Do we technologists care about our customers?

Software developent is a complex process, driven by technology and innovation. However, as developers we often rely on a product-focus driven by innovations in technology rather than by the needs of the customer. Developers love to sit in engineering meetings where we talk about elegance of code and architecture but rarely in the context of what customers actually need. Here are some guidelines to follow for your next product development meeting:

• Spend less time talking about design and architecture and more about features and benefits directly linkable to customer use.
• Instead of worrying about how long it will take to develop certain functionality and what it will cost, try to figure out the value proposition to the customer. If it’s high value and will sell, the cost is not really relevant.
• Instead of worrying about the maintenance of code you write and how hard it might be to build, consider how easy it will be users to deploy the software and whether it’s easy to use.
• Spend less time thinking about how unique your technologies are and instead focus on how unique the product’s functionality is and whether users will actually use it and benefit from it.

The simple rule is if you’re talking more about technology than your customer you’re probably wasting your time.