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0 pointstomc19854y ago0 comments

> What “marketing minds” are making decisions about service architecture? This seems like an imaginary issue.

It is hard to hold this comment in a generous light (per HN rules) when some of my most poignant experiences in dealing with tech vendor salespeople at conferences is (and I paraphrase), "well, it's working great for $MEGACORP, you do want to be like $MEGACORP dont you?"

One time I asked one of those salespeople point blank if that line actually works on people. Apparently it does. And those people for whom that line works with make big expensive tech decisions.

0 comments

dpark4y ago

Did you become a marketing mind because they were pitching you?

I did not say that marketing isn’t making pitches. I said they aren’t making the decisions.

Any company allowing marketing to choose the technical platform for the engineers is going to be very short lived. This is not a real issue.

mrbungie4y ago

You're assuming engineers can't be victims of cargo cult, and we all know that's not globally true as it's been discussed multiple times on HN. Marketing teams know that as well, and they exploit that as much as they can.

tomc1985OP4y ago

> Marketing teams know that as well, and they exploit that as much as they can.

They exploit this mercilessly, just as hard as they exploit our curiosity and desire for novelty as engineers.

To the GP, your company's marketing/sales team may not drive internal technical decisions, but I can promise you that other companies' sales teams do. Why do you think they so persistently step on the heads up their first POC so they can be put in touch with C-levels or department heads?

Enterprise sales is a trip, dude

1 more reply

dpark4y ago

> You're assuming engineers can't be victims of cargo cult

At no point did I say anything to that effect.

I’m saying that marketers are not making technical decisions. That’s all I’m saying.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointstomc19854y ago0 comments

> What “marketing minds” are making decisions about service architecture? This seems like an imaginary issue.

One time I asked one of those salespeople point blank if that line actually works on people. Apparently it does. And those people for whom that line works with make big expensive tech decisions.

0 comments

dpark4y ago

Did you become a marketing mind because they were pitching you?

I did not say that marketing isn’t making pitches. I said they aren’t making the decisions.

Any company allowing marketing to choose the technical platform for the engineers is going to be very short lived. This is not a real issue.

mrbungie4y ago

tomc1985OP4y ago

> Marketing teams know that as well, and they exploit that as much as they can.

They exploit this mercilessly, just as hard as they exploit our curiosity and desire for novelty as engineers.

Enterprise sales is a trip, dude

1 more reply

dpark4y ago

> You're assuming engineers can't be victims of cargo cult

At no point did I say anything to that effect.

I’m saying that marketers are not making technical decisions. That’s all I’m saying.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse