[dahart]

I've just learned this lesson the hard way. I had my own terminology for it, so it's helpful and educational to learn words and phrases that others will understand and use.

But absolutely, I'm exactly the type of person the article is talking about, I have experience and an amazing team, and our "improvements" have more or less failed spectacularly. We learned that design ideas that are "better" than the status quo often confuse and alienate customers, because they're already used to something, and everyone else does it that way. A de facto standard is a powerful force, and shouldn't be ignored or shunned.

I have to do something different! so I'm thinking the solution is to do only one "improvement" differently at a time, and to do it very slowly and deliberately, and with a lot of two-way communication along the way. That's a theory, who has evidence for or against?

[skewart]

Without knowing anything about your product or market it's really hard to say, but my gut reaction is to be skeptical that the incremental improvement strategy would work out better.

Is there anything other than a "better" design that differentiates your product? Or, if not, can you acquire your customers differently, at a point where they aren't already habituated to doing things the bad old way?

Ultimately I would say your best bet is to get back to basics and spend a ton of time listening to customers and watching them use your product, and your competitors' products. You might have changed the wrong things about the design? Or maybe there's some other pain point they actually have, but no one even thinks it's possible to do things differently because they're so used to the status quo.

I would also be very mindful of incentives of various people, including both the users and the purchasers. Users in workplaces don't necessarily want something that is faster or more efficient to use (in a business setting they might have job secuirty, pay, andceven self-worth tied to knowing how to use a very complicated system). Buyers who aren't users very often buy based on specs more than design or ease of use (easier to rationally explain decision to higher ups). Consumers often buy/engage for how things make them feel, or for satisfying one of a few very basic desires (which they might not want to admit).

Not sure how applicable, or new, this is go you. These are just thoughts that come to mind.