Yeah really. They spend two years creating this groundbreaking technology and want to throw in the towel entirely after a couple days of poor performance in the market because their UI isn't intuitive enough. For the money they spent on that Clippy knockoff they probably could have fixed the UI. I mean it's just a cloud storage platform it's not like there aren't dozens of competitors they could copy off of.
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Silicon Valley - Season 3 of the hilarious Mike Judge comedy series - HBO Sundays
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Yeah really. They spend two years creating this groundbreaking technology and want to throw in the towel entirely after a couple days of poor performance in the market because their UI isn't intuitive enough. For the money they spent on that Clippy knockoff they probably could have fixed the UI. I mean it's just a cloud storage platform it's not like there aren't dozens of competitors they could copy off of.
I never liked him, have hated him from season 1
Jack Scofield
Member
I didn't really like this episode. Felt like a non-problem to me. They can't just make a few UI adjustments?
Yeah just make a default option that most people can use and the more complex options an advanced menu. So easily solved.
eddievanclaylen
Member
So I saw Cloverfield again the other day and realized Erlich Bachman is in the entire movie, holding the camera.
Are those clickfarms real?
Are those clickfarms real?
I almost think this episode suffered from trying to cram too much in at once. Pied Piper's failings seem pretty extensive. The UI is a mess, how it works is a mystery to everyone and it works in ways that to the common person make it seem like it's broken (the 0 KB storage thing), and the first impression of the actual explanations is negative (Skynet and I'd assume initially privacy concerns, given that the focus group could step through why the P2P data was secure.)
Richard is doing a stunning example of exhibiting why he's a bad CEO--the tech is fine, but when it comes time to communicate the message he can't shift out of engineering Mode. When he got through to the initial focus group, he should have then tried to find out from them how the app could communicate meaning more directly. Instead he starts giving TV interviews about electrons in yogurt. Their problems are all fixable, but Richard isn't interested in adjusting the product to fit the audience, he's trying to change the users to fit the product.
I liked the episode, but cramming all of the bad news in one episode kind of oversimplified the problem. Jared is possibly going to get himself fired, too. If further funds are dependent on daily users, buying those clicks is a huge deal
Richard is doing a stunning example of exhibiting why he's a bad CEO--the tech is fine, but when it comes time to communicate the message he can't shift out of engineering Mode. When he got through to the initial focus group, he should have then tried to find out from them how the app could communicate meaning more directly. Instead he starts giving TV interviews about electrons in yogurt. Their problems are all fixable, but Richard isn't interested in adjusting the product to fit the audience, he's trying to change the users to fit the product.
I liked the episode, but cramming all of the bad news in one episode kind of oversimplified the problem. Jared is possibly going to get himself fired, too. If further funds are dependent on daily users, buying those clicks is a huge deal
Dominican Power
Member
Holy shit at the end. Does that really happen?
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
What I don't understand us why couldn't they have done both the box and the platform after Jack left? They already had a deal in place. Just take out the problematic exclusivity language.
Ya its a bit dumb. Why not implement a standard easy UI for everyone and leave the option for a pro mode. Pretty much every decent encoding program has the option for both, seems improbable these guys would overlook such a feature.
Jack was only able to get that deal because the exclusivity language was the bargaining chip.
Yeah, I'm just suspending disbelief by assuming Richard corrupting the focus group data caused them to think of all the groups as unusable and thus he never got the memo.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
The exclusivity language just got them more money. They would still have a superior product compared to everyone else. I don't see why they couldnt have made box deals to fund the platform development.
The reason its not an easy fix is because in their company group, they don't have a single person who actually understands the difficulty of navigating a complex system. It's a complete lack of perspective.
What I don't understand is why Monica doesn't say "why don't you look at hiring some UX designers to simplify the interface"
I'm sure Dinesh's chat app is gonna be the savior in the end.
What I don't understand is why Monica doesn't say "why don't you look at hiring some UX designers to simplify the interface"
I'm sure Dinesh's chat app is gonna be the savior in the end.
For all that Richard is a poor CEO, I've got to wonder just what Jared, Erlich and Raviga are doing. All of them should be in a position to intervene in this episode but they just sit back and let Richard waste several hundred thousand dollars.
Jared does at least seem to do a lot of shit, given he's basically the entire accounts and hr for the company, but given his prior experience you might think he would be able to advise Richard on business areas.
Meanwhile, Erlich is supposed to be the PR guy. Surely it's his job to get more daily active users and to sell the platform? At the very least one might expect him to be the guy giving the demos and tutorials rather than the others.
I can't say I expected much more from Raviga given they have always just been treated as a money spout, but normally a VC would be more than that and could be on hand to provide management functions. In fact Monica does arrange their focus group, but then seemingly decides that that is job done instead of telling Richard he's an idiot.
Jared does at least seem to do a lot of shit, given he's basically the entire accounts and hr for the company, but given his prior experience you might think he would be able to advise Richard on business areas.
Meanwhile, Erlich is supposed to be the PR guy. Surely it's his job to get more daily active users and to sell the platform? At the very least one might expect him to be the guy giving the demos and tutorials rather than the others.
