Since July 2020 we’ve set our date for the V1.0 release to be 14 January 2021. Who came up with that shitty plan? Well I did of course – thinking that having 6 months (and a bit) to complete a product after already spending one year on it would be enough. But clearly it wasn’t and now I have a choice.  I can either:

A) Push really hard – putting enormous pressure on developers already strained by a year of having to deal with Covid19 / working from home / raising children / losing friends — and doing so over Christmas / New Year. Also there are some things that I REALLY want to fix / implement before release — and this would mean these have to wait for V1.1.

or

B) Move the release date. The date that I’ve magically set for 14 January.

If there is one thing that I’ve learned from building software for >10 years it is that we care a lot more about our product than our customers do. For us it feels like we’re building the new iPhone or releasing the latest Christopher Nolan film – but we’re not. If we’re being honest – right now nobody really cares  if we release 14 January or 14 February or 14 March. And because we’re SO vested in this, SO involved every single day, you lose track of that.

It was a tough year for everyone (personally I’ve had it easy compared to others – I believe that if you’re alive, haven’t lost someone close and you still have a job, you fall in that category). I don’t want to push people to not spend time with their families, to rush code or to get a stomach ulcer from the stress of making a made-up deadline.

We will get there and it will be a fantastic piece of software. Merry Christmas everyone,

RT