6 ms·

Respect Your Power Users

90 points by simonpure 6y ago

Daneel_ 6y ago
The article doesn't directly mention this point, but my opinion is you need to take care of your power users since they tend to be influencers in their own circles. Often they're the tech-savvy member of the family/friendship/work colleague circle, and they steer other non-power users to their preferred products, which over time gain popularity. Signal is a great example of this. Please look after your power users! Maintaining their trust is critical.
- ubermonkey 6y ago
  I think this is an underrated aspect of the enormous success of early OS X with technical people. Before, the Mac was a big deal in graphics and other areas like that, but didn't really have an inroad to people who wanted to code. Shifting to OSX created a platform with all the power of Linux under the hood, but with access to the COTS tools that many people prefer/need. I was part of this. In the early 21st century, I was doing lots of LAMP stack work, and you could just install everything locally on your Mac, build and test locally, and then rsync up to the test server for broader evaluation. I think this was partly inadvertent, but Apple doesn't do anything accidentally. So all of a sudden, you'd go to tech confs for things like Ruby or Python, and see a roomful of glowing Apple logos. Because deliberately or not, the platform respected the power user. People are upset now b/c they fear the iOS-ification of what we now call MacOS. I'm not convinced it's happening in any meaningful sense (I can still build and run whatever I want), but it's probably worth watching. Any move away from the "perfect hybrid" that OSX was in, say, 2002, is scary/unwelcome, even if the moves are things that are probably good ideas for normal people, and easily circumvented for power users (like a default restriction to signed code).
  - SomeHacker44 6y ago
    I just wanted to say, IMO, "nailed it." This is why I moved to Mac OS X in 2004, and why I began de-Appling my life in 2019 (for WSL). Too many anti-features across all Apple hardware and software, not to mention killing good software like Aperture.
  - cperciva 6y ago
    Shifting to OSX created a platform with all the power of Linux under the hood Even better: It had all the power of BSD under the hood.
    - ubermonkey 6y ago
      Heh. I knew someone would pick that nit.
- gear54rus 6y ago
  There is also a counterpoint: power users are typically smarter and therefore less likely to be affected by your marketing BS and therefore harder to extract money from. So retaining them is not worth the effort.
  - alpaca128 6y ago
    That may be true, but someone has to develop the apps for your platform. Developers, tech bloggers, reviewers, streamers are often power users and influence a lot of consumers. And maybe they don't care about Apple spending 30 minutes to brag about how their Macbook just got 0.2mm thinner. But they might still consider the purchase if it doesn't come with a touchbar and another broken keyboard.
- csydas 6y ago
  The so called power users, like any other, have many facets. Sometimes they're quite cooperative and indeed, they push edge cases that other users simply don't, advance powerful workflows using your tooling you never thought of, etc. But they can also be down-right arrogant and self-centered ;) I think the scale of influence the article is talking about is bigger than personal circles and is focusing more on huge user bases. The power users I deal with daily are a mixed bunch; some are very earnest in their pursuit of using our product to its fullest extent, which is great; they open themselves up to risk by pushing new features their limits, and we're willing to work with them as they continue to invest further into us. This is great because in this scenario we have the same end goals, so it works out and it's a good investment for everyone involved. For some power users though, as soon as our goals deviate and we're no longer looking in the same direction for a given feature/product, it's like a really bad break up, and quite a few do not like to take it silently or easily. I have some that have been threatening to leave the product for 3+ years because we've elected not to invest resources further into a specific feature (low demand, market is turning away from this feature, the investment is simply too great at this point to justify the cost). But they never leave, for reasons I'm not going to speculate on. The way that our power users act regarding such decisions is frankly borderline harassment at times; spamming forum posts, harassing our support team with endless cases just to complain about a feature they know we don't have, it can eat up a lot of time. The power users insist they are right, and that our decision is 'a huge mistake we just don't understand', and they continue to remind us of this -- it's hard to not consider the attitudes arrogant, and the language used to describe themselves feels a bit too self-congratulatory. Frankly speaking I don't like the tone of the article even if I agree with some of its points as it sounds too much like the bad users mentioned above. So as with all things, it's best with moderation and constant doses of reality. Without these checks, it's easy to get a very bad relationship set up and such relationships take a lot to advance to a more stable position.
  - vulcan01 6y ago
    > because we've elected not to invest resources further into a specific feature (low demand, market is turning away from this feature, the investment is simply too great at this point to justify the cost) Just curious, what happens if you tell them why you've chosen not to invest in the feature they want?
prox 6y ago
Another shout out if you’re interested in this topic is About Face : the essentials of interaction design. It’s the bible on this topic for me : from planning to production, it covers all ways your product (app, embedded, etc.) will interact with the user.
eatonphil 6y ago
This is a very common idea among technical users. But I'd love to see it backed up by broader research into a theory of product design that works for users in a way that is good for the business. Most of the time these posts are just rants, which might be true, but may not provide a sufficiently compelling/research-driven case for product managers.
vehemenz 6y ago
Re: Google Reader—I think part of this might be generational. Your average Googler (even 7 years ago) is basically a latecomer to the Internet and values different things. They were barely alive during the heydays of the decentralized web, IRC, newsgroups, P2P file-sharing, RSS, etc. In a company where developers have a lot of power, the old hats standing up for "outdated" tools and software are simply outnumbered. Anecdotally, I've noticed Zoomers are less inclined to be power users themselves. If true, I blame software monocultures and pseudo-computing (phones).
- swiley 6y ago
  I've met zoomer power users. You can find them on widgetsmith and Discord. Apple seems to be undoing some of their stupidity on the iPhone lately with eg shortuts/widgets/iSH. The cynist in me says it's just to blunt the coming lawsuits though.
  - vehemenz 6y ago
    I train college students as part of my job, and there are definitely some power users, but I am generalizing. What I am thinking of is, someone who was a programmer ~20 years ago would probably have a lot of *NIX, IT, and networking skills that you could take for granted, whereas today there are coders from many different backgrounds (which isn't necessarily bad). I've met a surprising number of 20-year-olds who spend their entire day in Visual Studio Code and don't know that Home/End go to the beginning and end of the line. Or they don't know how DNS works. Just two examples off the top of my head.
    - p_l 6y ago
      When it comes to home/end, that might be because a lot of the computers they interact with simply don't have those keys, or they are on Mac and the keys go to start/end of document, etc etc.
      - vehemenz 6y ago
        Fair enough; but they wouldn't know the Function key equivalent either.
rosmax_1337 6y ago
I would also add that there are a few different types of power users. Two off the top of my head are "very active users" and "very technical users". The foremost often can be maintainers of communities. Example: Reddit or Discord. These same communities might end up being the main part of your product. Other examples include social media like Youtube, or even Instagram. To these users a different set of power tools are needed, than for the "technical power users" who need different kinds of power tools. For the "very active users", you might want to be able to provide things like UI customization, social media linking, statistics and easy tools for moderation. Examples of tools for "technical power users" might be providing a large set of actions that can be custom-key-bound. A macro/scripting API. An alternate API to your service completely (REST-ful), or support for modding. You can guess what those tools will later be used for quite simply I'm sure. :)
- canadianfella 6y ago
  I can’t guess. What?
tyingq 6y ago
Looking at you, outlook.com. Why can't I see headers on sent messages?
phendrenad2 6y ago
It's very hard to make an app that is usable by both casual and power users. So some companies have taken the approach of just appealing to the larger of the two userbases, the casual users, and trying to scale out as much as possible.

