[IxDA Discuss] Is user research a band-aid for "the listening deficit"?

[Jared M. Spool]

On Jan 7, 2008, at 12:49 PM, Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote:

> Engineering departments are not often set up to listen. They're set  
> up to
> build, build, build. This disconnect is where the problem starts, I  
> think.

In our research, a lot of it plays into the organizational structure.

Often the management tree of the organization where engineering  
(information sink) joins up with customer support (information  
source) is at a senior executive level, sometimes even the CEO. It's  
not the job of those executives to communicate what the two groups  
are doing. Why should engineering invest more money to produce a  
better product if only support sees the cost reduction benefit?

We've found the best organizations put fiscal rewards and bonuses  
into the support/engineering communication path. For example, for  
many years, select teams at (believe it or not) Microsoft had a bonus  
for the developers/engineers who kept support minimized for their  
products. In essence, money saved from reduced support costs was put  
into bonuses for the design & development team.

If you want to fix the problem, follow the money.

Jared

Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: jspool at uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561
http://uie.com  Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks