Jeff,

I feel your pain. Over here at my company, I'm an engineer that got sucked into marketing. From a marketing standpoint, looking through the unique lens of an engineer, I can boil it down to marketing as a gatekeeper between engineering and sales. The responsibility of marketing is to synchronize the market needs(sales) with the spec requirement (engineering) with enough forethought and political saavy that you can put your foot down and keep the door closed.

The problem that you guys have is either your sales is pushing your marketing folks all over the map, or your marketing folks are too wishy washy to put their feet down. I think the general statement I can make, at least from where I'm sitting, is, it is good to ask for too much once, but never good to ask for a little every time.

They should make your marketing guys fix all the bugs for some perspective. ;-)

Calvin