I can't say I expected much more from Raviga given they have always just been treated as a money spout, but normally a VC would be more than that and could be on hand to provide management functions. In fact Monica does arrange their focus group, but then seemingly decides that that is job done instead of telling Richard he's an idiot.
-Pyromaniac-
Member
I'm sorry but the issue isn't they just need to make a more user friendly UI. Yes they need to do that, but the underlying issue is that no one "got" the platform. Even if the UI was friendlier, people still wouldn't understand why they'd want to use pied piper.
It's a product that requires too much education, or the UI would need to be so clever that it could be friendly and still showcase/explain what the program is actually doing. Which is easier said than done, and I'm not even sure that is possible.
It's shit like this that Apple is good at, but Apple has the advantage of integrating whatever complex shit they have into their platform so they don't have to worry about explaining it, people will use it and reap the benefits. Pied Piper on the other hand is a standalone product. It IS the platform. So it's much harder to tackle the issue.
It's a product that requires too much education, or the UI would need to be so clever that it could be friendly and still showcase/explain what the program is actually doing. Which is easier said than done, and I'm not even sure that is possible.
It's shit like this that Apple is good at, but Apple has the advantage of integrating whatever complex shit they have into their platform so they don't have to worry about explaining it, people will use it and reap the benefits. Pied Piper on the other hand is a standalone product. It IS the platform. So it's much harder to tackle the issue.
Napoleonthechimp
Member
Figure out your core user group and what your product is meant for, then redesign the UI with that in mind while changing up the marketing.
This doesn't seem all that difficult.
The only question is why they didn't cover those stages before now.
This doesn't seem all that difficult.
The only question is why they didn't cover those stages before now.
Yeah, I think this is supposed to be the problem - not just the UI, but actually why you would use Pied Piper at all - "I can already transfer my photos from my phone to my computer, why do I need this?" sort of thing. That's the stuff that they showed Bernice not getting, then getting.
I don't really get why it's so hard to understand. Isn't the platform just cloud storage? I suppose they were saying the data wasn't being stored in a centralized location, but I'm not sure why the users need to know that.
As far as the company dying, it seems that's a stretch too. At the very least they could license the technology to other streaming websites like I thought they were doing before.
As far as the company dying, it seems that's a stretch too. At the very least they could license the technology to other streaming websites like I thought they were doing before.
Well, in that case, if its just cloud storage, and I already use cloud storage, completely as a background process in many cases, why should I choose to use Pied Piper?
I'm sure this is where it is trying to go, rather than just UI stuff.
The zero KB used thing seems important--even with cloud storage, you generally have something telling you after you've uploaded a file and it's using XYZ space.
People are downloading the app, going through its convoluted multi-click process, and at the end of it are getting told they've used no space. Even when it works, to the layperson it looks like it's not working.
People are downloading the app, going through its convoluted multi-click process, and at the end of it are getting told they've used no space. Even when it works, to the layperson it looks like it's not working.
Trust me, a shit ton of people don't know what cloud storage is and what it does
I never understood why they didn't just call it "online storage". All it does is make it sound like something entirely new to learn.
Where is the cloud and what is it? Who owns it? Why do I have to be connected to the Internet to use it? How is it different than the Internet? Etc
Seems like something they'd make fun of on this show
Conrad Link
Member
Yea wasn't feeling that episode, I figured it would be a funny little problem, watching them try and understand 'regular human being' stuff oh you nerds you just don't get it! Then they'd just be saved by Monica the only 'normal one' sorting something out.
Then it takes a dark turn lol.
Problem is it didn't really seem like a big enough problem to be the thing that finally defeated them, after everything else, he had completely given up just over this lol.
Just go to Raviga and be like ok we're awesome but we need to figure out how to show people that, someone is an expert at simplifying programs, surely they've done this sort of thing before?? You're telling me not a single person in that room had read about something similar and instead decided f**k it I'm better off quitting?
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Also, how many of NeoGAF posters are just click farmers!! *looks around suspiciously*
Then it takes a dark turn lol.
Problem is it didn't really seem like a big enough problem to be the thing that finally defeated them, after everything else, he had completely given up just over this lol.
Just go to Raviga and be like ok we're awesome but we need to figure out how to show people that, someone is an expert at simplifying programs, surely they've done this sort of thing before?? You're telling me not a single person in that room had read about something similar and instead decided f**k it I'm better off quitting?
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Also, how many of NeoGAF posters are just click farmers!! *looks around suspiciously*
LonelyGreyWolf
Banned
I think the premise is there episode was that Richard is the problem, not Pied Piper. I, like seemingly everyone else, couldn't help but think during the episode that the central issue could be easily solved with a basic inn-app tutorial and a better UI, but I think that may be the point. It is a simple issue, but to Richard the problem isn't the app but the general public. He's trying to make sure every user understands neural nets and P2P file transfers when all the average user needs to know is that their files can be instantaneously accessed from all devices with no impact to their data caps.
However, the episode did a very bad job conveying that Richard was the true roadblock, leaving the viewer puzzled why such a simple problem was ruining the company.
