After a usability test of a product website I thought about why the test users didn’t understand the product as we did it. Sure, we know it better since we work with it already for 2 years. However, even technological educated users didn’t really understand it.

Some thoughts later – and bike rides, which I usually need to think about stuff – I remembered a book I read about 5 years ago: “Crossing the Chasm” from Geoffrey A. Moore

A short overview of “Crossing the Chasm”.
In this book Moore explains how high-tech companies can market new innovations to the mainstream market. This is important because the early market and the mainstream don’t share a lot when discontinuous innovations are to be sold. The important aspect is the adapted technology adoption life cycle and the chasm that lies between the early adopters and the early majority.

Crossing the chasm with scenarios and personas
The key to get into the mainstream market is to use a small segment and start with that and then use adjacent segments to sell more and more. In order to select a segment he suggests to create target customers and scenarios for these customers of how they will use the product within their segment.

We need something that feels a lot more like real people. However, since we do not have real live customers as yet, we are just going to have to make them up.

This might be familiar to anyone working in user experience design.

How does relate to personas in user interface design?
When UX designers create a website, product, or any other service they usually use personas to better understand the needs and be able to judge about different design options. The model now suggests that we have to use different personas in the technology life cycle since the 5 psychographic groups change over time. Each group needs a different set of product presentation and reasons to buy. The most important group is, however, the early majority since they need a whole product that can provide a complete user experience.

A friend told me yesterday about a new blog tool on the web – SixAparts Vox.com. First I was not suprised, but after a while I was completely exited.

So what is different with vox.com. It has one feature I always missed and that was for many people a reason to not have a blog – privacy control. It lets you decide who can read your post. Whether it’s the whole world, your friends or your family. Now you can decide who can read your posts and view your photos.

Why is that so important? Many people use their weblogs to communicate with friends and so on. However, weblogs can be read by the whole world. This is not how it should be – only your friends should be able to read it. So, many people switched back to good old email and sent an email to all their friends. Sometimes with very long text and images. Now, you can manage to do that with a blog tool and still get the privacy you had with email.

Another aspect is, that a new way to communicate will emerge. Lets look at an email conversation with 4 people. You write the first one to 3 of your friends, and all 3 reply to your first one. So, how do you integrate their comments in your email to all 4 again. Actually you can’t do that very well and even more, if those 4 reply to all 4 participants, it doesn’t get better. I am sure you had that experience.

I already used Basecamp to communicate with more than one person in an email like way and it was a lot easier than with email. Everybody sees each others comment and will react on this comment. Also, you can view the conversation more easily.

Now with vox.com you can start conversations, not just blog posts, with others using your blog tool and don’t have to use email anymore. Sure, there are still uses for email but this opens up a whole new world.

I don’t know Matt and also don’t know where he currently is. But look at where he has been in just 6 months.

A funny way to show everybody where you have been. I like stuff like that just because of curiosity (see also my post about www.onethousandpaintings.com)

So now I am in Franfurt and left my old life in Munich behind. Starting a new career in a new city with new people. Sound exicting – it is, and also frightening. But new starts are never easy and sometimes this just gives you also a new view of your life…

Today at reboot Doc Searls talked about marketing as relationships. One of his slides showed marketing as being bullshit. In addition he thinks that

There’s no marketing in the attention economy, just sales

In my opinion he is wrong to some extend. Sure if you have a big crowd of people that talk about products you don’t need marketing to tell you about the product and the company still will sell the product. However, how does the first person to buy your product and spread the word know about your product?

If I want to buy a product I do look for it and might find blog talking about it. But how on earth do I find a product that does exist and nobody bought because nobody does no about it. So, you need marketing to tell you that this product exists. This is one of the major reasons why marketing exists is to tell you about products a company has to offer. Even the smallest amount of doing that, maybe just by putting the product in front of your company door, is marketing. And therfore we need to have marketing and this is not bullshit.

Marketing is about markets and if your product is not in the market nobody can buy it – you don’t have any sells. I would even say that the basic function of marketing can be seen as “bringing something to the market”. That said it should be clear that marketing is not bullshi.