21–30 of 57 posts
The Blog has its own domain but is actually part of Medium.com? I don't think I've seen this before.
I know this is bound to get modded to oblivion but, what about customers who want utility based on real engineers and hackers and not magic marketing fluff. My day job is a diesel engine mechanic so im sure as shit not a "benefiter" or a runner or any of that. I dont have any kefir cultures or micro-greens unless somethings turned bad in the fridge. Example: I own a ramnode VM, and it lets me do 90% of the studying a…
But not all products are for SRE or sysadmins (I'd venture to say most are not), so why would people listen to SRE and sysadmins specifically if they're not the target of the product ?
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 own problems. Figuring out a solution to help someone in that position is a very ineffective way to think about the product.
In terms of the model presented by the article, those vocal customers often lacked the hacker spirit, they benefitted marginally and were never considered experts in their field.
Took me a while to understand that the volume of feedback is not correlated with meaningful gains of information.
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 frequently used.
Free advice is a risk-free way to get others to test your hypothesis for you.
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…
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 even argue, that designing primarily for anyone who could be described as "hacker" or "expert", is a highway to hell. These people have significantly different mind and way of using products (especially tech products), than mass market. So picking up this particular segment is a bad choice for most (not all) products.
The Blog has its own domain but is actually part of Medium.com? I don't think I've seen this before.
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…
That was my initial gut feeling as well but high-expectation doesn't necessarily mean "more features" or "more customization". It could mean "simply works without much trouble" and then the dumbification trend fits perfectly.
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…
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").
>Once you identify your benefiter, you need to understand how your product can help them get where they want to be. 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)? >hacks are temporary fixes at best. They (the high expectation customers) need a single solution that meets all their demands. This isn't true, a hack doesn't…
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 them regret giving you money by prioritizing features that they don't need over features they need. Make sure they are satisfied first, and use their satisfaction to drive more customers who are treated the same way.
Of course you need to be careful. If you want more than one customer you may eventually need to do a feature your customer doesn't need because future customers will, even at the expense of losing your one customer. This is a complex decision that you need to consider carefully - in part because how you treat your customer gets out and may drive away potential customers. There are a lot of products out there with exactly one customer, one more consideration. You need to figure out how this applies to your product yourself.