Focus on the high-expectation customer • Hacker News Board

Re: Focus on the high-expectation customer

#41

Post by cjblomqvist » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #24

If you take this advice, you'll run straight into the famous Innovators Dilemma ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma ). And, I have personally experienced at least one counter-example to this advice. Your product can be pushed into a direction that meets only one person's needs, and confuses everyone else. This is fine for a personal tool, and deadly to a tool that wants to be widely and frequent…

Either I'm greatly misinterpreting your comment, or you mean something different than the innovators dilemma (maybe crossing the chasm?).

The innovators dilemma (and CC) refers to incumbents (established and huge) having issues handling disruptive /revolutionary innovation (in particular low value ones) due to issues with creating new markets due to not seeing enough size initially, path dependency, etc. This article seems to be targeted at startups.

Re: Focus on the high-expectation customer

#42

Post by doctorpangloss » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 4:42 PM UTC

arvidkahl wrote: post #23

It's also important to note that the high-expectation customer is not the high-frequency complainer that you will have in your customer base. Don't confuse the two, they are opposites. In my experience with my own company, there were customers who would reach out very often with ideas, complaints, and questions. I learned at some point that these customers often were just confused did not even really understand their…

> these customers often were just confused did not even really understand their own problems

When you make software that helps people earn money, you’re competing with driving for Uber and Facebook ads, not just other business services. A less confusing way to make money is actually a huge innovation.

Re: Focus on the high-expectation customer

#43

Post by balfirevic » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 4:49 PM UTC

phkahler wrote: post #37

playpause wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For this reason, I'm not sure "high-expectation customer" is a good term. It also doesn't capture this part well: "someone who will benefit the most from your product, whether they realise this yet or not". If they don't realise it, their expectations are zero. Maybe 'high potential benefit' would be a better term ("HPB customers").

I would say "high performance customer". The one that is going to push your product to its limits, trying to make it do more than you thought it could. Those limits are where you need to add features so people don't have to hack around the limitations.

So, "power customer" (analogous to power user)?

Re: Focus on the high-expectation customer

#44

Post by bluGill » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 5:16 PM UTC

deltron3030 wrote: post #40

bluGill wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can you identify a benefiter of a product, without knowing the problem that the product is going to solve (help them where they want to be)? The two go hand in hand. You need to have an idea of where you want to be. However once you find the customer willing to spend money (if you are a business make sure they are willing to spend money!), you should chase the and ensure they are satisfied first. Don't make the…

Wouldn't it be smarter to be the customer yourself, basically develop something for your own (business) progress or job to be done, and then sell it optionally to those in a similar situation? The market first approach (developing a product for demand) only seems to really work with more generic products without high development cost, where the product advantages that result from deeper customer insights can't really…

Only if you are your own customer. There is a lot of need for software where the user is not a developer, and has better things to do with their time than write software.

Re: Focus on the high-expectation customer

#45

Post by asdfman123 » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 5:37 PM UTC

Funny story. My dad was a city planner for a small town who also ran the inspections department.

He would get frequent letters and calls from a particular citizen about inspection violations, who was kind of a pain in his ass.

So my dad hired him. And he became the best inspector he'd ever worked with.

Re: Focus on the high-expectation customer

#46

Post by a13n » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 6:23 PM UTC

nnq wrote: post #7

Hallelujah! Maybe this will put a dent in the current dumbification trend of all apps/UIs etc. that's probably due to 'designing for the lowest common denominator'. Hint: any app/tool/etc. that's "designed for the average user", will only help its user be(come) average and below average! Now try imagining selling a product with the slogan "XYZ - Helping you stay mediocre, and even drop below the average! Use us every…

Most software businesses are driven by some sort of funnel - a set of conversion rates.

If you make things simpler/easier/clearer, conversion rates will almost always improve.

The "dumbification" trend you describe is simply driven by capitalism.

Re: Focus on the high-expectation customer

#47

Post by high_5 » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 7:00 PM UTC

ako wrote: post #33

nnq wrote: post #7

Hallelujah! Maybe this will put a dent in the current dumbification trend of all apps/UIs etc. that's probably due to 'designing for the lowest common denominator'. Hint: any app/tool/etc. that's "designed for the average user", will only help its user be(come) average and below average! Now try imagining selling a product with the slogan "XYZ - Helping you stay mediocre, and even drop below the average! Use us every…

You shouldn’t market it as mediocre, but data will correctly show most customers are best served by mediocre products: most people need a mediocre car, not one that drives 300kmh, drives well off-road, or can carry 10m3 of stuff. Similarly, mediocre furniture (ikea), electronics or most anything else is good enough.

Yet, there's Apple that is the exception to this rule

Re: Focus on the high-expectation customer

#48

Post by bluetwo » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 7:04 PM UTC

asdfman123 wrote: post #45

Funny story. My dad was a city planner for a small town who also ran the inspections department. He would get frequent letters and calls from a particular citizen about inspection violations, who was kind of a pain in his ass. So my dad hired him. And he became the best inspector he'd ever worked with.

I like working with people with high expectations because you learn the most from them but you can't let them dictate your self-worth.

Re: Focus on the high-expectation customer

#49

Post by bluetwo » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 7:07 PM UTC

cjblomqvist wrote: post #41

javajosh wrote: post #24

If you take this advice, you'll run straight into the famous Innovators Dilemma ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma ). And, I have personally experienced at least one counter-example to this advice. Your product can be pushed into a direction that meets only one person's needs, and confuses everyone else. This is fine for a personal tool, and deadly to a tool that wants to be widely and frequent…

Either I'm greatly misinterpreting your comment, or you mean something different than the innovators dilemma (maybe crossing the chasm?). The innovators dilemma (and CC) refers to incumbents (established and huge) having issues handling disruptive /revolutionary innovation (in particular low value ones) due to issues with creating new markets due to not seeing enough size initially, path dependency, etc. This article…

Yes, but companies don't see that they are running into this problem unless they get outside their own bubble.

When they keep doing what worked for them yesterday, they run into trouble.

Re: Focus on the high-expectation customer

#50

Post by lunias » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 8:36 PM UTC

nnq wrote: post #7

Hallelujah! Maybe this will put a dent in the current dumbification trend of all apps/UIs etc. that's probably due to 'designing for the lowest common denominator'. Hint: any app/tool/etc. that's "designed for the average user", will only help its user be(come) average and below average! Now try imagining selling a product with the slogan "XYZ - Helping you stay mediocre, and even drop below the average! Use us every…

I hope so! I've had so many software enhancements written off by product owners because the features were, "targeted at power users". It gets tiring explaining that while we might not have any power users before the app is released (besides devs); we certainly will if our app meets with any definition of success.

That being said, I once put my high-expectations into hasty action and found out that my expectations and my customer's expectations can differ in seemingly impossible ways.

I was working on-site at a gold mine in Nevada performing updates to our mining software suite when I became deeply bothered by the fact that the touchscreen panel which we installed in the equipment had a keyboard where the letters were laid out alphabetically.

I quickly coded up a QWERTY version (and even had a DVORAK mode that could be toggled via an environment variable). I pushed the code that night and then went to an operator training session the following evening. More than one person asked why all the letters on the keyboard were in a random order. I barely tried to explain. Just admitted that it was a mistake and rolled back the code change.