Читать книгу Build Better Products - Laura Klein - Страница 69

Once you start seeing problem patterns, you’re going to want to solve those problems. It’s natural. You see something that is causing pain to somebody, and your instinct will be to try to fix it. You’re not a monster.

Sadly, you’ll have to suppress that desire to fix things for longer than you might like. This phase of the project, while it doesn’t have to take very long, does have to be entirely focused on identifying and validating problems rather than generating solutions.

I know it’s tempting to solve the first problem you see, but don’t jump to the solution space just yet. You’ll find that people can have endless problems, and you’re never going to be able to solve all of them. As the person in charge of making product decisions, you’re going to have to prioritize, and sometimes that means seeing people struggle with something and deciding not to solve it just yet. Besides, we don’t get to prioritization until Chapter 6, “Prioritize Better.”

EXPERT ADVICE from Cindy Alvarez

Understanding your user is critical to success, and few people know more about learning who your customer really is than Cindy Alvarez, Director of UX at Yammer—a Microsoft Company. She shared advice on the mistakes that teams make about their users and how to avoid them.

“Teams often misunderstand their customers in one of two ways,” Cindy explained. “Some, especially those who set out to solve their own problem, substitute their own opinions and wants and needs for those of the customer. The other problem is when teams listen to the most vocal customers’ unsolicited feedback. In both cases, this leads to a skewed view of what customers truly value.” To avoid those traps, you need to focus on the right customers and the right questions.