User suggested improvements

AGAlumB

This discussion was created from comments split from: 1Password Improvements.

drhesq

USER SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS:********. I would not guess that the individuals who place this opportunity to voice, in an honest effort to improve the application, give a damn (sorry) what you think or say. I believe that if an "improvement" is effected it is only due to the fact that some internal group at 1pwd thinks it is a great idea. Upon selling this white elephant to the boss they get to work and perfect the "improvement." You may ask yourself if this is the way it should be done. Of course the answer is a loud NO! Then why do they do it? Simple, it is a young company on the come and because of their initial success they believe they are invincible. In reality this the tipping point of eventual success/failure. Now, what does this have to do with us? Nothing at all. Successful tech companies are either customer or internally driven. To those of you who have made it so far understand this and only license externally, or customer, driven applications because they are long term successes built on customer needs. The others who have or will fail are focused on what the internal designers believe you want. In some they don't even reflect on that. If you have been a licensee on a loser you know how hard you try to help the app designers succeed because if they do, you do.
The whole reason I write this is simple. I started using this application really early in its life cycle. Since that time I have witnessed the introduction of the multi-user app and now just read of a new and major project, an alleged vast improvement. In both cases I know of no outreach to the consumers/users. That leaves us with one simple question: Who the heck is driving this bus? It certainly is not us so it must be them. In the vast number of hours dedicated to their internally motivated projects, how many smaller customer requested improvements could have been done for us. Personally, I know of none. I am sure they defensively will attempt to refute this and I would love to be wrong, however, all it would take is a showing of the customer input and the company's
reaction.
I have been in tech since the Apple II. I do not hold Apple up as the model of a customer oriented company because us old folk remember the Lisa and the disaster it proved to be. But there are not many Apples or Steve Jobs. And Angilebits is no Apple.
This section of the forum is titled 1Password Improvements. It is pathetically small and reflects pretty well the point of this writing. For one, I have given up on the app and will return to Roboform. Now they are not perfect and I have my own problems with it, but, they do listen and do customer oriented improvements. Also they have been around quite a while tech-wise. I have been using both for about a year because I am not one to put all my eggs in one basket. During that time Roboform has actually installed 2 of my suggestions; 1Password 0.
Angelbits does not have forever to begin to listen to the customer. And in tech, forever is a couple of years. You folks and the developers need hard work and lots of luck to make a go of it. They need to get the peanut butter out of the years and the consumers need to remember the vast number of apps thst have come and gone and make sure they are convinced this app will make it before shelling out bad money. But this is for sure: Until 1Password begins to understand their success and best ideas come from you they might as well rearrange the proverbial deck chairs and you better don your life jacket and head for the best and closest life boat. I will be hoping for the best for all of you but I am already gone.

AGAlumB

@drhesq: Wow. So, first and foremost, I hope you don't mind, but I've split your post off into a separate discussion since it's rather general and doesn't really pertain to the original poster's suggestions. I'd love to continue this conversation, but it isn't fair to them that they get any more notifications for a broader, unrelated discussion.

Next, I think there may be some confusion about the AgileBits support forums where you're commenting. These are public, and you commented on a specific discussion started by another 1Password user like you, not a general "1Password improvements" category. That's why it's "small". These forums are primarily for support and community, but we also love hearing any comments, questions, or suggestions that our users might have. And that includes you! :chuffed:

Now, I'm not going to lie. Your comments seem a bit hostile, both toward other 1Password users and AgileBits (with some jabs at others for good measure). If you're reading this and you'd like to continue the discussion, please be considerate of everyone who might visit these public forums. You made some interesting points, but they can be overshadowed by the tone and direction of your words. Constructive criticism — some of which you've graciously offered — is invaluable and greatly appreciated, but it's likely to be better received if it's delivered in a way that doesn't alienate your audience: AgileBits staff and other 1Password users. After all, we're as passionate as you are, but we're not perfect; it's always easier to accept the truth in what someone says, no matter how critical, if it's delivered with compassion. That helps the rest of us to hear you, and helps you get heard. Everybody wins! :)

We absolutely care what you and the rest of 1Password users think and say. While your comments were not specific and seem to reflect a more general dissatisfaction with 1Password (and Apple, or the greater technology industry?) We're not Apple or Microsoft, but we have been making 1Password for 10 years now. And while you're right that if we do whatever our users say 1Password make get off track, we also don't ignore user feedback in favour of a 100% design/internal-oriented approach; rather, we try to strike a balance between the two. We don't always get it right, but we're constantly trying to improve ourselves and our products. I think those two go hand in hand. There are (as far as I can tell) two big reasons for doing things this way:

• Individual users see things we can't.
• We see things individual users won't (and shouldn't have to).

A lot of what we do is figuring out what's important to folks in aggregate, and then figure out how to make the really important things happen. An individual user may have a pet feature request that would be life-changing for them, but implementing it may come at the expense of other improvements that would benefit many more people. But ultimately when we hit on something that strikes a chord with a lot of people, we still need to determine if and how it should be done. This can be a stark as a request to make sharing easier. That's a great idea, but the devil is in the details. It isn't something we can (or should) do overnight. We need to take the time to do it right. And if we get it wrong, we also want to be in position to make it better.

You're probably wondering why I'm talking about sharing (if you're even reading this). That goes back to something I think you alluded to: The new 1Password (Families/Teams/individual) subscription services.

I think the bus analogy is actually a really good one, and a good question: Who's driving the bus? We are, absolutely. We're the ones who need to do the work to develop, test, and support 1Password. It has to make sense, not only for customers, but peripherally also for us in our role helping customers. If we simply "give the people what they want", it would be a mess, and we don't feel that "Hey, you asked for it! Deal!" is an acceptable response if customers have trouble using our products, even if they themselves demanded that it work that way! That doesn't make anyone happy. Quite the contrary.

In fact, 1Password subscriptions began with customers. Granted, I'm not saying that our customers said to us, "Hey, I'd really like to pay a subscription!" but for a long time folks have asked us for features that really demand an online service: better sync, easier setup, simplified licensing, and — perhaps most importantly — easy sharing. Most of these were using (or wanted to use) 1Password in a business setting. So we started building 1Password for Teams.

If you had any idea how often we were asked for this service by various companies you'd understand why we built it. When we introduced it in beta last year, many people used it for their families and asked for family pricing, so the obvious next step was 1Password for Families subscriptions. I'm sure you can imagine what the next big request was at that point, by individuals who weren't living with a family, so we are now giving all three groups of people exactly what they requested.

If people weren't requesting these things, we very well might have never spent the two years (and money) it took to create the new 1Password account platform, but we were asked for them many times over the years leading up to 1Password Teams, so we did. But we recognize that many folks still prefer the standalone license model, so we continue to offer that as an option.

To sum all of this up, some of 1Password's best features began as user suggestions from actual customers. Most of the time at that stage the question is "how" or "why". But we let those roll around in our brains for a while, and as more and more people request roughly the same thing, often in different ways, something really cool happens: an idea for an actual feature begins to take shape.

The combination of customer feedback and ideas we kick around internally helps us see not only where we need to go, but how to get there. AgileBits is driving the bus, our customers tell us where they'd like to go, and it's our job to get them there safely. That's 1Password. ;)