Mixed results

Everyday, we work with customers that seem to have a firm understanding of the way they want their product to work. The truth is: the customer should only define what problems the product needs to solve. We can answer that question with a web application that is both easy to use, and very pleasing to view. It is really easy to get product development and functionality wrong, yet still make the experience look good.

This is usually due to a few common reasons. Among them include a limited understanding of the problem, a backward approach or need to define and control the outcome, and an inability to articulate the problem well. Other barricades include trying to solve the problem for someone else without fully grasping the global picture, and beginning the development engineering before defining the experience.

I have had a number of different customers ask me why their products don’t work as well as the applications New Leaders creates, without any external influence whatsoever. What is the deal here?

The answer is this — You have to design the experience first.

I mentioned that getting things right isn’t easy to do. The experience shouldn’t be sacrificed for arbitrary deadlines, nor should a predefined list or specification supersede how the end result should actually work. This will not yield the best result, unless the person defining it has a very strong sense of design and development.

Listening in is the only way to define a product’s feature set, after you have developed an initial prototype. I think that “prototype” is a word that can be misused. By prototype, I mean a very simple way to solve the problem. From there you will expand based solely on feedback from people who will regularly use the product.

The most common problem I see is that individuals not deeply part of the process (design or development) try to define and manage it. Let me put it this way — Would you let someone who is financing the construction of a building, architect it or design the interior? Probably not. The same goes for product design and definition; unless you have a very strong sense of what people want — a very rare ability (i.e. Steve Jobs).

People outside of the process can be very valuable to the people that are designing and developing the product. Don’t just sit complacently or complain about speeding up the process. Participate. Although you can’t design or develop, you can bring a ton of value to the situation by supporting the team in whatever aspect they need. Don’t wait for someone to ask, instead ask people how you can make their jobs easier. In turn, that will help accelerate the work — which is your ultimate goal.

Here are a few things you can be doing:
• Make sure everyone is feeling well and getting appropriate sleep.
• Encourage open communication, even if people are unhappy.
• Make sure that people have been paid or will be paid on time.
• Provide useful feedback. Try to be positive and honest.
• Run cover. If there are higher-ups, protect the team.
• Communicate urgency, not emergency.
• Look for miscommunications and helpfully correct them.
• If you can give them more time, do it. More is always better.
• Ask for soft innovations: color, font, button, label, form input, etc.
• Ask permission. People may be invested in their choices.
• Celebrate often. One word means a lot: Thanks. Wow. Great. Done.
• Gather people to test the product and share the feedback with the team.

Try becoming a professional user of your own product. It seems obvious, but you would think the people who define products are the ones who plan to use them. I am sad to say this is almost never the case. People who make products rarely suffer from the problem they are trying to solve, and want create on behalf of others. If you think about it, some you know (or maybe even you) have said, “I know what to do to fix this thing for that type of customer.” Just because you think you do, doesn’t mean you actually do. I run into this a lot. Spotting an opportunity and having the ability to define a product experience are not the same thing. And of course, people don’t buy ideas.

So, what is a result that isn’t mixed? How do I make stuff that people not only use, but depend on to solve a real problem? I’ll walk you through a few steps to ensure you get the prototype right:

1. Solve your own problem.
2. Evaluate the competition.
3. Think practical solutions.
4. Keep design as your first priority.
5. Leverage soft innovation.
6. Make only final decisions.
7. Trust talented people.
8. Deliver meaningful feedback.
9. Celebrate the little stuff.

See if you can adopt these ideals into the way you work with your team and I guarantee you will build better, more useful products at a faster rate. You will be happy, and most importantly, so will your team to whom you will owe all of the credit.

This work is licensed through Creative Commons.

Posted on Sep 05, 2008 by Kevin Milden

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