4 ms·

It's exactly the opposite, they're essential and certainly do not have a "mixed history". Every product you interact with at the grocery store, every movie, mo

It's exactly the opposite, they're essential and certainly do not have a "mixed history". Every product you interact with at the grocery store, every movie, most music, and most products in our modern life go through this process. It's called user focused design.

FredPret 2y ago
The best way to do a completely unbiased focus group is to come up with an MVP and try to sell it to them. There's no more honest endorsement than someone handing you money to solve their problem. If they buy, you're on the right track and are ready to scale up to a larger focus group. This is called a startup though!
- iancmceachern 2y ago
  Yes, what most people don't realize though is that the MVP doesn't have to be a functional product. It can be a cartoon, a drawing, a mock up, a video, whatever. Get good feedback early & often
JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> It's exactly the opposite, they're essential and certainly do not have a "mixed history" Focus groups are good for refining. They're absolutely terrible for new product development. If there is an OG playbook for start-ups defeating incumbents, it's in exploiting the committee-based designed process that large companies tend towards. (Owning a product decision is hard. Outsourcing it to a marketing consultant isn't.) Where you and I probably agree is in the importance of finding the shortest path to a sale. > It's called user focused design You're quoting this guy [1]. He also did marketing consulting [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Norman#Nielsen_Norman_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Norman#Nielsen_Norman_Grou... [2] https://www.nngroup.com https://www.nngroup.com
- iancmceachern 2y ago
  I wasn't quoting him. It's not really that way anymore. The vision of a loan visionary coming up with a new product or invention like being hit by a lightning bolt and then getting rich by building a factory that builds it is just a fairy tale. In reality it looks more like a series of focus groups. They may not be focus groups per se, but showing your idea to potential customers, getting feedback, refining and showing again is how it's done. That's how startups that are successful do so.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > wasn't quoting him Norman coined the term user focused design. > may not be focus groups per se, but showing your idea to potential customers, getting feedback, refining and showing again is how it's done Sure. I’d argue both focus groups and the lone visionary are myths. But in order to show an idea properly, you have to start thinking about building it. And to start thinking about building it properly, you have to start building it. For every Juicero there are teams iterating around a local optimum.

FredPret 2y ago

The best way to do a completely unbiased focus group is to come up with an MVP and try to sell it to them. There's no more honest endorsement than someone handing you money to solve their problem. If they buy, you're on the right track and are ready to scale up to a larger focus group. This is called a startup though!

iancmceachern 2y ago
Yes, what most people don't realize though is that the MVP doesn't have to be a functional product. It can be a cartoon, a drawing, a mock up, a video, whatever. Get good feedback early & often

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> It's exactly the opposite, they're essential and certainly do not have a "mixed history" Focus groups are good for refining. They're absolutely terrible for new product development. If there is an OG playbook for start-ups defeating incumbents, it's in exploiting the committee-based designed process that large companies tend towards. (Owning a product decision is hard. Outsourcing it to a marketing consultant isn't.) Where you and I probably agree is in the importance of finding the shortest path to a sale. > It's called user focused design You're quoting this guy [1]. He also did marketing consulting [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Norman#Nielsen_Norman_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Norman#Nielsen_Norman_Grou... [2] https://www.nngroup.com https://www.nngroup.com

iancmceachern 2y ago
I wasn't quoting him. It's not really that way anymore. The vision of a loan visionary coming up with a new product or invention like being hit by a lightning bolt and then getting rich by building a factory that builds it is just a fairy tale. In reality it looks more like a series of focus groups. They may not be focus groups per se, but showing your idea to potential customers, getting feedback, refining and showing again is how it's done. That's how startups that are successful do so.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > wasn't quoting him Norman coined the term user focused design. > may not be focus groups per se, but showing your idea to potential customers, getting feedback, refining and showing again is how it's done Sure. I’d argue both focus groups and the lone visionary are myths. But in order to show an idea properly, you have to start thinking about building it. And to start thinking about building it properly, you have to start building it. For every Juicero there are teams iterating around a local optimum.