in 99 words

To widen your perspective, involve real customers. The best approach depends on your market.

Personal development: you are the real customer. Congratulations. Go forth and write algorithms.

In-house custom development: turn your real customers into on-site customers.

Outsourced custom development: get real customers to be on-site customers. If you can't, stay in touch and meet face-to-face frequently.

Vertical-market and horizontal-market software: beware of giving one customer too much control. Appoint a product manager to understand customer needs. Create opportunities to solicit feedback. Examples: customer review board, beta releases, and user experience testing.

as haiku

roses, cucumbers--
I chose beauty, but Sensei
desires to eat

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The Importance of Personal Success

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Inside This Section

• Real Customer Involvement
• Personal Development
• In-House Custom Development
• Outsourced Custom Development
• Vertical-Market Software
• Horizontal-Market Software
• Questions
  • Who should we use as on-site customers when we can't include real customers on the team?
  • We're creating a web site for our marketing department. What kind of development is that?
• Results
• Contraindications
• Alternatives