Do you always know what you want or need?
At times, it has been difficult for people to tell me what they want. They are very good, however, at telling me what they don’t want. That’s why I typically develop prototypes of my software applications. I create things that might be useful, based on prior work, client’s ideas, and simple common sense. These prototypes might be wildly off-base, or they could come very close to meeting a particular need right from the start. The important thing is that the feedback from this development process helps me learn what people don’t want, so that I can focus on what’s important.
Geoff Livingston and I touched on this point a few weeks ago during a debate over the Social Media Release (SMR). While I agree with Geoff, there should be a defined need before beginning development, the definition of that need might not be completely detailed and it might exist only as a perceived need. Twitter is a good example of a solution to a need that I didn’t know I had:
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Geoff Livingston said,
Wrote on January 23, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
Devil’s Advocate: Why build a technical product if there isn’t a defined need? Need should define technical development, not the other way around.
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swhitley said,
Wrote on January 23, 2008 @ 3:48 pm
I’d say the need has been defined. Not everyone agrees on the definition, but some people have expressed the need clearly. It’s just that the solution hasn’t been recognized yet as meeting the need…or it truly doesn’t meet the need. That’s where the technical experimentation comes in.
Twitter is a good example for most of us where technology came before a clear need. You and I probably didn’t have Twitter in mind as a primary need, but we discovered the tool and now it’s very important to us.
In his latest post, Shel Holtz expresses these ideas as well. I don’t need to say anything more because Shel has once again echoed my thoughts.
As for comparing the SMR to the telephone, if you don’t understand the subtleties in this basic analogy, then the rest of the discussion will probably be lost on you as well.
data-text=”Do you always know what you want or need? (Shannon Whitley)”
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>Tweet
This is sort of like shooting in the dark. Sometimes you strike gold. Yet in this case, the invention has not been widely adopted. SO there’s an issue. SMR creators need to better understand what the market wants, not what they think it wants. A better product is needed.
nice