Product Design is like Dating

Without principles, it’s all one-night stands and codependency.

Who do you want to be?

A person needs to have an idea of who they want to be when they grow up. So does your product. Getting into a relationship with someone before defining your principles may leave you feeling dirty, shameful and dissapointed. Before you know it, they’ve influenced, or at worst, dictated who you’ve become.

Conversely, without a clear product vision, it’s easy to let feedback from the wrong people dictate your roadmap. The result is a frustrating love/hate relationship full of awkward interactions where you know you should break up, but can’t quite muster the courage. After all, who will take you to the dance? We must resist the temptation to bow to whims of every suitor who darkens our door.

What are your principles? What do you stand for? What do you believe in? What are your non-negotiables? Answering these questions will insure that your trajectory stays true.

What are you looking for?

A person needs to know what they’re looking for in a mate. So does your Product. Without defining who you’re trying to attract, you’ll attract no one, or worse, a scary one.

Additionally, without an understanding of who you’re pursuing, you end up hanging out in the wrong places. If you’re looking for a bookworm, visit the Library. Fancy the athletic type? Try the Gym. If you’re looking for someone who shares your affinity for the intricacies of the Marvel Universe, try Comic Con (or see @adamtrabold for additional suggestions).

Knowing the characteristics, needs and perceptions of your ideal customer simplifies decisions about what features to build, where to market, how to price, and how the experience should look and feel.

So, decide who you’re looking for, and go find them.

What are your intentions?

Knowing yourself and your audience are the foundation for any good Brand or Product Strategy. However, we must go a little further to clearly define the relationship.

Shall we continue the metaphor? Lets.

What are your interests? What makes you tick? What’s your ideal date? (insert other facematchtinderbook-y profile questions here). The answers to these questions help further define the experience one might have with us as a person. They help set proper expectations.

But, are we asking the same questions for our product?

What does our product do? More importantly, what doesn’t it do? What’s it’s tone of voice? Will it be playful or placid? Adventurous or educational? Does it prefer long walks on the beach? Fine wine and foie gras?

As we seek to design the perfect relationship, we must know who we want to be, who we want to attract, and then set expectations accordingly.

In other words, have a strategy because ‘breaking up is hard to do.’