When launching a new software product, the tendency can be to go for a ‘quick and dirty’ approach. And often, too much attention is paid to development and product design, too little to marketing. You get products that work really well, but don’t address key needs and requirements among the target market. Or you get products, sometimes high-quality ones, that launch in perfect silence and disappear the same way.
The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented.
“We need to build a mobile app!”
“Sure, boss. What exactly should this mobile app do?”
“Doesn’t matter! All our competitors have mobile apps, so we need one too!”
This is exactly the wrong way to launch a mobile app project.
Yes, you probably do need a mobile app because an increasing number of people do a majority of their computer activities on mobile devices. And yes, most or all your competitors have mobile apps available on app stores. These are necessary but not sufficient conditions for building a mobile app.
In Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the computer onboard starship “Heart of Gold” could be described as intelligent (if “intelligent” is a synonym for “snarky”).
Some people have it easy.
At a cocktail party, when asked, “What line of work are you in?” they can answer in a couple of words without fear of getting quizzical looks or blank stares. “Accountant.” “Tax attorney.” “Kindergarten teacher.” “Truck driver.” “Software developer.”
Then there are user experience (UX) designers…
Information technology is one of those occupations no one notices until something goes wrong. Few users send appreciative notes to IT managers because the team is doing a great job of keeping the network running. Let the network go down for five minutes and then duck as the nastygrams are fired off.
