Would you ship it if it had your name on it?
Painters and sculptors sign their art. Writers have their names on the jacket of their books. Journalists get bylines. Their name is forever tied to the what they worked on. Some of this is the narcism that we all have and the desire to mark ownership we all crave, but I remember reading that it started as a way to take responsibility. You put your name on what you worked on so that people would know that it was your brilliance, and your errors and faults, that were on display. A question that I'm now teaching myself to ask and wish more people shipping software would ask themselves is "Would I ship it if it had my name on it?" Not just my company's or my products, but mine. Releasing products, especially in a fast-moving industry and in a launch-and-iterate culture is often about what you leave out, and what you will get to later. You have a vision to begin with or at least a plan, but then as deadlines approach or other evil things happen, you decide what features...
