For years, I've puzzled clients and companies when I decline to have the CEO and chief developer sit down and demo their products to me as a marketing consultant or journalist. Usually, a combination of the chief developer and CEO want to show me why users will love their product. They want to show me their mastery of driving through the product's features.
I avoid this whenever I can because I feel that it gives me the wrong perspective. First off they are masters of piloting around the trouble spots, often faster than I can notice them. Second, what they think of their technology is less important in the marketplace than what the potential customer thinks.
When users touch products for the first time, they do it gingerly. They may start losing faith in the company just through a registration form that asks too much information. A single ambiguous word or phrase can get them to turn away. The enthusiasts who have invested chunks of their lives into this new technology may be too fast in dismissing such minor user concerns. They result is they will have fewer customers than they could. A marketing person who shares in their enthusiasm can often amplify a marketplace pproblem, when they should be preventing it.
I have always felt I was a better marketing consultant if I could keep my perspective on the customer's side of the equation. I've been practcing this for more than 25 years.
Blogging is different from this in mechanics, but is very much like it in philosophy. With a blog, a product developer or marketing person can bring the customer perspective to the center of the dynamic. He or she can revise products, services, marketing materials to more centrally incorporate the user's view.
The result is that the company delivers better products to happier customers, and as I'm fond of saying--this is a good thing.
