The thing that was just so ridiculous was that we spent three months working on the design of this project. I always remember it as three but it might have been even more. We produced all these documents and then we started writing the software and doing something. It became very obvious that until anyone got to play with the system, knowing what we really wanted, it may all change. For a while we tried to maintain the designs. After a while we gave up because it was too much effort for no reward ….
At the end of the day actually we did this big design and then we planned several milestones. Some bits were end to end and those were always the most successful. It wasn’t thought through because no one had told me “Oh this is the way to go.” So we were the ones we learnt the most from. It was getting the feedback, when things were actually in front of the customer “Oh yeah, okay, that’s great and no this is that” that made the difference.
No product went onto the market for three years because it took quite a long time to persuade them to buy in to the idea. We were starting to lag, having been ahead of the market for years, and it was also a frustration that we’d had to go for such a long time without having a completed product. It always felt like there ought to be a better way. A way that gets something to the market quicker and is what is wanted by the client.
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