Everything has a Utility
Maybe this is my companion piece to the Deprecation article…
Things can deprecate or be replaced by the next shiny new tool, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no longer any value to it. So it’s often hard to see companies make choices about products that no longer serve their needs and decide to shut them down.
I understand that it really all comes down to the bottom line and how much effort has to be spent maintaining that eyesore of a thing that “no one uses”, but to those die hards that are still on that platform and use it, there’s an eternity of memories, functionality, friendship (if it’s a social one), comfort, and even utility that just can’t be found anywhere else.
So while your new thing certainly must be better than the old thing… because, well, it’s new and you made it, take a close look as to why something still has so much loyalty to it. What went right, what did it offer, and does the new thing make it competitive and as comfortable in terms of use and features?
People inherently hate change. Usually, as developers, we tend to dismiss it as exactly that: people hate change so you can’t please everyone. But there may be a reason for that, and there may also be a good reason why they are not adopting your new thing, or sometimes even actively opposing it.
But figuring out why can be a little troublesome, and sometimes the answers lie in the realm of infeasibility… but that’s also something that needs to be accounted for. Why wasn’t a feature migrated, why is it infeasible now? Are we taking into account how people were really using the system before or did we just make some assumptions and move forward?
New software, especially tied to new paradigms when replacing something already existing is not an easy thing to do. And you will have to make tough choices that will alienate people. But as long as you have a certain conviction, and a willingness to communicate that conviction, people will tend to understand. They may not like it and may leave, but at least there wont be a mystery as to why something went in a new direction.
Keep iterating, keep making great new things, but also realize that you are dealing with and affecting people’s lives and how they use things. So treat your users well, treat them as people, as loyal customers and talk to them. Preferably beforehand, but the point is to keep that communication channel open and active, so that you can establish an understanding.
Communication wont solve everything, but lack of communication definition wont solve anything.
