41–44 of 44 posts
> Customers tell the right problem, but never the right solution. Thanks, I threw this on my phone’s lock screen. I have a strong intuition along the same lines, but find it hard to phrase on the spot when explaining to stakeholders (and myself) why issues filed should not be considered actionable as is.
I work for a large company and when discussing a product with a startup/small company, usually in a relatively new market, I've noticed interesting behaviour: Before I meet, I try to think of ways their product could be provide benefit including non-obvious ones. So I ask if their product does this or that, and why I think it could be useful. Some companies tell me: it is on the road map, or why they think the featur…
People get offended by unsolicited advice all the time. Regardless of your intentions, that's how some people will perceive it. It's worse if they know you haven't used their product, because that makes you seem like you're flippantly handing out advice. You're likely giving off the impression that you think you're right without any experience or consideration of their product. None of that actually discredits your s…
The number of features sales has told us some big sale hinged on, that subsequently no one has used, is very high. We actually restructured our entire product to win the sale of a very large customer who’s users didn’t fit perfectly into our metaphor. It was unwieldy and we basically rolled the whole thing back several years later.
Yes, but who cares if they used the feature or not (!?!) the question was, did the buyer think it was 'essential' for the deal to go through.
I mean, cynically of course, but it matters.
> Customers tell the right problem, but never the right solution. Thanks, I threw this on my phone’s lock screen. I have a strong intuition along the same lines, but find it hard to phrase on the spot when explaining to stakeholders (and myself) why issues filed should not be considered actionable as is.
FWIW this is called the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem
I am dealing specifically with product users or prospective users who, possibly via stakeholders, request new features to implement.
The tip I quoted is very helpful with the latter as means of explaining why feature request should not be treated as actionable to stakeholders. Until I manage that, neither XY nor any other approach can be used.