Hacker News 의견
Here are the key points from the Hacker News comments, summarized in a neutral and informative manner for a junior software engineer:
- Most sales and finance people also lack the authority to purchase developer tools without approval, which is why many resort to using company-provided or free tier tools.
- Excel is ubiquitous because it is often the most powerful tool that Corporate IT allows. Web apps are also popular since they can be used without IT's knowledge.
- Trying to get a $50 book approved can be a sign that you're at the wrong company. However, even developers with no purchasing authority can sometimes rack up large unexpected bills, e.g., by sharing a Notion account.
- When selling developer tools to large companies:
- Ensure current developers find it very useful and advocate for it
- Avoid potential blockers like opaque contracts, vendor lock-in, data security/privacy issues, SSO/auth integration challenges
- Provide clear, sensible pricing (per developer per month, site license, etc.) with cost controls and usage reporting
- Offer professional services for integration/implementation to bypass IT gatekeepers
- Don't try to sell something the customer believes they can build in-house
- Some companies have a "buy what you need" policy and trust developers not to overspend. This can make life easier without increasing costs.
- As a self-employed developer, few "developer tools" are useful enough to integrate into one's workflow.
- Buying your own software licenses and claiming them on taxes can be a smart career move, leading to raises and better project choices.
- Spending policies can vary wildly between sales and engineering departments, or when using cloud services vs. other purchases.
- Business models targeting developers as decision makers work for tools like IDEs where individual choices are locally optimized. For databases, infrastructure, and cloud, company-wide standardization is often necessary.