitress, and try to get a refill of our coffee. 🙂

It’s freaking priceless. Really.

Now, a second thing that I find no one agrees with me on any longer, and I say that ‘the database is the application’. I love my diagrams. I use pretty colors. I model them in detail. And for me, the ERD is how I capture the requirements. The UI is open to constant revision. It is art. It is psychology. But a database is a bit of math that represents a business problem in the form of the relational calculus.

Databases correspond to reality. Databases turn me on. Every kind. Doesn’t matter. Faster, richer, all the better. Don’t like code other than triggers back there.

———

“

“