Comment by zkmon
Sorry if my comment sounded out of context, but it is a very thin veil between craftmanship and salesmanship. Everything that you do to get the sale can also be seen as craftsmanship. The difference is about who is the user? Any feature that you put out just for the sake of pleasing someone should be an anti pattern. If your post is aligned with this, then I stand corrected
Btw, passion displayed in your post is great, but sometimes, it could mean excess for you and your team.
Full transparency: I make my living as a marketer. So it's entirely possible that I may not have the objectivity to tell the difference between craft and salesmanship.
But it's possible we're in agreement. So here's my take:
(1) If I'm trying to make something as good as possible, that's craftsmanship.
(2) If I'm adding features because I think it will help the product sell, I could see how that would be salesmanship. I don't think it's inherently wrong if it truly makes the product better, but it's dangerous territory, because the driving force isn't my own taste or expertise, but rather my perception of what people want. We've all seen great products turn to garbage because of this process going wayward.
(3) Even with the best of intentions, however, there is always a trade-off. Take carpentry for example. The more time I put into working on a cabinet, the better the cabinet may be. But the cost goes up too, because time is valuable. So a cabinet that is otherwise better in every way but costs 5X more should be at least 5X better in some way. I think what you're alluding to when you talk about excess, and please correct me if I'm misunderstanding you, is it's easy to spend so much time and money on a project that it becomes 5X more expensive but is only marginally better. For example, I'm a fan of traditionally-built furniture (in my neck of the woods, almost only offered by the Amish or Mennonite communities), but IKEA flat-packed furniture costs a fraction. Is it worth it? Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. Depends on context, how I plan on using the furniture, how long I need it to last, how much money I have, etc.
Did that capture what you're saying? Or am I completely off track?