Rajiv Gupta, co-creator of Hewlett Packard’s ill-fated E-speak and now CEO of Confluent, offers some reasons on why E-speak failed – lessons which we all need to keep in mind in tech companies:
I focused more on the technology than on the business context in which the technology would be applied. It’s a classic mistake that people make, and I fell into the same trap. I’m seeing that (mistake) being made by others today. So, for example, we focused on the architecture being very plain and rich, but didn’t focus as much on usability. We focused on changing the world, but focused less on helping the world see the value. We didn’t appreciate the fact that the world wanted to change not as fast as we wanted to move.
