Follow The User Behavior
By Mark Brenneman on November 18, 2011
Get uncomfortably close to user behavior.
I can’t remember where this quote came from, but I can’t get it out of my head. The concept struck an entrepreneurial tuning fork that is still ringing. I can’t stop seeing examples in the wild:
- Instagram - Kevin Systrom saw users liked sharing photos on Burbn, so he positioned Instagram closer to photo sharing than any other app.
- Pinterest - Trendsetters and fashion lovers have been sharing photos of their inspiration through blogs, email, and Facebook. Pinterest built a service for this type of sharing, removing extraneous features and people hooked.
- Twitter - Some IM users meticulously edit and change their statuses. Twitter recognized this unintended behavior and built a service around this simple idea, making IM statuses persistent.
I have also experienced this first-hand, as a user. Last year, every Friday, I would spend 20 minutes on Grooveshark creating a weekly playlist. These playlists ranged in theme from all 80s to Lady Gaga vs. Katy Perry (don’t judge).
Once created, my friends and I hopped on Google Chat, I shared the link, my friends struggled to load the playlist. We counted down over IM, and finally experienced the music together. When Turntable launched I knew I would never have to fumble with piecing features from multiple services together again. Turntable aligned almost perfectly with my previous behavior.
So, watch what people do in your application. Can you get closer to that behavior? If you are starting, look at other applications. What are users doing that are not core features? Are people using extraneous features for unintended purposes? How could you build a service around that behavior?
