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I don't see this working out very well, unfortunately. For one thing, although users can express needs and desires in very vague terms, they can't usually be s
by thaumaturgy 17y ago
I don't see this working out very well, unfortunately.
For one thing, although users can express needs and desires in very vague terms, they can't usually be specific enough to actually help someone that's trying to implement an idea.
I _think_ it was Guy Kawasaki that described this in "Rules for Revolutionaries", but it might've been Gladwell in "Blink" -- I don't remember now.
Anyway, you're usually better off making observations about behavior and then attempting to solve the problems that you see there. In this case, you could frequent web designer forums and the like, as well as the forums for competing software, and see what the most common complaints and requests are.
- apsurd 17y agoYeah I could see the actual user feedback being nowhere near what the intended feedback would be. Great idea about frequenting your competitors forums! I actually religiously do this, and it is indeed extremely helpful. The only problem I have with this is I have no real idea if their target market is/should be my target market and of course, is the market lucrative? In other words, I might be optimizing a product that kicks ass relative to users of forum x, but are users of forum x even the ones really dishing out the money? Guess no matter what solution, you won't know until you just test the damned thing yourself. Thanks for the comment!
- thaumaturgy 17y agoI think you'd be better off building a test version of your idea and then iterating from there. You don't want to fall into the trap of talking about a thing and never actually doing it. :-)