The smartest product builders in the world are not smarter than the marketplace. Sometimes the marketplace takes innovation and drives into places one would never expect. Sometimes the marketplace explains to you the small refinements that will make ALL the difference.
GREENMOMS.COM will be going live later this fall. We love the social responsibility, green, and community space. This sector of the Web publishing space is DYNAMIC. The publishers are going wild getting up sites and organizing events and announcing get togethers. For this reason we love that Janice Solimeno & Melinda MacNaughton the co-founders of GREENMOMS will be going live with PhlooQ's widget on their events page!
As she has worked toward implementation on her site we have been getting great product direction from her. So I wanted to share what a perfect customer behaves like! The kind of customer a start-up piloting its technology in the marketplace loves! We started our conversation when she was playing around with the widget. She had her own clear idea of how her user's are likely to react to the sign up and use model.
In the following section I am posting an edited transcript of our communication. Note how credible her commentary is because she has moved well beyond the "getting what PhlooQ" does stage. She is deep into how the value of PhlooQ needs to be pulled into alignment with how her audience will feel when they use it. She is making detailed refinements for her user base that will ultimately translate into a far superior experience for all PhlooQ users.
I publish the following with the permission of Janice Solimeno and Greenmoms.com in case you were wondering.
Begin edited transcript between PhlooQ and Greenmoms.com:
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DAVID:
Okay so in the widget you don't like that we ask you for your cell number (and we don't indicate that its is optional -- though you feel we should). I get that. You also don't like the way the Add Facebook button looks because it doesn't say what you are adding Facebiook to. That makes sense to me.
You mentioned you had to "re-enter" the widget. This wll happen on occasion. The reason you have to re-enter could be one of many reasons: change of computer, change of browser, no use of a PhlooQ widget in a day or so between expressing interest, a cleared cache, etc...
While we are talking, how would you change the interface? How would you indicate the phone # is optional without making it too easy for people to skip? How would you implement the Add Facebook button so that it was clear you were Adding Facebook contacts to PhlooQ?
JANICE:
You got the main points just fine. As for what I'd address in the interface...
a. Easiest thing to do about the phone number (these are all and/or - do some or all):
1. just write "optional" in teeny letters to the right of the box or just under it, or "optional - may enter any 10 digit unique numerical ID"
2. add a "why my phone number" clickable text - open another small info window explaining all about how the ph # is used)
3. add in teeny letters near the box "to be used as your unique ID, not to share" or some such thing
b. For the Adding Facebook Button:
1. add a "what's this" clickable text - open another small info window explaining all about what's going to happen). In general I think you guys would benefit from having something on this popup screen where you could click and get more info about "What's "Q" or "What's PhlooQ" or "What's This?". The first exposure anyone might have to the service/function is a big Q near an event. That's it. The curious will click it. Then the reaction will likely be, "Huh? What is this and why are they asking for my phone number and getting me on Facebook"?
2. Change button label from ADD FACEBOOK - to something like CONNECT TO FACEBOOK or LINK FACEBOOK FRIENDS or (if you're eventually going to hook up to other piles of friends per your product roadmap) LINK TO YOUR FRIENDS or MEET UP WITH FRIENDS or HOOKUP WITH FRIENDS ... some kind of indication that this Q is going to associate events you're interested in with talking to your "friends" to see if they want to hookup at the place (I realize there is limited space for text...you could change the grammar: FRIENDS MEETUP, FRIENDS CONNECTION, FRIENDS HOOKUP...you get the idea).
DAVID:
Thanks so much for this. We will shuttle this over to Product and start looking at synthesizing these suggestions with the changes we already had in the pipe.
JANICE:
You are welcome. One last thought...
reading again about how the "Q" might be the only indicator of "do something with this event", you might want to consider naming the service and have that be identifiable under/near the Q - the Q itself may not be enough to get someone to click it. Like with "Share this", they have a visual identifier (the tinkertoy like icon or graph theory icon, depending upon your level of nerdiness) as well as text SHARE THIS. I got it immediately. I have no idea what the Q is for except once I know what your company's name is. But if you want to keep the Q maybe....
Q Q Q
Event Hookup Event Meetup Event Connection
Or some such...
DAVID:
Wow thanks again! Got it. Likely to just put rollover text on the Q but will see what the guys think about adding text beneath the Q. Recognition is a short term problem but until it is no longer a problem the text may very well be the right formula!
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