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Mar 31, 2008 
Kevin Merritt over at blist has a post up on software instrumentation — aka “developer crack” because most developers LOVE to write these types of applications. I know I do. I could create these types of dashboards till the elves return from the Undying Lands.
However, as my friend Damon notes in his post Perfect is the Enemy of the Good, when you’re developing a new product in a hot market there’s a natural tension between engineering too much into the product vs. getting something out the door for customers to actually start using. Using Kevin’s example, why spend the time developing the geeky analytics for the CSV upload tool if your first three prospective customers say they hate that feature and never will use it? Cut it and move on.
This is sort of ironic for me to be writing, because I do see the value of instrumentation, and have personally forestalled several major catastrophes when I got early warning from home-grown instrumentation software I’ve written. But as NFL scouts will tell you, speed kills!
p.s. I found out something at Startup Drinks Seattle a few days ago that had been bugging me: How do you pronounce “blist”? I thought it was “bee-list” but its actually rhymes with the Canadian adjective for drunk.
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Instrumentation blist, Kevin Merritt
