Market Window

I once worked on a project with a credible deadline. No, really! Professional income tax preparers do the bulk of their work between January and April. So they need their tax preparation program by January. Not surprisingly, they make their buying decision in late fall / early winter.

But most every project has a MarketWindow, a period of time past which you won't be scored as a winner even if you bring the thing in. Clues that you have missed the window might be the day your venture capital dries up, the day your research contract doesn't get renewed, the day your contract doesn't get extended, the day your project gets cancelled.

The MarketWindow, unfortunately, was probably a long time before that bad news came along. Sometimes it's easy to know what the window is, sometimes it's difficult. What is pretty easy, however, is to be ready for the window with your best possible stuff. This page is about ways to do that.

I have to go to a meeting right now, I'll get back to you ...

I learned from JeffKalb? that the MarketWindow has interesting non-linearities. Draw a graph of your sales given a date on which you ship. If you slip the ship date, the sales graph doesn't just shift, it also shrinks- the peak is lower and the area under the curve is smaller. -- KentBeck