Software That Works
Ethan Zuckerman did a great job of blogging from TED. The most interesting post for me was his summary of David Pogue’s talk:
But he’s a big fan of the iPod and the “cult of simplicity”. Despite violating every rule of product design – going up against Microsoft, having fewer features, having a proprietary, closed format – it succeeded because people love simplicity. Simplicity sells – just look at Google.
He shows us Dragon, which he uses to answer email, using voice macros. Responding to hate mail, he says “piss off” and gets a polite paragraph responding to an angry mail. He points out that the most recent version of the software had NO new features – it just worked better, and he thanks Dragon for making it work, not adding more cruft.
That’s courage in a product manager. No new features. Wow.
(Billy photo from Discoveret.)