However, the episode did a very bad job conveying that Richard was the true roadblock, leaving the viewer puzzled why such a simple problem was ruining the company.
It just doesn't make sense that Laurie wouldn't know the DAU was in the shitter and couldn't bootstrap the company if they had a reasonable plan.
Going on poorly framing Richard as the problem, having him just brush off why they can't make it simpler (the airplane analogy) let go of all the tension. At that point, you knew there was no way they could possibly handle this like real people--and not for the cutesy "we're in a bubble in every sense" way like usual.
Worst of all, it just wasn't very funny this week. Silicon Valley has such a clear episode framework every week that it can't surprise you (between resetting everyone's places every two episodes and knowing PP can't succeed too fast). Once Bangladesh was mentioned and ignored, you could have just turned the episode off. And I can usually take all of that when the characters are interacting, but I've never felt sorry or sad for Richard.
Going on poorly framing Richard as the problem, having him just brush off why they can't make it simpler (the airplane analogy) let go of all the tension. At that point, you knew there was no way they could possibly handle this like real people--and not for the cutesy "we're in a bubble in every sense" way like usual.
Worst of all, it just wasn't very funny this week. Silicon Valley has such a clear episode framework every week that it can't surprise you (between resetting everyone's places every two episodes and knowing PP can't succeed too fast). Once Bangladesh was mentioned and ignored, you could have just turned the episode off. And I can usually take all of that when the characters are interacting, but I've never felt sorry or sad for Richard.
Jack Scofield
Member
Maybe I just haven't been paying super close attention but I'm confused about their software and why it's supposed to be confusing. I thought it was a simple program that compresses media without any degradation in quality. So like a 2GB movie becomes 10MB or whatever and is shared to all of a user's devices. That's simple to understand.
What I don't get is why the writers are making this seem like an incomprehensible software.
And this episode with the dozens of programmers in the incubator really highlighted how the "back to square" one trope has been so overplayed in this series. I think this was the first episode that I actually disliked.
What I don't get is why the writers are making this seem like an incomprehensible software.
And this episode with the dozens of programmers in the incubator really highlighted how the "back to square" one trope has been so overplayed in this series. I think this was the first episode that I actually disliked.
Jack Scofield
Member
The problem is how the show is treating this like a line in the sand problem. They can't just create a simple user interface with an "upload" and "go" buttons?
It is something that should be a relatively simple software for end users, but Richard thinks every user must understand the back end of the platform in order to understand his genius and blames the user for being confused by the software. Expecting all users to attend a training session is asinine, but Richard believes the problem is the average user's intelligence and not the app he created.
Because the show presents and prides itself with realistic problems and situations that people within the tech world can relate to.
So to do something that isn't in the realm of plausibility, brings it down to say.. big bang theory level of dumbness.
forgeforsaken
Member
This isn't the first time it's happened on the show, the deleting of all the video content was also sort of preposterous.
FantasticMrFoxdie
Mumber
yea what a weird unnecessary plot line =/
as said already just fix the UI lol
its feeling like one of those shows again with its negative nonsense
as said already just fix the UI lol
its feeling like one of those shows again with its negative nonsense
FlammableD
Banned
I agree they could have handwaved at least the UI suggestions. I know first hand how hard it is to get a UI redesign done, particularly one that ground up.
There was some obvious dumb stuff like it needing 6 clicks to actually upload something and ironically the problem wasn't outlined properly but there are more fundamental problems than the UI. The fact that Richard actually does get through to people in the focus group kinda highlights that. They built a platform that is a completely different paradigm and that can't be solved by adding a download button or data usage even if it's a lie because that's what people expect. It's just as nonsense as middle-out compression.
Why even say how much space is used if it is always zero?
-Pyromaniac-
Member
I can't tell if people saying 'just improve the UI' are serious. I'd explain myself but I already did above. That's only 1 part of the problem.
FlammableD
Banned
Phone space counter
I think that's exactly the point they wanted to make.
The solution is easy, but Richard thinks it's better to help the people understand how the platform works instead of making it easily usable by them. He's actually thinking like those engineers that expects everyone to have time or the passion to understand why and how PP is great. He's thinking as an engineer, not as a CEO or a user and that's basically the entire point of the show: you can be a genius and have the best idea in the world but it's not enough to sell it.
That's why the box works: it's easy (exactly like a "black box" (and I think that's the joke)), it don't need any explanations or anything else. Hooli says they are great and the "users" don't need to know anything else.
Darth Pinche
Member
Yes it is just one part of the problem, but it needs a better UI for mass populations to use it. Make a better UI and market how fast and efficient it is, and people will know why they want it. But Richard's myopic leadership gets in the way of change.
SynthFetish
Member
They need to bring back Dang to fix the UI. Also, anyone have a gif of pipey??
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
2 weeks ago I said the user interface wouldn't be a problem with this series because they would create a 'basic' compression standard and an advanced. The way this episode has gone is complete BS in the way it has gone. I'm 15 minutes in and they have competely ruined everything they have built with this season.
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