Paradoxes of Product Development
Time to Read 12 min
A paradox is an often exaggerated, absurd and seemingly contradictory statement. However, this contradictory statement can lead to new insights. I believe that we should consider a few interesting paradoxes in embedded product development.
Is the Obvious Thing always the Right Thing to do?
There are these few ideas in product development, especially in software development, which turn into their opposite when examined closely:
- Paradox 1: If you want to develop faster, take more time
- Paradox 2: If you want to develop cheaper, take the higher hourly rate
- Paradox 3: When it works, only then does the work begin
- Paradox 4: If you have technical problems, solve the human problems
- Paradox 5: If you develop hardware, ask the software engineers
- Paradox 6: If you develop hardware, use agile methods, even if this is not possible for hardware at all
- Paradox 7: If you want to succeed faster, make more mistakes
- Paradox 8: If you search well-known partners, how well do you know what you get?
- Paradox 9: If you want to develop a low-cost product, expect high development cost
- Paradox 10: If you Manage an Overall Project, Manage the Interfaces First and Foremost
How these contradictions occur in practice and how they can be resolved, you can read here: