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We are not normal people

justinjackson.ca

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Re: We are not normal people

#11

Post by edw519 »

Great post! This really hits the sweet spot for so many here at HN.

I especially like:

The problem is that all of this is focused on us, the creator, and not on the customer, the consumer.

If we're actually going to sell products, we need to quit thinking about what's cool to us, and focus on what customers actually need.

I've talked about this here so many times, I don't have much more to add. I'd just direct you to #195 and Chapter 10 here: http://static.v25media.com/edw519_mod.html

Justin, this is important work and I look forward to it. Let me know how I can help (email in profile). I wish you great success. This community could really use it.

Re: We are not normal people

#13

Post by hcarvalhoalves »

mathattack wrote: post #6

This is true for many things. In a marketing class long ago the professor asked what % of the US beer industry was imported. The answers were all over the place, with most answers between 30 and 50%. She responded with, "It's less than 10%, and this is why you have to look at the #s rather than intuition even if you're a consumer of the product yourself." Technical complexity and fancy features aren't what helps crac…

> Technical complexity and fancy features aren't what helps crack the bottom of the market, which is the heart of disruptive innovation. "Because it's cool and I like it" may have worked for Steve Jobs, but he's the exception and not the rule.

I don't get that one. One could argue Apple does exactly the opposite of that. Technical complexity is usually hidden and there are less fancy features than competitor's products. Compare the first iPod vs. any MP3 on the market at the time.

Re: We are not normal people

#15

Post by jiggy2011 »

"increasing the technical challenge while creating a product does not increase the chance for more sales"

This is true to a point, but if your strongest suite is your raw technical ability then it may be best for you to pursue problems that have remained unsolved because of technical challenges that have put others off. A significant technical barrier is also nice to have if it means you can get the market before your competition catches up.

Even a mediocre implementation of something "impossible" can make a lot of impact. See bitcoin.

Re: We are not normal people

#16

Post by dictum »

mathattack wrote: post #6

This is true for many things. In a marketing class long ago the professor asked what % of the US beer industry was imported. The answers were all over the place, with most answers between 30 and 50%. She responded with, "It's less than 10%, and this is why you have to look at the #s rather than intuition even if you're a consumer of the product yourself." Technical complexity and fancy features aren't what helps crac…

> In a marketing class long ago the professor asked what % of the US beer industry was imported. The answers were all over the place, with most answers between 30 and 50%. She responded with, "It's less than 10%, and this is why you have to look at the #s rather than intuition even if you're a consumer of the product yourself."

You'd just have to take a look at what brands sell the most in the US to get an approximate answer. I'm not American so I can say for certain, but except for the yuppie preference for microbrews, most Americans stick to domestic light beers — Budweiser, Coors, Miller.

Per the essay, I'm not normal and most people don't really know the companies that make the products they consume, but estimating 50% of the US beer industry to be imported is something fairly inadequate for someone in college taking a marketing class.

Maybe the german-sounding Budweiser/Anheuser-Busch threw them off, but I'd guess most college students either drink (legally or not) or see people drinking, and could make a better estimate.

Re: We are not normal people

#18

Post by Pxtl »

On the barber anecdote, I think something that a lot of software solutions miss is how fast and flexible paper is. It's ready for you the instant you need it, and you can draw arbitrary shapes quickly and easily in addition to text.

We're still feeling out getting this convenience into user's hands. Keyboarded platforms suck for drawing/using standing up, tablets suck for typing.

Ultimately, the only thing I could offer this barber is a cloud-synced whiteboard with week-planner drawn in-behind the screen, and the only advantage it would have over paper is cloud syncing.

Re: We are not normal people

#19

Post by epx »

Sometimes a software puts the business in a cast.

Me and my friends used to go to a cafeteria every day. Every day we needed to reach for change money, etc. We suggested the cashier to create a "pre-paid" account for every person so we could pay once a month, in advance, with credit card. He/she could not do it because "the system does not implement this".

In another epoch, I went every day to the same restaurant, at the fourth day the cashier offered to open an account to me. She opened a big notebook and put my name in a page, case solved. (She even offered post-paid bit I took pre-paid because I detest owing money.)

Re: We are not normal people

#20

Post by workhere-io »

If I have to walk over to the computer, I’ve already wasted too much time.

Wouldn't the point of scheduling software be that, unlike his current phone solution, he doesn't have to do something when a customer schedules a time? Ideally he'd enter his work hours and holidays into the scheduling system, and customers could schedule a time without interrupting his workflow. Then he'd only need to look at his iPad once in a while to see who the next customer is.

Other than that, I think the article makes an important point.

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