The document outlines 4 laws of software economics:
1. Development teams are never big enough due to endless ideas, so ruthless prioritization is needed.
2. Profits come from selling to many subscribers, not just a few customers. Products need to be built once and sold widely.
3. Software alone is not a complete product; it must be packaged with other elements into targeted solutions for specific customer segments.
4. Strategic decisions cannot be outsourced and require judgment calls, as inputs like surveys cannot replace strategic thinking.
5. Magical Thinking
“CEO says it’s really important.”
“We already promised it to a big prospect.”
“How hard could it be? Probably only 10 lines of code.”
“We’ve been talking about this for months.”
“We’ve gone agile, which gives us infinite capacity...”
“My neighbor’s kid could do this in an hour.”
6. #1
Law of Ruthless Prioritization
• AND requests but EXCLUSIVE OR decisions
• We succeed by finishing a few critical things
Executive’s Job
• Make hard trade-offs
• Battle magical thinking and “specials”
7. 4 Laws of Software Economics
1. Your development team will never be big enough
Law of Ruthless Prioritization
2. All of the profits are in the nth subscriber
8. Fact #2
All of the profits
are in the
nth copy or
nth subscriber
9. Revenue Implications
$1M/year
$6M/year
Close to zero
• Your development team of 6 costs…
• Implied revenue commitment…
• Incremental cost per user?
• Goal is not to minimize costs
but to maximize revenue
14. #2
Law of Build Once, Sell Many
• Segmentation: strategic art of choosing customers who
want the same solution
Executive’s Job
• Focus on segments, not deals
15. 4 Laws of Software Economics
1. Your development team will never be big enough
Law of Ruthless Prioritization
2. All of the profits are in the nth subscriber
Law of Build Once, Sell Many
3. Software bits are not the product
16. Naked without
• Deep customer understanding
• Specific target audience
• Working solutions
• Positioning, messaging, awareness, sales
Fact #3:
Software Bits < Whole Product
18. Most of the success /
failure of a product is
determined before we pick
our first developer or fill
out our first story card
19. #3
Law of Targeted Whole Products
• Customers buy solutions (which may include software)
• Mean-Time-To-Joy
Executive’s Job
• Focus on problems worth solving for specific segments
• Customer story as important as working software
20. 4 Laws of Software Economics
1. Your development team will never be big enough
Law of Ruthless Prioritization
2. All of the profits are in the nth subscriber
Law of Build Once, Sell Many
3. Software bits are not the product
Law of Targeted Whole Products
4. You can’t outsource your strategy
24. Features for
current release
50%
Quality (refactor,
test automation)
15%
Engineering
overhead, 10%
Big future bet,
5%
Sales one-offs,
non-roadmap
20%
Typical Development Budget*
24
*In my personal experience
25. “I skate to where the puck is going
to be”
Strategy Requires Strategy
Strategy requires judgment
26. 4 Laws of Software Economics
1. Your development team will never be big enough
Law of Ruthless Prioritization
2. All of the profits are in the nth subscriber
Law of Build Once, Sell Many
3. Software bits are not the product
Law of Targeted Whole Products
4. You can’t outsource your strategy
Law of Judgment
Two kinds of conflicts:
between dev-side folks (eng, PM) and sales/marketing/non-tech execs
Between commercial product folks (volume, revenue) and project/professional services/internal IT
Professional Services profitable for single client or low volume segments, existing budgets. Priced for effort
Product model more profitable for larger segments, price pressure, priced for value
Well, there’s one thing….
Not every player can have the same strategy
Take-away: volume commercial software business is very different from contract development or professional services.
Need a very strong hand on the product tiller to keep from making repeated (one-sided) trade-offs that shortchange product and market success.
Whatever we call them, we need individuals who understand the laws of gravity and can hold back short-term magical thinking.