Listen to your customers, but don’t always build exactly what they’re telling you. This is a really key distinction around building enterprise software.
You intentionally start small, because you will not be able to compete with an incumbent… because the incumbent is always going to go for the full solution.
What happens to the Microsofts, Oracles and IBMs of the world is that when they get big enough, they don’t think they need to bring that same level of focus and energy to the end-user experience.
I think people are always able to achieve more than they think they can. While that’s cliche, I don’t know if managers think about that enough. You have to set your sights extremely high.
I think bad politics are incredibly dangerous, so it’s important to make sure that people are communicating well. Culture and morale are super important. It’s best to not force it, but let it happen organically and genuinely.
