Lee Graham | GOAT = Geek Of All Trades

PROBLEM: Creating Products by focusing on features

I’ve been reading the book Subject to Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World by the gents from Adaptive Path. As I was reading through this practical resource everything started to click and I had one of those “Ah ha” moments. I’ve been working with TRImagination, Ideabreaker and fynd.it to design great products that are logically layed out and have the features that no one else has thought of. That may be great and grand, but in reality its not. Anyone can come up with unique features, but all this does is create a feature war between you and competitors. If this continues there will never be any real winner.

SOLUTION:  Creating Products by focusing on the End User Experience

The defining factor between a good product and a great product is a product that creates a fabulous experience for the end user. This includes flawless execution, no errors and more importantly appeal to the emotions of the user. If they find it hard to use, run into unexpected errors or they can not connect with your product they will not want to use it again. This is where first impressions mean everything!!! 

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE: MP3 Players vs. Apple’s iPod vs. Microsoft’s Zune

Yes, there were MP3 players on the market before Apple released the iPod, but Apple took the features set of the average MP3 player and made it into an experience for the product users. Yes, they had sweet, new features (spin when, great design, etc…) but what established the iPod as the king was the culture it created with the users. Microsoft then tried to do the same riding on the coat tails of Apple’s success with the Microsoft Zune. Their error is that they saw this only as a feature war with Apple rather than a experience or culture. In general, Apple is famous for some of the best User Experiences (UX) throughout history. That is why the initial launch of the Zune was not a huge hit.

Needless to say, I’ve been going back and restructuring alot of my thoughts to be more focused on how can I make sure my product connects with the user. Anyone that is involved in product development, whether it is a physical or web based product I strongly urge you to read Subject to Change. It will help change you mindset when it comes to planning your user experience and developing your products.