The Idea Dude

CONNECTING THE DOTS ONE AT A TIME

Thursday, October 02, 2008

The user experience of change

I've been working a lot lately with several companies starting up new Internet ventures. The most notable feature that all of these have in common is that the founders have a passion to bring about new and unique user experiences different from what we have now.

So it was terrific to find my good friend Sean had penned a post about creating user experiences that bring about change

Sean said "...if we can't imagine different futures beyond the present situation, then we can't effectively explore new ideas, cover new ground or innovate..."

Change is perhaps the only constant for any startup
The 7 stage model that Sean outlines in his blogpost is so applicable to entrepreneurs architecting the next big thing. Here's a synopsis of the 7 stages with my embellishments from a startup lifecycle point of view. I highly recommend you head to Sean's blog to read the whole thing.

  • Picture: The business guys like to call this vision. For me that's too grand. Keep it simple. Call it a picture. Have a picture in our mind of what it is we are going to accomplish.
  • Commit: this is the crossing of Rubicon. You can't get half wet when you jump in the pool.
  • Glimpse: The quick and dirty prototype that will give us both inspiration and direction for something bigger.
  • Trial: Can't say this better than Sean. "...a period of confusion where we leave behind our old ways of thinking - where we are unsure and even frightened enough to look for something different or new..."
  • Arrive: We achieve a well-define milestone that is usually conveniently positioned at the cross-roads of the next series of big decisions. Or put differently, if you arrive at point and didn't have to make any big decision, it isn't a milestone.
  • Payoff:The time to reflect on the impact of what we have done for user community and all the stuff we could have and should have done if we could do it again.
  • Secrete Payoff:Did we achieve or provide something for our users that is unique, relevant and personal that they couldn't get anywhere else. Gotta say it again, UNIQUE, RELEVANT, PERSONAL
  • Return: start over at the beginning. Because it is a cycle and if it is successful, it will have momentum and it challenges us to keep reinventing ourselves to ensure we are unique, relevant and personal so we can create experiences for our users that are unique, relevant and personal.

    Thanks Sean, you should make posters of your post, I for one would buy one!
  • 1 Comments:

    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Thanks Vernon!

    As it is, it takes me weeks to get a post up. Can only imagine how long it would take me to create a poster. ;)

    I love how you applied this to a startup initiative. Wish the thinking was mine - the model comes from Hillis who is a god! ;)

    11:39 AM  

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