You have a great product idea you can really get behind. Your spouse loves it.
Your friends, workmates, clients, and patients encourage you – they want to see more.
Your designer has never been more inspired.
And when it launches, it falls far short of your expectations.
What happened?
Less than enthusiastic response often reveals a mismatch between your product’s promises and your customer’s desires.
And more often than not, this disconnect occurs because you are not your customer.
And neither are those closest to you. Most of the time, friends and family, and even some of the clients you attract, are often just mirrors for your own enthusiasm. Who doesn’t prefer seeing you happy and engaged?
It’s not that you don’t care about your customer. Of course you do.
It’s just that you’re an expert in your field of interest.
And your readers and customers aren’t.
And often, your reasons for fervently believing someone “should” embrace your creation aren’t the same as their reasons for needing or even wanting your creation.
It’s human nature to project our desires and preferences onto others. And because our customer isn’t there in the room with us when we start designing that product or web site, everything we thought we knew about our customers seems to evaporate.
The solution is obvious: you’ve got to find a way to get out of your own head and into the heads of your audience.
How do you do this? [click to continue…]