90 points by simonpure 6y ago

The article doesn't directly mention this point, but my opinion is you need to take care of your power users since they tend to be influencers in their own circles. Often they're the tech-savvy member of the family/friendship/work colleague circle, and they steer other non-power users to their preferred products, which over time gain popularity. Signal is a great example of this. Please look after your power users! Maintaining their trust is critical.

ubermonkey 6y ago
I think this is an underrated aspect of the enormous success of early OS X with technical people. Before, the Mac was a big deal in graphics and other areas like that, but didn't really have an inroad to people who wanted to code. Shifting to OSX created a platform with all the power of Linux under the hood, but with access to the COTS tools that many people prefer/need. I was part of this. In the early 21st century, I was doing lots of LAMP stack work, and you could just install everything locally on your Mac, build and test locally, and then rsync up to the test server for broader evaluation. I think this was partly inadvertent, but Apple doesn't do anything accidentally. So all of a sudden, you'd go to tech confs for things like Ruby or Python, and see a roomful of glowing Apple logos. Because deliberately or not, the platform respected the power user. People are upset now b/c they fear the iOS-ification of what we now call MacOS. I'm not convinced it's happening in any meaningful sense (I can still build and run whatever I want), but it's probably worth watching. Any move away from the "perfect hybrid" that OSX was in, say, 2002, is scary/unwelcome, even if the moves are things that are probably good ideas for normal people, and easily circumvented for power users (like a default restriction to signed code).
- SomeHacker44 6y ago
  I just wanted to say, IMO, "nailed it." This is why I moved to Mac OS X in 2004, and why I began de-Appling my life in 2019 (for WSL). Too many anti-features across all Apple hardware and software, not to mention killing good software like Aperture.
- cperciva 6y ago
  Shifting to OSX created a platform with all the power of Linux under the hood Even better: It had all the power of BSD under the hood.
  - ubermonkey 6y ago
    Heh. I knew someone would pick that nit.
gear54rus 6y ago
There is also a counterpoint: power users are typically smarter and therefore less likely to be affected by your marketing BS and therefore harder to extract money from. So retaining them is not worth the effort.
- alpaca128 6y ago
  That may be true, but someone has to develop the apps for your platform. Developers, tech bloggers, reviewers, streamers are often power users and influence a lot of consumers. And maybe they don't care about Apple spending 30 minutes to brag about how their Macbook just got 0.2mm thinner. But they might still consider the purchase if it doesn't come with a touchbar and another broken keyboard.
csydas 6y ago
The so called power users, like any other, have many facets. Sometimes they're quite cooperative and indeed, they push edge cases that other users simply don't, advance powerful workflows using your tooling you never thought of, etc. But they can also be down-right arrogant and self-centered ;) I think the scale of influence the article is talking about is bigger than personal circles and is focusing more on huge user bases. The power users I deal with daily are a mixed bunch; some are very earnest in their pursuit of using our product to its fullest extent, which is great; they open themselves up to risk by pushing new features their limits, and we're willing to work with them as they continue to invest further into us. This is great because in this scenario we have the same end goals, so it works out and it's a good investment for everyone involved. For some power users though, as soon as our goals deviate and we're no longer looking in the same direction for a given feature/product, it's like a really bad break up, and quite a few do not like to take it silently or easily. I have some that have been threatening to leave the product for 3+ years because we've elected not to invest resources further into a specific feature (low demand, market is turning away from this feature, the investment is simply too great at this point to justify the cost). But they never leave, for reasons I'm not going to speculate on. The way that our power users act regarding such decisions is frankly borderline harassment at times; spamming forum posts, harassing our support team with endless cases just to complain about a feature they know we don't have, it can eat up a lot of time. The power users insist they are right, and that our decision is 'a huge mistake we just don't understand', and they continue to remind us of this -- it's hard to not consider the attitudes arrogant, and the language used to describe themselves feels a bit too self-congratulatory. Frankly speaking I don't like the tone of the article even if I agree with some of its points as it sounds too much like the bad users mentioned above. So as with all things, it's best with moderation and constant doses of reality. Without these checks, it's easy to get a very bad relationship set up and such relationships take a lot to advance to a more stable position.
- vulcan01 6y ago
  > because we've elected not to invest resources further into a specific feature (low demand, market is turning away from this feature, the investment is simply too great at this point to justify the cost) Just curious, what happens if you tell them why you've chosen not to invest in the feature they want?

