The Product is About the User

Everyday, there are hundreds of new entries in the field of "nifty features" for your website.  Everyday, people make suggestions about your site good and bad.  So the question is - how do you make sure you build a great, simple product, stay focused and also make sure you take advantage of new technology and experiences.

It sounds a bit "duh" but the simple answer - focus on the user.  This means understanding their feedback, looking at how they are using your features, but also bringing to your product the design and experiences that led you to start building it in the first place. 

On Manage My Home, I received feedback from a user yesterday suggesting changes to how you look up an owners manual that was identical to how we used to do it.  And you can imagine, the way we used to do it would get feedback on more ways to find the manual which led to the improvements we instituted.  So who is right?  The users complaining about the old way or the users complaining about the new way.

As the product leader in any good experience, you know one thing - they both are right.  The question is, who do you listen to?  I follow three simple rules: 

1. If you can bring all the feedback together in a cohesive simple experience, that should be the goal; 
2. If the feedback is in conflict, remember the users you want to love your product because you can't always be all things to all people - and design for them;
3. Most important, use the opportunity to create a lasting dialogue with all of your users.  Someone who is giving you real feedback is incredibly important - both as a user that cares enough and one that could be a goldmine if insight.

So, as always, we would love your feedback on Manage My Home. 

-Jim, Chief Home Manager

Jim is currently working on organizing his closet - something that the casual observer would say has already been done but its not perfect until it looks like a boutique store in the West Village.

Comments

[Priscilla]

That is a pretty awesome idea. Im going to do that after work!!! Im going to check out manage my home to see whats cooking for organization! my closet is not so nice right now!