Thoughts About Way Too Needy Products or The Microwave that Went ”Me! Me! Me! Me!”

We have so many manufactured items around us that we often forget they are manufactured goods that at some time got bought, paradoxically we rarely think about many of these products. While we live in a mutually dependent relationship with these items, some product developers don’t understand that new products have to fit into the already existing eco-systems that are our lives.

In our everyday lives we interact with hundreds and maybe thousands of products, in fact mostly anything that we use are products of some sort, (look around you now, how many things that’s not some sort of a product can you find?) We once created all these items, but they also influence us back. I like to think about manufactured goods, services and anything that for some reason can be called a product as living in a symbiotic relationship with mankind, we depend on them, they depend on us. The reason we keep them around is because they (help) perform small tasks that makes our lives easier, for example a door can be opened or closed – a very practical notion that allows us to separate rooms and give them different functionality, different rooms are equipped with different products that perform tasks that naturally occur in that room, for example toilet paper, one of my favorite products, belongs in the bathroom and makes the tasks performed in there easier to handle.

The paradox is that we rarely think about how many products we are surrounded by in our lives, if you ask people how many products or items that was once manufactured they own, most people would grossly underestimate the number. This is because we only think about our iPhones and laptops and televisions or whatnot, we don’t think about door handles and the paint on our walls, we don’t think about that stack of newspapers or that jar of jam in the fridge. The fact of the matter is that we have so many things around us that are products that we can barely wrap our minds around it, which is a good thing. If we constantly went around being reminded of all our products we wouldn’t find time to do anything, and that’s why most products are made to blend in to our lives. So why does some product developers feel that their products are so important that they can disrupt the natural flow in the eco-system of man and his creations?

Let me give a couple of examples: Fire alarms beep too often and too loudly when the batteries go out, I get it! It’s important, but seriously, it can wait until morning. Some microwaves do the exact same thing, every 10 second it will let out a beep until you have opened the door. Why? Maybe the stuff I was heating said to let it rest for a few minutes, can’t I watch TV until then? Yet another example, to quote David l. French: “My Pantec phone...is so needy that in addition to sucking down juice like a college kid on St. Patty's day it makes you press 3 buttons before it even allows you to make a call.” Facebook e-mails you each time something barely happens, and it’s too damn hard to turn off (I just set my spam filter to catch *@facebook.com), I had to delete iTunes, because it kept downloading updates the size of entire musical albums every month, and frankly I don’t use it that much. And what’s with trying to force me to install Safari? I don’t want it!

Needy products are becoming an epidemic, and it needs to be stopped. If you are a product manager, try to think less about how important your specific product will be and more about how your products can fit into the lives of your customers. Products exist to make our lives easier or better, and people making products need to realize this and start focusing on the users’ interaction with products within the context of their lives. Products should not act as high-maintenance girlfriends or drama queens. Get serious guys; start making products that I want to keep around me.

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