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I wouldn't say perfectionism and sales-orientedness are on the same dimension. However, I have noticed that being given the hard-sell is more often than not ass

I wouldn't say perfectionism and sales-orientedness are on the same dimension. However, I have noticed that being given the hard-sell is more often than not associated with the product being sub par. A product or project that is doing very good work often doesn't have to sell quite as hard, because the work speaks for itself. (My experience on this issue mostly deals with internal teams. I don't know how much this applies to external teams.) This is especially true when two products have teams of about equal size, experience, and expertise. Time spent selling is time not spent making a better product. All other things being equal, every hour spent selling is one less hour spent working on making your product better.

Swizec 9y ago
And with exactly zero selling you have the best product you can make but one that nobody knows exists.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  True at theoretical extremes. I think the world would be a better place if the building/selling split was more like 99:1. But in a competitive environment, selling has a much better ROI than building, so here we are.
TeMPOraL 9y ago
> A product or project that is doing very good work often doesn't have to sell quite as hard, because the work speaks for itself. This doesn't work in general, though. > All other things being equal, every hour spent selling is one less hour spent working on making your product better. Which, I believe, is a key to understanding why many (most?) of the things you can buy are utter crap, barely fit for the purpose they were made (if at all). It explains why so many successful SaaS businesses offer barely functional products. Because every hour spent selling is a hour spent not working on a product, and marketing has much better ROI than actually building something useful.
kthejoker2 9y ago
Thought experiment at the extremes: if you wait for your product to be literally perfect you will never sell anything. And of course you can sell a product that doesn't even exist. The dimension is confidence or maybe approval.
- aisofteng 9y ago
  That's not a thought experiment, it's just a statement.

Swizec 9y ago

And with exactly zero selling you have the best product you can make but one that nobody knows exists.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
True at theoretical extremes. I think the world would be a better place if the building/selling split was more like 99:1. But in a competitive environment, selling has a much better ROI than building, so here we are.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

> A product or project that is doing very good work often doesn't have to sell quite as hard, because the work speaks for itself. This doesn't work in general, though. > All other things being equal, every hour spent selling is one less hour spent working on making your product better. Which, I believe, is a key to understanding why many (most?) of the things you can buy are utter crap, barely fit for the purpose they were made (if at all). It explains why so many successful SaaS businesses offer barely functional products. Because every hour spent selling is a hour spent not working on a product, and marketing has much better ROI than actually building something useful.

kthejoker2 9y ago

Thought experiment at the extremes: if you wait for your product to be literally perfect you will never sell anything. And of course you can sell a product that doesn't even exist. The dimension is confidence or maybe approval.

aisofteng 9y ago
That's not a thought experiment, it's just a statement.