5 ms·

Actually, the question everyone asks (first) is: "what is it?" Unfortunately, this question seldom gets answered at all. Which is OK, because it says a lot abo

by CrLf 8y ago

Actually, the question everyone asks (first) is: "what is it?" Unfortunately, this question seldom gets answered at all. Which is OK, because it says a lot about whatever is being peedled.

sudhirj 8y ago
Only if you’re building something newfangled that tries to solve a need people don’t realize they have. For everything else, your audience usually knows already.
- zhte415 8y ago
  I'm currently involved in automation processes, which has always been a thing but now 'RPA' is a fashionable term. Peddlers of the term are also peddlers of ambiguity for what their tools do. Those that I meet that have seemingly been evangalised by these solutions describe 'only low level coding needed'. Assembly? Or not wanting/knowing/needing/trusting to multiskil a team? There are good RPA tools. The authors of which are straightforward about what they do. That's just an example of an audience (me) having trouble understanding something smoke and mirrors is often painted around.
- chiefalchemist 8y ago
  Being in Space Z and the market having a general understanding of Z is one thing. Me, a customer, understanding why you over A or B is another. If you're assuming anything then it's likely you're creating doubt. That's a deal breaker.
wastedhours 8y ago
> "what is it?" I don't think it's reductivist to say that's just a small reframe of "What's in it for me?"
- chiefalchemist 8y ago
  I'm this sub-tread's "grandfather." It was my list up the tree. My first reaction was to agree with you. But then I realized how many times I've landed on a page and thought, "Ok. Sounds cool. But WTF is it?" :) I agree. The two questions go hand in hand. But before you can tell me "what's in it for me" we had both be sure it's perfectly clear (WTF) it is. That is, I think too many brands don't step far enough outside themselves to see it how someone with zero previous exposure to the brand / product might see it.
  - wastedhours 8y ago
    I think my point was that is you're not covering "what is it?" when you're answering "what's in it for me?" you're not actually covering "what's in it for me?" (if that makes sense). To successfully demonstrate the value, you need to convey how that value's delivered in my view.
- Angostura 8y ago
  I disgree - a lightbulb what it is it? "An object that instantaneously casts illumination at the flick of a switch" What's in it for me? "Gain the ability to see at night. Stop walking into walls, falling down stairs and treading on Lego"
Uehreka 8y ago
Agreed, I feel like often on HN someone will post a link to a new release of a tool, and the page will start off with “Version 2.3.2 of FabricMelt brings advanced DNS configurations, support for multi-factor SSOs and better support for high availability deployments.” At this point, I have no idea what FabricMelt is. Maybe that’s because it’s something I don’t need, but if there’s a prominent link to an “About” page that starts with the sentence “FabricMelt is an open source framework for easily building eCommerce sites and deploying them to Kubernetes”, I now have some reference points. I’ll log that away as “Apparently some people on HN find this useful, maybe I’ll take a closer look the next time someone wants me to build an eCommerce site.” Too often release pages for tools have no such “About’” page link, or if they do it somehow spends a paragraph not saying what the tool is. TL;DR - When you publish a new release of something, make sure to either include a link to an About page or prominently include the sentence “[TOOL_NAME] is [words I either already know or can easily look up].”
- robodale 8y ago
  I can't agree more. If you post your new shiny Auto-Resume-Confabulator-9000 on GitHub or anywhere else...your first text below that name better be what it is and what it can do for me.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  "FabricMelt is a distributed Blockchain protocol with embeddable AI directives for hyper-optimizing DNS lookup K8 containers, specifically designed for AR/Virtual Cannabis tokenized grow operations." What's so hard to understand? Only old people (aka over 25) won't get it ...
  - harrisreynolds 8y ago
    L. O. L!!! This needed to be broadcasted... https://twitter.com/harrisreynolds/status/1075417973379211266 https://twitter.com/harrisreynolds/status/107541797337921126...
  - smacktoward 8y ago
    > Only old people (aka over 25) won't get it ... Also known as "the people with all the money"
chiefalchemist 8y ago
Oh yes. That's so true. I'll be sure to add that to my list going forward. It wasn't the first time I said those, and it's not going to be the last. Thanks.
ape4 8y ago
Its a lifestyle improving paradigm
sonnyblarney 8y ago
"What the F is this thing?" Is the #1 thing that 99% of web sites get wrong - especially in tech. "Let's maximize your ROI" "10x your development" "We make all of your customers happy customers" Here's something I found: if I have to visit your Wikipedia entry to find what what you do ... then you'v failed. BTW I don't always hold it against tech companies as often communication isn't their #1 thing. Also - having done some of this myself, I do realize that sometimes what appear to be poorly constructed sites are actually well designed for clickbait action or some indirect metric.
- Angostura 8y ago
  Actually, I pretty much always go to a company's wikpedia page to get the straightish description shorn of all the 'solutions'rubbish. Odd that.
clairity 8y ago
this is often because we try to anticipate the conclusion without taking the user along the journey of discovery: feature --> advantage --> benefit. on landing pages, you want that journey to be quick, but in our rush, we'll cut out important pieces, rather than shortening the individual components. instead of just "add convenience to your life with our auto magic orchestrator 2000!", you need to say "the best home automation hub" --> "because we integrate with everything and our controller is twice as fast" --> "never worry about turning on your heater, lights and coffee maker again!" --> "buy our auto magic orchestrator 2000!"
sparkcc 8y ago
Agree your point. thanks

by CrLf 8y ago

Actually, the question everyone asks (first) is: "what is it?" Unfortunately, this question seldom gets answered at all. Which is OK, because it says a lot about whatever is being peedled.

