Yes we are getting more than 10 deals. That was a couple years ago. :-)
We've been very judicious about product decisions regarding customers, that's not really the kind of bending I'm referring to. It's more about the effort involved to get them to your site, onboarded, excited and pulling out their wallet.
I'd be fine with an extension in Firefox, but like the author I use this ALL the time. And I'm not a fan of the Chrome extension. It doesn't even show the feed URL in the address bar.
I agree with most of this article, down to the part about having a public 18-36 month plan. To me it sounds too obligatory. Now you are on the hook to deliver things that may change over the course of time. I know Earlyvangelists are supposed to understand the vision is "subject to change", but it's much easier to assume they are okay with it in theory. I find them much less forgiving in practice.
We've never announced a feature unless we know the day it will deploy. That way we meet or exceed customer expectations 100% of the time. Sure, we might have an idea of where the app is headed in three years, but we don't share it with customers because it will change.
When we say we're going to do something and change our mind later I think it makes the company look bad, even if it's the right decision.
We're at a point where my company is trying to get out of client work 100%. To me, selling features of a product to a company and telling them I will deliver in 18-36 months puts me right back in the client business. No thanks.
We've been very judicious about product decisions regarding customers, that's not really the kind of bending I'm referring to. It's more about the effort involved to get them to your site, onboarded, excited and pulling out their wallet.