What Problem Does MySpace Solve?

A lot of people just don't "get" MySpace. Why is it so popular?

A product manager tackles this question by asking, "What problem does it solve?"

The answer, I believe, is actually quite simple. MySpace solves the problem of keeping up with friends and family. More specifically, if you have a lot of friends and family, you most likely:

Tend to forget about some of them unless you see them on a regular basis.
Don't know what's happening in their lives without contacting them frequently.
Don't feel "close" to them without seeing their faces when communicating with them.

Before such social networking sites as MySpace, to overcome this problem, you had to spend a lot of time and energy making phone calls, sending e-mails, updating a personal web site, and setting reminders for yourself to contact friends. With MySpace, your friends (or at least those who use it) stare you in the face when you log in. It's hard to forget about them. And it's easy to get a good idea of what's new in their lives simply by visiting their profile page.

If you haven't used MySpace, or don't have a lot of friends and family who use it, you probably don't recognize or appreciate the extent of this problem and its facets. The problem is dormant; users only become aware of it after they've fully experienced a new way of doing things.

Comments

Why Spreadsheets Suck for Prioritizing

The Goal As a company executive, you want confidence that your product team (which includes all the people, from all departments, responsible for product success) has a sound basis for deciding which items are on the product roadmap. You also want confidence the team is prioritizing the items in a smart way. What Should We Prioritize? The items the team prioritizes could be features, user stories, epics, market problems, themes, or experiments. Melissa Perri makes an excellent case for a " problem roadmap ", and, in general, I recommend focusing on the latter types of items. However, the topic of what types of items you should prioritize - and in what situations - is interesting and important but beyond the scope of this blog entry. A Sad but Familiar Story If there is significant controversy about priorities, then almost inevitably, a product manager or other member of the team decides to put together The Spreadsheet. I've done it. Some of the mos

Interaction Design: the Neglected Skill

Your product development organization has a big, gaping hole in it. (Be prepared to feel defensive as you continue reading.) One of the most important roles in product development is the role of interaction designer. An interaction designer designs how the users will interact with the product and conceptualize the tasks they perform. He decides whether, for example, the user interface will be command driven, object oriented (clicking on objects then specifying what to do with them), or wizard based. The interaction designer decides the individual steps in the use cases. Every company has one or more people that play the interaction designer role. Usually, those people have little or no expertise in interaction design. Sadly, they typically don't even realize how unqualified they are. Let's see who typically plays the role at companies. Engineer . An engineer is an expert on building what is designed. Yes, an engineer may know how to design the internal structure of the hardware

Stop Validating and Start Falsifying

The product management and startup worlds are buzzing about the importance of "validation". In this entry, I'll explain how this idea originated and why it's leading organizations astray. Why Validate? In lean startup circles, you constantly hear about "validated learning" and "validating" product ideas: The assumption is that you have a great product idea and seek validation from customers before expending vast resources to build and bring it to market. Indeed, it makes sense to transcend conventional approaches to making product decisions . Intuition, sales anecdotes, feature requests from customers, backward industry thinking, and spreadsheets don't form the basis for sound product decisions. Incorporating lean startup concepts , and a more scientific approach to learning markets, is undoubtedly a sounder approach. Moreover, in larger organizations, sometimes further in the product life-cycle, everyone seems to have an opinio

Cauvin

Search This Blog