In the off-the-shelf software market, one-off customizations can be a nightmare for product managers trying to drive features with broad appeal. The question is inevitable, though, especially as larger and larger organizations begin standardizing on your software and adapting it to fit their own purposes.
Here at OnePager, there are only so many ways you can make a Gantt Chart, but we take a pretty disciplined approach to customizations, and really try to make the distinction between a one-off change and a feature request that, if generalized slightly, could appeal to other users.
Nonetheless, we do occasionally find ourselves in a situation where a customization or two is critical to winning a large site license, and the feature has no commercial viability outside the requestor's site.
In cases such as these, we have to weigh the potential revenue of the sale against the opportunity cost that our engineering team incurs when they have to go create some custom code. The difference between these two estimates is how we decide how much to bill for the custom work, or whether to subsidize it to provide further incentives for the customer to move forward.
That said, our frequency of requests for customization is relatively low--thanks largely to a great product team, and a well-defined market. I'd be curious to know if other shrinkwrap shops take a similar approach, welcome more customization, or try to discourage it altogether.
No comments:
Post a Comment