sudhirj 8y ago

Only if you’re building something newfangled that tries to solve a need people don’t realize they have. For everything else, your audience usually knows already.

zhte415 8y ago
I'm currently involved in automation processes, which has always been a thing but now 'RPA' is a fashionable term. Peddlers of the term are also peddlers of ambiguity for what their tools do. Those that I meet that have seemingly been evangalised by these solutions describe 'only low level coding needed'. Assembly? Or not wanting/knowing/needing/trusting to multiskil a team? There are good RPA tools. The authors of which are straightforward about what they do. That's just an example of an audience (me) having trouble understanding something smoke and mirrors is often painted around.
chiefalchemist 8y ago
Being in Space Z and the market having a general understanding of Z is one thing. Me, a customer, understanding why you over A or B is another. If you're assuming anything then it's likely you're creating doubt. That's a deal breaker.

wastedhours 8y ago

> "what is it?" I don't think it's reductivist to say that's just a small reframe of "What's in it for me?"

chiefalchemist 8y ago
I'm this sub-tread's "grandfather." It was my list up the tree. My first reaction was to agree with you. But then I realized how many times I've landed on a page and thought, "Ok. Sounds cool. But WTF is it?" :) I agree. The two questions go hand in hand. But before you can tell me "what's in it for me" we had both be sure it's perfectly clear (WTF) it is. That is, I think too many brands don't step far enough outside themselves to see it how someone with zero previous exposure to the brand / product might see it.
- wastedhours 8y ago
  I think my point was that is you're not covering "what is it?" when you're answering "what's in it for me?" you're not actually covering "what's in it for me?" (if that makes sense). To successfully demonstrate the value, you need to convey how that value's delivered in my view.
Angostura 8y ago
I disgree - a lightbulb what it is it? "An object that instantaneously casts illumination at the flick of a switch" What's in it for me? "Gain the ability to see at night. Stop walking into walls, falling down stairs and treading on Lego"

Uehreka 8y ago

Agreed, I feel like often on HN someone will post a link to a new release of a tool, and the page will start off with “Version 2.3.2 of FabricMelt brings advanced DNS configurations, support for multi-factor SSOs and better support for high availability deployments.” At this point, I have no idea what FabricMelt is. Maybe that’s because it’s something I don’t need, but if there’s a prominent link to an “About” page that starts with the sentence “FabricMelt is an open source framework for easily building eCommerce sites and deploying them to Kubernetes”, I now have some reference points. I’ll log that away as “Apparently some people on HN find this useful, maybe I’ll take a closer look the next time someone wants me to build an eCommerce site.” Too often release pages for tools have no such “About’” page link, or if they do it somehow spends a paragraph not saying what the tool is. TL;DR - When you publish a new release of something, make sure to either include a link to an About page or prominently include the sentence “[TOOL_NAME] is [words I either already know or can easily look up].”

robodale 8y ago
I can't agree more. If you post your new shiny Auto-Resume-Confabulator-9000 on GitHub or anywhere else...your first text below that name better be what it is and what it can do for me.
sonnyblarney 8y ago
"FabricMelt is a distributed Blockchain protocol with embeddable AI directives for hyper-optimizing DNS lookup K8 containers, specifically designed for AR/Virtual Cannabis tokenized grow operations." What's so hard to understand? Only old people (aka over 25) won't get it ...
- harrisreynolds 8y ago
  L. O. L!!! This needed to be broadcasted... https://twitter.com/harrisreynolds/status/1075417973379211266 https://twitter.com/harrisreynolds/status/107541797337921126...
- smacktoward 8y ago
  > Only old people (aka over 25) won't get it ... Also known as "the people with all the money"

chiefalchemist 8y ago

Oh yes. That's so true. I'll be sure to add that to my list going forward. It wasn't the first time I said those, and it's not going to be the last. Thanks.

ape4 8y ago

Its a lifestyle improving paradigm

sonnyblarney 8y ago

"What the F is this thing?" Is the #1 thing that 99% of web sites get wrong - especially in tech. "Let's maximize your ROI" "10x your development" "We make all of your customers happy customers" Here's something I found: if I have to visit your Wikipedia entry to find what what you do ... then you'v failed. BTW I don't always hold it against tech companies as often communication isn't their #1 thing. Also - having done some of this myself, I do realize that sometimes what appear to be poorly constructed sites are actually well designed for clickbait action or some indirect metric.

Angostura 8y ago
Actually, I pretty much always go to a company's wikpedia page to get the straightish description shorn of all the 'solutions'rubbish. Odd that.

clairity 8y ago

this is often because we try to anticipate the conclusion without taking the user along the journey of discovery: feature --> advantage --> benefit. on landing pages, you want that journey to be quick, but in our rush, we'll cut out important pieces, rather than shortening the individual components. instead of just "add convenience to your life with our auto magic orchestrator 2000!", you need to say "the best home automation hub" --> "because we integrate with everything and our controller is twice as fast" --> "never worry about turning on your heater, lights and coffee maker again!" --> "buy our auto magic orchestrator 2000!"

sparkcc 8y ago

Agree your point. thanks