I admit that my coffeemaker problem is not earthshaking. But think about my reactions multiplied millions of times. What effect might that have on your product, your brand, your company? Here's the thing: People don't want to use your product; they just want to achieve an outcome, a result.
This reality is brilliantly treated in a
recent article by Goran Peuc.
His thoughts on this subject are well worth your time, and he covers a multitude of current examples. Here's one key excerpt:
"Here is a little revelation. People are not really into using products. Any time spent by a user operating an interface, twisting knobs, pulling levers or tapping buttons is time wasted. Rather, people are more interested in the end result and in obtaining that result in the quickest, least intrusive and most efficient manner possible. And these are two fundamentally different concepts - usage versus results - which, at the very least, differentiate good product design from poor product design or, on a smaller scale, a good feature from a bad one."
And here's another:
"Understand that your product is a necessary evil. Realize that, for the user, it would be best if your product did not exist at all and yet the results of the product somehow magically did exist."
Stepping back for a more generalized view of the same issue,
a LinkedIn post by Ramesh Srinivasan makes a compelling case for always remembering a customer's true need. He borrows from Theodore Levitt to remind us:
"People buy holes, not drills."
Whether you are conceptualizing, designing, developing or marketing, a customer's ultimate needs should be paramount ... always.
Now, how can I find a better coffeemaker?