Allan & Steve are the chubby founders of LessEverything. This is their blog, hear them rant, praise, give advice and talk about Just Stuff, Less Accounting, Lovd by Less, More Honey, Events, Less Memories, Code, Business, Design, Marketing
Beware of "One Small Thing"
written by Allan Branch on March 31st, 2009
We LOVE feedback and feature requests. Our apps get better every day because our users constantly submit feedback. In the past 6 months we've received quite a bit of emails that Steve and I have called "one small thing" emails. They go something like this...
"Hey Guys, love your apps, they're so simple and feature rich at the same time. I'd love to be able to use them except I need to be able to do _________."
The request is usually for some very minor thing that they don't really need and that no one else has requested. It's a "deal killer" for them, they can't live without it.They would "sign up for the paid version right now" if we had it. Yeah, right. In reality they're looking for a reason to not use the app. They're the same person that one ups every story you tell. They're the same person that complains at every meal and every movie wasn't as good as this other one.
In response to these emails we thank them and usually explain our thought process of why our app doesn't include their "needed" feature.
Beware! These users will brain wash you, they will be enablers for your own desire to commit feature creep. They will suck the life out of you "one small thing" at a time until you are no better off than the poor shlubs at Intuit, who's main job is to keep putting crap out so they don't get fired for thinking for themselves. You don't need these people who are never going to signup for the paid version anyways. You're better off without them. Write your app for yourself and for your core customers that "get" you and what you're doing and love it.
14 Responses to “Beware of "One Small Thing"”
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Not sure I ever got an explanation as to why I can’t change the background in LessAccounting to have kittehs and flowers…
What about javascript snowflakes? That would only take a few minutes to implement, but would provide a lifetime of positive user experiences, esp. during winter.
Staunch! Nice post but still, I like Stevens Shit stink’n post better.
I know what you mean, those who need special attention are not worth anyone’s time. Those who need deals or special pricing are the biggest pain in the butts!
Sure, but how do you differentiate those requests from legitimate, valuable feature requests? After all, it’s not often that people tell you exactly how to get their money.
There’s always going to be “a thought process” behind programming decisions, but the fact that a user is complaining means something. Nobody complains about a screwdriver unless it’s broken or they really needed a drill.
What would be really useful is a dashboard widget for project time sheets, similar to Freshbooks.
The Intuit slam was too funny.
Bravo. There are always people who are looking for the hole in the bottom of the boat. And that’s not just in web apps, either. I like your philosophy of building it for your “core” group who gets it. You can’t be all things to all people and you can’t have 100% of any market.
I have been watching lessaccounting for a long time hoping to switch from quickbooks. I have mixed feelings about the post as quickbooks is a terribly designed complicated mess of a program, but it does have the catalog feature that we need. I understand focusing on your “core” group, I just wish your “core” group was not the same as every other web 2.0 accounting website’s “core” group which seems to be designers and companies without many material products to sell. I don’t know if this post was aimed at guys like me and my catalog feature request or other users who want something like a way to send out an estimate over a twitter post, but figured I would give my point of view.
Hi Matthew, like you mentioned first the app isn’t for everyone. Many people have a real reason not to the user the app. Like yourself you probably need inventory. This post is really about the user that request that they must have twitter integration to use the app. Or the user that must have a blackberry app to make lessaccounting “useful”.
Boy, you all are jerks. I had emailed you about a “small thing”, and that is being able to import time entries from Basecamp. I think that is a pretty important thing for people who use Basecamp.
You responded with an email… I thought well, maybe in the future… but then you get out here and talk about people like me who really think you have a good product, but there is one or two little things that would create work for us instead of save us time.
And… guess what, I haven’t signed up with you all… I have kept my account with Cashboard.
In fact, I was on your site today checking out the features again (seeing if anything changed) because I was considering switching to you all anyway because of the bank integration and expenses (and just manually entering my time), until of course I read your posts and found out that you are a bunch of total jackasses who don’t value your customers and potential customers.
Apparently you all offer “less” customer service, “less” listening to your customers, and “less” common business sales skills… I mean really, creating blog posts talking about your customers and those who could potentially become customers?
Oh… and “less” money because I wouldn’t sign up now if you gave it away.
And hopefully “less” customers because I am going to now make it my life’s mission to tell everyone what jerks you all are and to stay away, far away!
@you jerks,
Actually I really like the idea of importing time from basecamp. it is actually something we’ve wanted to do for a long time and it’s on our list and we will implement at some point. This post wasn’t geared towards you and I’m sorry you took it personally.
We wish you the best going forward. steve
i love that one person feels like the article was written solely for them.
I’ll bet you think this song is about you Don’t you? Don’t you?
I find this post to be pretty combative towards potential customers which doesn’t seem like a very productive stance for you or the businesses you’re talking to here. Are there people that ask for ridiculous things? Absolutely! But as some commenters said, how do you differentiate? You certainly did not make an effort to differentiate in the post, and only now are saying this doesn’t apply to the people who express their legitimate concerns in comments. The tone of this post is unfortunate and disappointing and is quite a turn off after being pretty impressed with the product otherwise. Am I just one of those people that was never going to buy anyway? I guess we’ll see at the end of the trial period I just signed up for but I have a lot less positive feeling about the product in general. That’s a shame after all of the other positive and helpful things published here.