this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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Linus Tech Tips
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It does make one think, if the block was only compatible with such a specific configuration and a fraction of a niche market, what was the intention of shipping a prototype for review?
The only thing I can think of is brand exposure, but even then not many people would have been able to purchase anything. While Linus shouldn't have handled it the way he did, it does also put into question Billet's strategy in the first place..
Yeah sure Billet Labs is at fault here... Even if their strategy was idiotic what does that have to do with anything? That doesn't mean they deserve this.
You send a prototype like this out to a big outlet like LTT at least for two reasons: get outside expert feedback (which they obviously failed miserably at, I don't expect other small brands trust LTT with their in-development products) and garner interest in the product and the brand. For smaller companies this kind of coverage is critical because they don't have unlimited marketing budgets like the big brands do.
Certainly not implying that they deserve this treatment at all (no one does, and LMG has no excuse for it).
And again, there's no cookie cutter ways to running a business. It's purely on one's risk vs benefits appetite. I personally wouldn't risk delivering a prototype for review until a production-ready product is available, especially to a volatile media group like LMG (maybe GN or L1Tech). But then again, I'm not running the business 🤷
Would they or should they have known that? Before all this I would've assumed LMG to be trustworthy, especially since "prototype" means it's at least super rare if not one of a kind, and with that kind of baggage you would've assumed that people understand that it should be handled with care, especially when you don't own it.
I guess one thing Billet Labs failed on is to have an agreement before sending the product, which I assume (don't know) to be standard practice in cases like this.
But originally I was just trying to call out your whataboutism, since it doesn't really have anything to do with how it was handled on LMG's end.
It was absolutely not my intention to detract fault from LMG and shift blame to Billet. LMG needs to take accountability for the faults in its process (which I'll touch on in a sec). My intention was to understand the full context of the situation, and understand Billet's reasoning for taking those risks, not to deflect nor "whataboutism".
That aside, this demonstrates a clear gap in policy on how to handle prototype products on LMG side (among other major major policy gaps in logistics, finance, HR, production).
As you pointed out, Billet (and LMG) should have had written agreements, which shows gaps in policy on both ends. But Billet is a startup, LMG is not, and I would expect LMG to demonstrate more policy maturity than what they have shown at this stage.
Yeah we can agree they both could've done better. A lesson learned for the smaller startup at least I believe. And for me if I ever happen to be in a similar situation.
I came on you too harshly, these threads tend to drift always at least a bit off topic which I here interpreted as malicious even though it wasn't. I apologize.
Don't apologize, I fully get where you're coming from. It's part of the nature of socialization on forums :). I've been guilty of the same thing, especially on Reddit.
However, what I appreciate about Lemmy is that, with a smaller community, we can have better conversations and these threads don't completely explode into subthreads of miscommunication and get amplified the way Reddit threads do. Thanks for sharing your perspective!