When I started as a Product Manager for Line6 they assigned me two projects:

1. Vetta II guitar amp

2. Workbench for Variax

Both of these products were almost done. They introduced me to Lucian  Tu. He showed me the chassis he had designed for the interface box that connected the Variax to the Workbench software. I remember thinking "Wow, this little box looks like a spaceship!" The two MIDI connectors on the back looked like rocket engines and it was bright red like a POD and had a silver Line6 logo badge. Very impressive.

But I told them "This is all wrong." They said "What do you mean?"

I said "First of all, this box is meant to allow guitar players to connect their Variax guitar to the computer, but you've only supplied MIDI I/O. How many guitar players do you expect already own a MIDI interface for their computer? My guess? ZERO! Which means now they have to buy another product plus MIDI cables to make our product work. This needs to connect to the computer via USB period! Also, why are you spending all of the this time and money on the design of the chassis? The box isn't the product, the software is the product! The box is just the thing you have to plug your Variax into. Make it simple and cheap so the product can be less expensive. Make sure we focus all the marketing on the sofware screen shots and the message."

They knew I was right and they made the changes.