Flashy

Many people believe their managers will only support a project if it “looks flashy,” believing that decision makers can only understand eye candy and do not get the content. This is very dangerous and unproductive attitude to have.

To sell a project to decision makers, it has to look flashy. Big bosses don’t look into content, they only want to see nice colors and pictures.

Curiously, I have heard this a few times in the past three weeks. Several people I respect told me this during meetings, and one even demonstrated their product with a huge amount of eye candy (a result of sizable investment). In the most recent discussion, the point was that users and decision makers will only accept something flashy, more or less openly hinting that a person is no willing to “up-sell” things not flashy.

Statements like this are a clear sign of people not believing into the project/product discussed. Saying that the manager will go for flashy, essentially abdicates the person’s role as an actor in the system. Translated, it means something along the lines of “My word means nothing; my decision makers can only accept something that sells itself through visual appeal.“

Yes, we all have the right to beautiful design. But design is not about eye candy. And if you don’t believe enough into something you’re working on to present to your manager, then no amount of flashiness will help.

Curiously, most open source software looks like crap, and people still want to use it.

I’d love to hear from people who had concrete experience with this. Or, if you are a decision-maker, are you willing to talk about it? Feel free to contact me directly.