I’ve just discovered Tom Evslin’s excellent blog Fractals of Change. This article, Great New Product Ideas – DON’T Ask the Users What They Want!, should be required reading for all technology startups. Too many product ideas are squashed by the marketing folks who say “But customers don’t want that…” (or the VCs saying “How do you know customers will want this?”) when the customers are incapable of imagining what the possibilities of a technology are. Some innovations really are show me technologies that defy description.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
