On being great (aka: The role of competive analysis)

Here's a good post on the pros and cons of keeping up with the Joneses in the business realm -- Don't Be Better than the Competition

It resonated...

Think about it this way: would you rather have a conversation with a prospect about whether your feature list is longer than the competition's or about the benefits the prospect will derive from your product?

Food for thought and a good reminder, if nothing else...

Where on this chart is your brand?

Got it from here

Are there times you shouldn't listen to users?

Read this article and it talked about Apple and if there are times that you maybe shouldn't listen to users. But the key take away on usability testing:

After all, a good lab moderator won't ask the customer what product they want ... rather they'll simply try to understand the customer's unmet needs and pain points, so that they can (back at the company) innovate the right solution. Customers, important as they are, are not designers.

Read the full post here.