Bill W:
Chad G:
#7 of 10 in a series: Why Obvious App Improvements Don’t Get Made
How different does an app look from a conference room than from a moving car?
This story will investigate whether managers and executives can develop an inaccurate picture of a product simply because they do not experience it under the conditions ordinary users do.
A feature may work beautifully in a demo. The phone is unlocked, the connection is strong, the user is focused, nobody is carrying three drinks, traffic is not moving and there is no 50-second countdown. Put the same interface into a gig driver’s real shift and the experience can change completely.
We want research on executive distance, field observation, contextual inquiry and other methods organizations use to close that gap. We also want reported cases where leaders changed their view after directly using a product, observing customers or spending time with frontline workers.
The issue is not that executives must personally perform every job. That would be impossible. The question is how an organization makes sure the reality of the job reaches people who make product decisions.
Do senior leaders ride along with drivers? Watch usability sessions? Listen to support calls? Read raw complaints? Use the same public version of the app? Or do they mostly receive demonstrations, dashboards and summaries prepared inside the organization?
This may help explain a recurring SOAPSzone question: why does something that feels painfully obvious to a user remain apparently invisible to the company?
Sometimes the answer may not be indifference. It may be distance.
We want to find out how good companies deliberately cross that distance—and what happens when nobody does.
