Takeaway ‘s From AlwaysOn 2007
Last week I attended the AlwaysOn 2007 Conference at Stanford. It was my first time at this event and I thought it was definitely worthwhile. One of the key takeaways from the event was this: Why MySpace is Successful
First, let me say that I hate MySpace. Frankly, I think it is a totally lame site. From a technology and web interface perspective it’s totally worthless. I never understood, nor did I care to understand why it was so popular. However, I’ve always appreciated that it had something that people wanted, and that it has proven to be a valuable business property; for those things, I respect it.
Someone at the AO event was talking about MySpace and why it was so successful. He shared my sentiment on how lame MySpace is, but explained their lack of creativity was in fact key to the success. Early on, MySpace had no designers or creative product people. First and foremost, thanks to founders Tom and Chris, they listened to what users wanted. That’s it; they just listened, and then built it. They never said the proverbial words “this is a feature we think our users will want.”
As a software developer, product designer, interface guru and all around anal retentive guy, I pride myself on coming up with great features and functions for Leads360. Many of these features are great, and our customers love them. But I think there is something to be learned from MySpace; or let me rephrase that, there is something I need to learn from social networking juggernaut.
That something is listening to customers. Of course, we do that, but I’m pretty sure we could do better.
You need, what Guy Kawasaki calls, an "evangelist".
Look into it
Posted by: mike