Can You Work in Netscape Time?

Netscape understands the Web so well that it has positioned the Web at the heart of how it operates. Netscape is both on the Web and of the Web. It uses Web software to win control of the Web. It then uses its presence on the Web to create new-and-improved software that extends its control. It then uses that software to ... well, you get the idea. There would be no Netscape Time without Web².

The Web squared approach begins with a mantra championed by Marc Andreessen: "Worse is better." In other words, it's more effective to release usable software quickly than to wait for perfection -- especially if Netscape can use the Web to access the source of perfection: the market itself. Worse is better because worse is faster.

"Doing it `right' is a time-sink," says Andreessen, who urges his programmers to revise their code early and often. "You get closer to the market by using the market," adds Deepak Puri, Netscape's director of business development.

Thus, Web squared. Yes, the Web is a market. But the Web is also a feedback loop, an electronic channel between producer and customer that allows for nearly instantaneous interactions. So Netscape engineers don't develop software; they codevelop it with their customers. The product is the process is the product.

Each new version of the Navigator is released online rather than through retail outlets or resellers. An interested user can download an "evaluation copy" at no charge and later decide whether to pay $39 for a fully supported version of the software. The entire process takes about two minutes. Interaction with customers -- and thus, the design of the next version -- can begin two minutes after the download, once the feedback rolls in.

And feedback does roll in. Netscape's home page -- the first stop every time someone launches the Navigator -- provides an electronic Bug Report Form through which users can identify problems. Users can report the problem's severity; how often they can reproduce it; where a Netscape engineer can visit (electronically, of course) to see the problem firsthand. The bug form also invites users to identify features they want in future versions of the software. There's plenty of feedback because the process is direct. All it takes is the click of a button.

Bug Report Forms allow one-way communication; Netscape's engineers are so swamped with feedback they can't respond to each message. But the Web also permits two-way interactions. Netscape's home page lets users participate in a collection of Netscape User Groups -- NUGgies in company parlance. NUGgies are electronic forums where customers talk to other customers and to the company's engineers; Netscape engineers discuss new features and priorities; newbies and veterans swap questions and war stories.

It's a free-for-all of ideas -- with all the ideas dedicated to upgrading the company's products as rapidly as possible. There are forums devoted to six different product categories and issues -- from the Navigator to Servers to Internet security. Each forum is organized into a set of folders on problems and features. Each folder contains in-depth exchanges between users and engineers on everything from the design of the Navigator's "bookmarks" to the speed and reliability of a particular server.

NUGgies are Netscape's rolling ballot box. To get a quick read on what customers are most passionate about, engineers only have to rank the folders by the number of comments they contain. How important is this web of communication to effective product development? Says marketing vice president Michael Homer, "In principle it's the whole story."

But that story couldn't be written if Netscape operated like a "normal" software company -- that is, if it operated off the Web. If Netscape relied on standard retail distribution, the physical acts of manufacturing disks, shipping them across the country, advertising their arrival, and waiting for customers to make their purchases would take months rather than minutes. If Netscape relied on traditional market surveys, the process of mailing disks to testers, following up with questionnaires, and waiting for and sorting through returns, would take months more. At Netscape, working off the Web translates into unthinkable delays.

For most companies, unthinkable delays are called business-as-usual. Consider Microsoft's August 24 launch of Windows 95. Microsoft was closing in on final code for its new operating system much earlier in the year. So why did the release wait until late summer? For one thing, Microsoft spent months distributing 400,000 beta copies so users could test for bugs. Still, it achieved final code on July 14. Why wait six more weeks? Because Microsoft had to organize a dozen manufacturing plants and 500 trucks to produce and deliver the software to 20,000 retail outlets. Life off the Web is awfully messy.