SUNDAY REWIND: Being user minded — MTP Engage Hamburg 2022

Design consultant Aras Bilgen, co-founder of Geocodio Michele Hansen and innovation consultant Andy Polaine each gave a short talk at this session on user centricity at MTP Hamburg 2022.

Aras’ talk, called "When research hurts", looks into how organisations can misuse research. In summary he says that research hurts when we mistake valid feedback for a personal attack. We do it to exploit users, when we seek to prove ourselves right, when it builds nice-looking walls or it can be used as an excuse to avoid discussion. 

Instead, research can help us thrive, he says, when it highlights the good as well as the bad. Its primary aim is to learn from users, and we courageously do it without our ego, so that it embraces everyone on the team, and is used to start candid conversations.

Michele’s talk, "Destroying every product person’s least favourite quote", looks at why that famous quote, allegedly from Henry Ford, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”, is problematic for product people. 

It’s used to express the view that customers aren’t a reliable source of inspiration, Michele explains. But as she concludes: “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get to the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.”

Andy’s talk, called "Mind your product language", looks at how the way we think about product is determined by the language we use. He says we're often still stuck in an industrial mindset characterised by fixed products, departmental silos, and top-down, command and control management.  

But product people don’t build products at all, Andy says, in most cases they build what he calls service ecosystems. Products like Slack, Airbnb or Netflix are touch points to access services, he says.

Andy suggests a different metaphor: rather than building products, we are building gardens. Gardening requires long-term thinking and a garden is never completed.

Watch the talks: Being user minded — MTP Engage Hamburg 2022