Company homework from Brad Feld

My board member Brad Feld gave me some homework a few months ago which I have been doing.  Completing the assignment has been so valuable that I've started to assign the homework to all the employees at Judy's Book.  Brad's homework for me was to begin to use my product as well as my competitor's products as a user and to use them regularly (i.e. daily).  His hypothesis is that it's only as a user that you can begin to see the nuances of what makes one product better than another.  It's an obvious observation and that's what makes it so powerful. I mean try making listening to music on the Ipod vs. the Zune and you'll get the idea.  Drive around in a Toyota Lexus and then drive around in a Volkswagen Jetta or a Ford Taurus. Same act --very different customer experiences.   We're not doing this everyday (yet) -- but we are trying to incorporate it into the regular activities of everyone -- we then talk about what we discovered and learned at lunch. Good stuff. Thanks Brad for the suggestion....my hunch is our users will thank you too.

Comments

[AdamD]

Where I come from, that's called "dogfooding." It's good practice for a programmer to use his own product--eat his own dog food. I know Brad has a coder past, so I'm guessing that's why he suggested it.

I'll look forward to your insights and how it changed your business.

[Alan Shimel]

Andy- great advice and something that I personally do at StillSecure. I have blogged further on this at my blog, http://www.stillsecureafteralltheseyears.com/ashimmy/2006/12/great_business_.html