It is never about the user

Lis Peraza
Aug 26, 2017 · 3 min read

The user, this mythical creature that lives within the imagination of every company.

There is an implicit agreement to work for the sake of it. Designers, product owners, company owners, all together shaping the product to please it. And that's all good, even lovely if we get cute. The problem is that it's an imaginary fellow, and so, it comes in different shapes and flavors, depending upon the head of whom it is thought about.

Designers rely on all the concepts and best practices they have learned, tons of good will and educated guesses. They even fight against product owners, whom fiercely believe their industry knowledge and company history gives them a special understanding of this Persona, they are the chosen ones to serve as a communication bridges, a medium sort of thing, between the user and the designer, who has no idea how things work on this particular business.

Then comes the company owner, whom of course knows everything about the user. After all, it is the only one reason why s/he created the whole business, wasn't it? So here s/he allows a little more of self indulgence, because it's clear they share interests. They like the same things. So, why wouldn't s/he decide in the name of the user?

Oh, I am so sorry, I totally forgot it was only about profit!

Then, the user. The real user, the one that actually uses the product, it's NEVER asked about its opinion. No! surveys are not the only tool available to try to decipher its behavior and needs, so don't throw in here the soooooo over used "the client never knows what he wants” phrase, nor even you dare with the Henry Ford quote, nah nah!

But why it is so? Ah the budget... no, no, the deadline... ouch the KPIs! Duh.

All of these are totally useless if, after all, you release a product that users don't care about. A product hard to use, one that doesn’t really solve their problems. Then I wonder, what is the use of all that hustling? Well, maybe to fool the share holders about how hard everybody has been working. Or even better, to fool our selfs.

Because it's ALWAYS about our egos: designers, marketers, product owners, company owners’ egos. We so dearly invest our energy into the product that instead of solving a real problem with it, we focus on building our own grown-up toys, daydreaming about recognition, company fancy titles and endless rivers of cash. We rarely stop to analyse what start it all, and found investing on research an unattainable luxury we cannot afford.

Fellows, if digital-based products needed scientific certifications there would be a lot less of crapy services. If only we thought about them just as any other technology outcome, we will be spending some serious money and time on User Research, done the proper way, where clean data emerges from scientific conducted test, decisions would be much more grounded on real scenarios instead of “Simon Says” scenarios.

Of course there are some examples of such thing nicely done. Google, AirB&B and Youtube, just to pick some names. Don’t get fooled, they don’t do it because they are huge. They are huge because they did it, and keep doing it, the right way.

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