Comments on: Realize your product is not the center of your customers’ worlds

By: Mark Ahrens

Mark Ahrens — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:00:35 +0000

Boy, does this hit home. Everyone who works hard on a product thinks it is the center of the universe…for certain.

I even explain this general tendency using the analog of Copernicus, and his helio-centric philosophy, being labeled a radical for suggesting that the Earth rotated around the sun.

By: Aditi Kulkarni

Aditi Kulkarni — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 06:41:32 +0000

Hello Jeff,
Thank you for sharing your views. They are really very helpful and also makes you realise that to begood a product manager you have to wear a customer hat and understand his issues.

By: shalini kumari

shalini kumari — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:41:46 +0000

thanx Jeff for ur ideas ,it really works.

By: Harikrishan Verma

Harikrishan Verma — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:18:27 +0000

Thanks Jeff for sharing your thoughts in this area. We tend to like our product so much that we miss some of the customer’s basic expectations and behaviour abt our product. We must never take them granted.

Thanks.
Harikrishan Verma

By: PuristProductManager

PuristProductManager — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:14:56 +0000

Great post Jeff. Personally I feel that this was part of the downfall of searchme.com (albeit a small part of the downfall). Whilst their UI was uber cool, actually quite usable when you got used to it, it was so different to other search engines, that the learning curve was too steep.

By: David Locke

David Locke — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:55:32 +0000

Users focus on their work product. Geeks focus on the tools. Geeks model the tools. Users model their work.

Applications are like sunglasses. You look at them at the store. You put them on. They either fit your model of yourself or not. If not you put them back, and try another pair. Once you buy a pair of sunglases, you put them on, and you’re finished with it. If you have more than one pair, I suppose you will give them more consideration. But, typically, you are unaware that you have them on. They color your world, but you are unaware of that as well.

We think through our tools. We consider them. Then, we get on with the work. We like it when we can be oblivious to our tools.

A wrench is only an issue when it breaks and your knuckles get scrapped. Then, you have to go for the wrench complementors like degreaser, band-aids, and the Sanp-On Tools guy–tech/customer support.

You want your customer to be oblivious to your tools. That means it fits. That means they pay for it with a credit card and don’t take the time, each month, to consider is it worth it, is it right for me, is it costing too much in lost time and rework? Being a tool used in the reimplicated state of unconsious knowing is the best place to be.

You do not want to be the center of your users world.

By: Jason Miceli

Jason Miceli — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:20:31 +0000

Good reinforcement. For me the point that resonates the most is your first one: be careful when making some snazzy, revolutionary new interface – it may well be “better” than anything else out there, but are folks truly ready to adopt such a change into their daily workflows? And that of course reinforces another one of your points: my product is not the only one customers will be using on a daily basis, so it must “feel” like an integral part of the larger system.

Good read – thanks!

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:38:58 +0000

I’m a graduate student in China and I just got my first job as a PM in Alibaba.com.
Your post is very helpful for me.
I must follow you. lol.

By: Hala Taha

Hala Taha — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:00:18 +0000

Good post Jeff; I totally agree with you!

By: Raj

Raj — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:37:48 +0000

Great point Jeff. Most of us are too close to our products, whereas for our customers it’s just one of many products they use every day.

A SaaS product I use recently revamped their entire UI using Flash. They now have totally cool looking UI and fancy icons, but I can’t figure out what those icons do as they’re too unique (even for standard functions)!

Good point to keep in mind for all of us as we design new products/features, or new UI for existing products.

- Raj
Accompa – Requirements Management Tool for PM Teams

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:28:14 +0000

Jeff, Great post! Being able to integrate into the customer’s workflow is very important even if you have the game changing or “center of their world” product. There are always other pieces to the puzzle. Good timing for me as well, as I recently started pursuing new avenues of integration to make our solutions work better with other customer systems. I will keep this in mind while researching.

Love your site, the insight, and the followers! Please keep it up!