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> If the problem is hair on fire bad, UX doesn't matter. Just replying to make sure you know how profoundly true this is. And if you want the secret to mega su

by dchuk 5y ago

> If the problem is hair on fire bad, UX doesn't matter. Just replying to make sure you know how profoundly true this is. And if you want the secret to mega success: solve a hair on fire problem with great ux and you will win almost automatically.

drBonkers 5y ago
How do you identify hair-on-fire problems?
- hyuuu 5y ago
  Would love to know this
  - JamesBarney 5y ago
    1. You already are deeply familiar with an industry Or 2. You can tell when you talk to people who have the problem. They get really excited about having it solving for them and don't care about the price it costs to solve it.
- jschveibinz 5y ago
  One good way is to live them. Those who have worked for 5-10 years in any given field (not just software) can easily identify the most valuable “hair on fire” problems to solve. Otherwise, consider these factors: 1. How many people are affected? 2. How much does the problem cost (in time or money)? 3. How much extra money can be made by solving the problem? 4. How much time can be saved? 5. What is currently blocking the way to dramatic improvements (in anything)? 6. What is causing people real pain, fear, suffering, or dramatic inconvenience in a large enough market? That’s a good start, anyway. Good luck with the journey.
  - chefandy 5y ago
    If you run an established service or have a certain kind of userbase? Sure. For a startup with a consumer-focused mobile app? Maybe not. For them, not enough people liking your product to build a reputation is a "hair on fire" problem. In most shopping apps for example, most customers would never even know if the service had 12 hours of downtime per week. An extra step during the checkout sequence, however, and you'll never see them again if there's an alternative. Developers see interfaces and user flows as a place to expose controls so users can operate the software. To users, the interface is the software and bad interface = bad software. So it's super context dependent.

by dchuk 5y ago

drBonkers 5y ago

How do you identify hair-on-fire problems?

hyuuu 5y ago
Would love to know this
- JamesBarney 5y ago
  1. You already are deeply familiar with an industry Or 2. You can tell when you talk to people who have the problem. They get really excited about having it solving for them and don't care about the price it costs to solve it.
jschveibinz 5y ago
One good way is to live them. Those who have worked for 5-10 years in any given field (not just software) can easily identify the most valuable “hair on fire” problems to solve. Otherwise, consider these factors: 1. How many people are affected? 2. How much does the problem cost (in time or money)? 3. How much extra money can be made by solving the problem? 4. How much time can be saved? 5. What is currently blocking the way to dramatic improvements (in anything)? 6. What is causing people real pain, fear, suffering, or dramatic inconvenience in a large enough market? That’s a good start, anyway. Good luck with the journey.
- chefandy 5y ago
  If you run an established service or have a certain kind of userbase? Sure. For a startup with a consumer-focused mobile app? Maybe not. For them, not enough people liking your product to build a reputation is a "hair on fire" problem. In most shopping apps for example, most customers would never even know if the service had 12 hours of downtime per week. An extra step during the checkout sequence, however, and you'll never see them again if there's an alternative. Developers see interfaces and user flows as a place to expose controls so users can operate the software. To users, the interface is the software and bad interface = bad software. So it's super context dependent.