Socialmedialand

Posts Tagged ‘crowdsourcing’

One of the things I learned at SXSWi that really resonated with me at the time (and has stuck with me) came from Kathy Sierra’s talk on breakthroughs. It was repeated throughout the panels on community building so this is more of a summary and not a direct quote:

Customers really suck at making breakthroughs

That’s right. You heard me. Your customers’ or community members’ ideas can be sub-par.

It makes sense when you think about it. It’s the classic dichotomy between writer/editor. Individuals have great ideas, they put those ideas into some sort of form, format, place, media, product, etc. Then the editor comes by and says things like, “You should spell check this” and “You should take out this part and add more explanation here.”

Customers are the same way. They buy your product/service or join your network, like it, then think up ways it could be better. It should be blue, it should go faster, it should have more memory, it should play music, it should be made of more durable materials. That is the crucial role that they play, and they do it well. They’ll take your product and do things with it that you never thought of, and in your next version you can adapt and add to it to make it better.

But when it comes to redesigning your whole service, or coming up with a brand new product – they’re not your best resource. As a collective they tend to think inside the box and, as people, they are naturally resistant to change. If you asked a group of cell phone users years ago how they would improve the phone they might’ve suggested “Add a camera and MP3 player,” “make it come in different colors,” but they wouldn’t have come up with the iPhone. This is why Alpha and Beta releases are so popular. You can put your revolutionary idea out there and let your customers do what they do best, suggest improvements.

This is crucial when it comes to social media and crowdsourcing. Using social monitoring tools to gather insights about your product and service from your consumers is a fantastic idea. And using them to make incremental improvements is a perfect application of that information. But beyond that, it’s up to YOU to internalize those insights and use them to make the breakthroughs your company needs to get ahead and reach the next level.

Agree? Disagree? Think I’m misinterpreting something? Leave me a comment -

Photo credit: Capture Queen (Flickr)