Saturday, May 23, 2009

Wired to Care


WIRED to CARE
by Dev Patnaik

Patnaik claims that companies prosper when they create widespread empathy. He's so right.

At Hewlett-Parkard we called this next bench, creating products for the person at the next workbench – someone we knew well. At Apple we aimed to create products for mere mortals, often our not-so-tech-savvy mothers.

At Aplia we ask what challenges our instructors and students are facing, and look for ways that technology might help.

In each case, the key is empathy - walking a mile in our users shoes. The book's a great read.

2 comments:

  1. It seems so simple, but why is it so uncommon?

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  2. The book is a good reminder that we should care and understand what makes our customers happy, and that we'll do that best by spending time with customers and hiring people like them. We're lucky at Aplia that we hire intructors and we hire recent graduates. Still, we should be doing even more.

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