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The Web 2.0 question - and Grandparents.com
Oct 24, 2007
What does Web 2.0 mean to people over 50 years old?
Put another way, what do grandparents do online? (Do they blog? Do they tag? Do they "Facebook"? )
These are important questions for Grandparents.com, a Web startup aimed at those very users. I recently worked with the company, with a team from Creative Good, to answer those questions and help the Grandparents.com team chart its way forward.
I should note that many companies face some version of "the Web 2.0 question" right now. Everyone these days seems to want to build social networking into their business. I've recently observed a number of well-established e-commerce sites change their strategy from merchandising and selling products to "connecting customers with each other"... as though buying spatulas (or whatever) gets better after you create a buddy-list of fellow spatula lovers. Some sites should stick to what they know.
There are, of course, other sites that do benefit from these features. Chief among them are the social networking sites themselves. Facebook.com currently gets the most attention; previously it was Myspace, and before that it was Friendster (remember them)? But there are other sites, too, that make good use of linking users to each other. For example, TripAdvisor.com is a travel site focused primarily on customer reviews; booking travel is a secondary feature.
The challenge for a new company like Grandparents.com, in creating a customer experience strategy, is to discern which (if any) elements of the hyped-up Web 2.0 trend are worth investing in. That requires considering various inputs.
What sources do executives listen to? Here are a few:
• the technology press, whose job it is to report on the newest and flashiest trends, not necessarily what actually works in the long run
• bloggers, many of whom are technophiles who enjoy playing with, and writing about, Internet trends and gadgets
• investors, who often want quick results, and look to the press and bloggers to point the way
• technology conferences, which tend to invite speakers who will draw attendees from the three groups above
It's no wonder that the spatula site wants a social networking feature: today's executives face tremendous pressure to follow the herd.
Another voice, by the way, is that of industry colleagues, who (depending on the context) can be very helpful, or in the other extreme, may indulge in one-upmanship about whose business has gotten more exposure. (The "helpful" context would be something like the Councils.)
One voice not on the list, ironically enough, can point the way forward, both in the short term and the long term. Who is it?
The customers.
Most companies still don't conduct meaningful research with the people who they're ostensibly working for. No customers, no business; and yet the customers are often nowhere to be found when strategic decisions are made.
It's to Grandparents.com's credit that they bucked the trend. The team reached out to listen to customers in order to build their strategy. "The Web 2.0 question" becomes a much easier task when you have good data.
Within one day of listening labs, we found that grandparents do want certain features in the website, and Grandparents.com can have a viable business in the Web 2.0 world. The grandparents we talked to didn't say, "I want this particular feature," but their descriptions of how they relate to their grandkids, and their demonstrations of how they use the Internet, revealed what sort of site Grandparents.com should be.
Perhaps more importantly, we learned what the customers do not want, saving the company from making needless investments of time and money in the wrong features. For example, I won't give the store away by revealing that grandparents are not sprinting to set up blogs. Nor are they prone to tag photos and bookmarks.
If you think these are common-sense conclusions, take a look at what the press is saying. A New York Times article last month announced a new trend of Web 2.0 sites for aging users:
"Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites aimed at baby boomers and graying computer users. ... They look like Facebook - with wrinkles."
Facebook with wrinkles. Maybe that's a great investor pitch, but I didn't see anything in my direct exposure to customers that suggests it's a good strategy. I'd guess that most of the companies in that article listened to the bulleted sources above, and never invested in meaningful research with their customers.
How do your organization chart its way forward: by following the herd, or by listening to customers?
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See also:
• A related but better NYT story, Tailoring Messages to a New
Audience: Wrinkled Baby Boomers
• Another column on "the Web 2.0 question," What I learned redesigning del.icio.us (from July 2006)
• You DO talk to customers, don't you? (from September 2004)
• Creative Good, my customer experience consulting firm
We use polls and comments to gage what our tween girls want on our site. We get amazing feedback and some revelations on what they don't want. They are a very vocal group and surprisingly are not of a herd mentality.
Ophelia
This is such a vital point--user research is critical when designing community. Unless you are absolutely positive that you know what your users want (and I might add that I am always surprised, even when I think I know), then building before listening is very risky. The coolest new technologies may or may not resonate with your user base. Ask first and listen to how your users needs may translate into features. Thanks for the case study Mark!
The approach to planning Grandparents.com exhibits that rare web decision driver - common sense.
Listening labs are of course effective but when I work with clients, I rarely step into that research area.
The BEST listeners to customers is the business itself. Of course, it doesn't know how to confront and apply its understanding of customer agenda and context - that's where it needs help - but every day it captures data about customer priorities, expectations and pushbacks.
The great irony of web design is that so many businesses put aside their own priceless data bank on customers from anecdotes to customer service databases, and leap into new branding, technical whizzery or what's hot in teensville... and this, when most of the time, their product and service offering will require a 30-second user engagement.
Ahhh! What a useful reference the Grandparents.com summary is!!!! Can't wait to pull it out in my next client engagement!
If business is based on the concept of finding problems and finding profitable ways to solve them, how will you be able to find these problems or opportunities if you do not listen to your customers?
If a business is taking it's strategy from what everyone else is doing it's probably too late and overdone anyway, why not do proper research and take an angle that is relative to its strengths and what their customers want?
We designed a very low-tech site for a very high-tech company recently. Our decision to go with straight, Web standards html was based on our research with actual users of the site. They want information presented as clearly and concisely as possible. They are in a rush, and anything that distracts them is a negative. And, they don't like to navigate, they like to use Search, so our only serious technology recommendation was that our client improve the search feature on their site.
Lo and behold, customer feedback has been fantastic, and the number of prospects actively contacting our client through the site has doubled in less than six months.
Listen to your customers!
You make SUCH an important point. Companies just seem to hate actual user research. Thanks for reminding us about a goal centered design process.
Perhaps I'm out of touch but my sense is that Baby Boomers between the ages of 50 and 65 are parents of teenagers and twenty-somethings rather than grandparents.
Listening to what customers are saying is much the best way. Following the herd leads to one way only of doing things (have you ever watched a flock of sheep walk in single line across a plain, following the leader?. However, alarm bells ring when I hear Facebook - with wrinkles. When youthful brand marketers eventually reach 50 they’ll realise ‘wrinklies’ don’t think of themselves that way at all. 18, 25 45, 55 years what’s the difference? It’s about attitude and approach not physical years. Irrespective of age, customers are individuals - each with unique likes and dislikes. Ask them!
So my questions is, inspite of
* the wealth of data and information out there on how businesses can be effective in general
* the specific admonition that customers are important and should be listened to and considered in developing or revising one's business model
why do these two facts seem to be overwhelmingly ignored a preponderance of the time!? I just can't figure it out. The chances of having a decent customer experience (let alone good or great) seems to be very much the exception rather than the rule. And, when it does happen, seems to be totally dependent on the particular person you interacted with, rather than a deliberate and consistent way of doing business by the company as a whole.