[IxDA Discuss] user centered design -> overlapping circles -> boundary selection

[Eugene Chen]

I'm working on some product strategy at the moment. 

Imagine a scenario like this:
- Book publishers need a system that lets them communicate with the
Warehouse and Authors.
- The Warehouse needs a system that lets them communicate with Publishers,
but they also have need a system to communicate with Stores and manage
Inventory, etc. 

If you build the system for the Publishers, then the Warehouse now has to
use two systems, which inevitably are going to have a lot of overlapping
fields. 

To put it abstractly,
- User A sits at the center of a circle of concerns that includes User B
- User B sits at the center of a different circle, but theirs also includes
User A

The product starts out being designed for User A, but it doesn't seem fair
in a way to ask or require User B to use this system that then is not a
complete picture for them.
Adding the features for B for the system intended for A seems like a
slippery slope.


The question is: on what principles to base the products boundaries?
Strategically this leads to a question of which systems to compete with
(subsume) vs. interface. And if to interace, then whether communication
should be one-way or two-way?

Thoughts?

Eugene



Eugene Chen  |  User Experience Research, Design, and Strategy
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