Thread

The most important product decision is what you don't build

161 points · 54 comments · ChrisArchitect

swader999 · 1789681091 · focus · HN ↗
The one I get constantly is we want "custom reporting". Well what the hell is that really? Why, why, why do you need that? Then I just build a new feature they will actually use and defer "custom reporting" for another month.
1. pelagicAustral · 1789683114 · focus · HN ↗
  I see this all the time... custom reporting, reports... I have seen this so many times in so many places and I wonder why the fuck are people asking about it. Most of the time they have little clue of what they want reported, or how they want the data to look like. Nearly 100% of the time what they mean by reporting is "join all the tables that have a foreign key, force join all the ones that do not have a foreign key by using a union against some arbitrary value picked at most-likely-to-be-the-right-one and dump everything on an "excel spreadsheet". This is the golden standard most people go by.
  1. randochatter · 1789695142 · focus · HN ↗
    Well how else am I supposed to run vlookups to find the right data?
    datadrivenangel · 1789741502 · focus · HN ↗
    It's funny because it's so true

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