We’ve all created a persona. We spend time empathizing with this future user of our product to ensure we see the product and experience through their eyes. We think through and focus on their skill sets, goals, opinions, biases, and limitations. We think though all the things a user might not even be aware they want, but actually need.
As we move through the discovery and research of a project before the actual engineering begins, we feel aligned with our stakeholders, clients, users, and co-workers. We’re thinking, clicking, ideating, and pushing a project forward. We feel like there’s a roadmap to success. We ensure the product is designed to best suit the user.
However as we begin to implement, we somehow lose that momentum and visibility. We focus on tasks, checklists, deadlines, etc. We switch from a user-centered focus to a task focus, and somewhere along the way we begin to see the product from our points of view instead of that original persona we created. We forget what the user needs and begin to see the product from our own perspectives. We start focusing on how we’d use the product ourselves.
I’m not faulting anyone; I’m not calling anyone out – all I’m saying is this happens and we all need to be aware of it.
If we find ourselves saying anything of the following:
- When I do this…
- I would approach it like…
- I think…
- I would use it like…
- When I test this…
Well, that’s when we’ve lost touch with our users. We’re thinking about how we’re going to use the product ourselves. We’re making assumptions.
I challenge everyone to be aware of our thought patterns and how we’re proceeding when engineering and building a product. Be vigil. Be present. Let’s challenge our teams and ourselves to keep the user in focus.
