October 13, 2008

The Beta Release of Black Sesame Cookie

I do product management for software, so I do customer demos a lot. The whole purpose of demoing software to a customer is basically to get the customer interested, interested enough to sign the deal. Right before a customer demo, I see my development manager running around in the office like a chicken with its head cut-off and telling everybody, “We have this important demo coming up at so-and-so date, we got to make this perfect!” So, of course, the demo is always very presentable, perfectly functional, the most user-friendly.

However, after the deal is sealed and the real release arrives, the customer may often find that the previous perfectly functional software starts to show signs of malfunction here and there. User-friendly? Oh, no, don’t be so delusional. Whether the software is going to do what you need it to do totally depends on its mood. Presentable all the time? You got to be kidding! You, the end user, should start increasing your tolerance level to the random error messages thrown at your face.

So, some may say that sounds very much similar to how women function before and after the marriage deal is signed off. The dating phase is like the demo. But, you can never set up your expectation low enough for the real version that arrives after the marriage paper is signed.


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