prox 6y ago

Another shout out if you’re interested in this topic is About Face : the essentials of interaction design. It’s the bible on this topic for me : from planning to production, it covers all ways your product (app, embedded, etc.) will interact with the user.

eatonphil 6y ago

This is a very common idea among technical users. But I'd love to see it backed up by broader research into a theory of product design that works for users in a way that is good for the business. Most of the time these posts are just rants, which might be true, but may not provide a sufficiently compelling/research-driven case for product managers.

vehemenz 6y ago

Re: Google Reader—I think part of this might be generational. Your average Googler (even 7 years ago) is basically a latecomer to the Internet and values different things. They were barely alive during the heydays of the decentralized web, IRC, newsgroups, P2P file-sharing, RSS, etc. In a company where developers have a lot of power, the old hats standing up for "outdated" tools and software are simply outnumbered. Anecdotally, I've noticed Zoomers are less inclined to be power users themselves. If true, I blame software monocultures and pseudo-computing (phones).

swiley 6y ago
I've met zoomer power users. You can find them on widgetsmith and Discord. Apple seems to be undoing some of their stupidity on the iPhone lately with eg shortuts/widgets/iSH. The cynist in me says it's just to blunt the coming lawsuits though.
- vehemenz 6y ago
  I train college students as part of my job, and there are definitely some power users, but I am generalizing. What I am thinking of is, someone who was a programmer ~20 years ago would probably have a lot of *NIX, IT, and networking skills that you could take for granted, whereas today there are coders from many different backgrounds (which isn't necessarily bad). I've met a surprising number of 20-year-olds who spend their entire day in Visual Studio Code and don't know that Home/End go to the beginning and end of the line. Or they don't know how DNS works. Just two examples off the top of my head.
  - p_l 6y ago
    When it comes to home/end, that might be because a lot of the computers they interact with simply don't have those keys, or they are on Mac and the keys go to start/end of document, etc etc.
    - vehemenz 6y ago
      Fair enough; but they wouldn't know the Function key equivalent either.

rosmax_1337 6y ago

I would also add that there are a few different types of power users. Two off the top of my head are "very active users" and "very technical users". The foremost often can be maintainers of communities. Example: Reddit or Discord. These same communities might end up being the main part of your product. Other examples include social media like Youtube, or even Instagram. To these users a different set of power tools are needed, than for the "technical power users" who need different kinds of power tools. For the "very active users", you might want to be able to provide things like UI customization, social media linking, statistics and easy tools for moderation. Examples of tools for "technical power users" might be providing a large set of actions that can be custom-key-bound. A macro/scripting API. An alternate API to your service completely (REST-ful), or support for modding. You can guess what those tools will later be used for quite simply I'm sure. :)

canadianfella 6y ago
I can’t guess. What?

tyingq 6y ago

Looking at you, outlook.com. Why can't I see headers on sent messages?

phendrenad2 6y ago

It's very hard to make an app that is usable by both casual and power users. So some companies have taken the approach of just appealing to the larger of the two userbases, the casual users, and trying to scale out as much as possible.