TRON Had It Right: Someone Must Defend the User
“Bio digital jazz, man” says Jeff Bridges as he pinches in and out on a digital view of AI DNA. The pale blue light glows on his face while he repairs broken code and begins a reboot process in what I can only call the coolest DOS I’ve seen—but he’s debugging nonetheless.
In TRON: Legacy (2010), Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges, knew 1 thing: Someone has to defend the user or the system will operate in its best interests, unchecked…So, he created an AI version of himself within the program to do just that.
Who in your team, department, or even company is defending the user? Or customer?
Data is your shield for the user
If you’re doing anything digital, you’ve already heard everyone say “Data is your friend”; they’re right but when it comes to the user, it can also be your shield—use it to defend the user.
Someone has to defend the user or the system will operate in its best interests, unchecked…
Data is worthless without insight, so spend careful time trying to understand what your data is telling you. Once you do, pursue the path its taking you down. The right insight will reveal what is best for the user. Low conversion might be bad for you, but it also means the user can’t get what they are looking for—not a “pro” user experience. If you’re writing content, but engagement on your content is poor, your data could be telling you your user doesn’t like it, so improve the content for them (simple).
There are nuances to optimize for the user, and not for the results; think about what your data is saying about your users and use it to promote their needs.
Use design to defend the user
Your creative or design team has a knack for asking questions focused on the user and a nose for sniffing out ill user intent. What’s “ill user intent”? It means you are trying to pass an initiative that is good for you at the expense of your user—don’t do that homeslice.
But, I totally get it—you’ve got goals you’re trying to hit. That’s actually a good thing in order to balance the “needs scale”. Focus on your goals and your initiatives, and lean on your creative team to get you aligned on user-centric objectives.
For example, a creative team may ask you “What is the goal of this project?”. You might say something like “We want to increase the conversion on this content.”, but might this be a better answer “We want the user to get their content quicker”? The context changes how you solve the challenge: Former focused on the goal, latter the user.
It means you are trying to pass an initiative that is good for you at the expense of your user – don’t do that homeslice.
Creating the habit
Being user focused (or customer focused) doesn’t have to be hard and you can make it a habit. Start by creating a processed structure to your thinking. How are you solving problems? At what point in the process do you start? Do you work backwards from your goal? What kind of questions do you ask? Are you being objective with yourself?
The biggest fallacy I see with defending the user is the “well if it was me…” type of thinking. You’re not the user, sorry homeslice (man, I’m fresh today). This is an unobjective way to solve the problem, and is more times than not, a poor excuse of saying you thought of the user and moved on.
To better structure a process of considering the user, start with these 3 questions:
- Am I setting the right expectations?
- Is my content clear?
- Who does this benefit more?
My favorite is the last one – it can be a little scary as it can be confrontational to some, but it’s a great question. It is an objective way of evaluating the initiative and it’s goals. If it leans to far on the side of the business, you need to think about it more and find where you went wrong. How might you make it more balanced? Don’t forget, your solving a user problem, those who solve their problems best are the winners.
Digital jazz is right. Fighting for the user is a concert across teams, our predispositions, and a constantly evolving user. You have to get into the habit of defending your user or you risk losing control of the system, focused on its own goals.
In the end, focusing on the user is good business…and good business is good.
