Losing faith in “UX”
by Dirk on August 3rd, 2010 - Comments (30)
I’ve been slowly backing away from the field of “user experience” for some years now. More and more, I’m beginning to think it is time that I turn my slow retreat into a full-fledged race to the hills. This eveningJuhan pointed me to a terrifying article by renowned user experience thought leader Whitney Hess. Please do read the article, then c’mon back.
Whitney is displaying incredible ignorance and naivete about software start-ups and stating her under-informed opinions as fact based on what must be limited experience. Her claims are flatly false and make the most unflattering of assumptions about VC’s and start-up CEO’s.
Before making my points in systematic detail, let me clarify my credentials on this topic: over the last 6 years as a Founder of Involution Studios I have worked with over 100 software start-ups. Inevery case I had direct C-level contact, almost without exception including with the CEO. These relationships have run the gamut. A few examples: one was a hand-picked team by Jim Clark that we were on from the beginning and took them thru an acquisition by Shutterfly. Another was the latest brainchild of Dennis Fong, who came to us with just a vague idea that together we took to an Alpha, and Raptr has been flying high ever since. Of course, not all of our clients are successes. We really enjoyed working on a product called BrightMinds from the very start, an innovative and interesting marketplace to bring together researchers with academic institutions with corporations with venture capitalists. They had a crystal clear vision of the who what where whenand why of what they wanted to do that Whitney claims is absent. It still failed.
More, I have been inside many of the important VCs in Silicon Valley; examples include Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, DFJ and Sutter Hill. I also have friends who run more boutique and early stage funding companies, such as Dave Whorton at Tugboat Ventures and Gady Nemirovsky ofInspiration Ventures. I’ve engaged with these VC’s as a product/service consultant and expert, as well as a hopeful start-up.
I want to be explicit in my background and experience inside the very heart of the software start-up and funding communities, because the things I have to say are going to be every bit as declarative as Whitney’s statements with one important difference: they are consistent with the reality of how software companies get done, both by the founders and their funding partners.
Whitney begins by writing:
“Startups start up with a single idea: a solution they believe the world has never seen. And while no one can argue that they’re the source of much of the industry’s innovation, they’re almost all lacking in purpose.”
That is simply wrong. I have met as many start-ups who have started with a vision for a market that they want to take down as I have those who have “a single idea” and that idea is a “solution”. As many or more start-ups see the who very, very clearly before there even is a notion of a what.
“Most people believe that User Experience is just about finding the best solution for your users — but it’s not. UX is about defining the problem that needs to be solved (the why), defining the types of people who need it to be solved (the who), and defining the way in which it should be solved to be relevant to those people (the how).”
Here Whitney is trying to uplevel User Experience to be Product Strategy. It isn’t. To be clear, it is well within the province of talented user experience people to provide or contribute to product strategy. But it is not “our” domain, and in my experience the UX people aren’t typically the most qualified people in and around the company to lead that process. It is certainly an area to strive to mature into but not the right, provence or even native skillset of the type.
“Yet as a rule, startups are being built on the what.”
Wrong. “as a rule”? Are you kidding? Yes, start-ups often articulate their idea by virtue of a “what”. But it is hardly what they are typically being built on, much less “as a rule”! This is just a wild statement without basis in fact.
To prove her point:
“Don’t agree? Show me a startup with no programmers. They are all building something. Even if it’s nothing.”
Over 20% of the start-ups we worked with engaged us before hiring a programmer. Of the 70+% who started with programmers before working with us well more than half of them had what I would consider fairly sophisticated ideas as to their who/what/where/when/why. Just because they’re building something doesn’t mean it is pointless or ignorant. The way to build software is via programming; should they spend their miniscule monies on someone who can draw pictures but not make something that works? While I would always advocate to clients a process that begins with envisioning their product or service in light of business-level strategy and direction, the fact is many start-ups have only relative pennies to spend in starting their company. I cannot in good conscience or with a straight face tell them to spend the money on UX instead of programming in those cases. Doing so would not be in their best interest, and the reality is before I’m a product/strategy/design/UX guy I am a service provider and I would be a poor one if I would so counsel them.
“Yet fewer than 1% of startups have a full-time user experience designer on staff, and their obsession with the what is in large part why.”
Whitney, kindly provide your source for the “1%” number. You accusing them of an “obsession with the what” is really inflammatory word choice – particularly about a thesis that you are simply incorrect about.
“The challenge lies in the lifeblood of startups: the venture capitalists. Most VCs put their money in whats — not whys or whos or hows. No startup is going to close a Series A round of $5 million without a highly functional what to demo. The product (what) is a lot sexier than the business (why, who, how), and sadly, sex sells. But it also kills.”
VC’s absolutely do not put their money into “whats”. I’ve met more than a dozen VC’s and, while what they put their money into is invariably complex and bifurcated, the most important thing with all of them is thewho. VC’s care about markets. They really, really, really care about markets. If you want to close a VC, the #1 most important thing you need to solve incredibly well is the market opportunity. Who are you going after, why will they be interested, and what is the relationship between market potential, product/service price points, and the context of the competitive landscape.
Now, one thing that Whitney is correct about is it is very, very rare in this day and age for a VC to invest $5MM in an idea, they want a prototype. Actually for $5MM they almost always want more than a prototype: they want users. Indeed, they rarely care about the what. All they care about is there is a what and the who’s seem to like it. If it is putting asses in the seats they don’t even care too much what thatwhat is.
Even that is an oversimplification, but it is one that strikes far closer to the truth of the matter than Whitney’s incorrect claim. And it is based on market maturation and the relatively low cost to get a product built and out to users, not some perceived myopia.
“In Paul Graham’s essay, “The 18 Mistakes that Kill Startups,” #10 is “Having no specific user in mind.” A few great paragraphs, but it can be said in just two words: no strategy.”
And lots of other things kill startups, too. To pull out #10 on a list of 18 and use that as a proof for this thesis is evidence enough of the weakness of the entire piece.
“You know what happens to products with no product strategy? Joost. Wesabe. Pownce. Ning. Tipjoy. I Want Sandy. Bebo. Yahoo!”
Is she kidding? I know people inside three of those very companies; all three had an articulated product strategy and could deftly answer the who/what/where/when/why question that Whitney claims they cannot. They may have had a failed strategy. Or they may have had failed execution. Or bad timing. Or a lack of focus. Or, or, or. Lots of reasons companies fail. To tie their failure to one thing – a thing that is incorrect in at least three of those cases – and tie it to a thesis that UX consulting is somehow the panacea, well, I don’t have words to reply to that.
However I will point out that the CEO of Tipjoy, one of the companies that Whitney calls out on the carpet, is the very bright and talentedAbigail Kirigin who just happens to be a…drum roll please…UX Consultant!!!
“I once saw a startup demo its product at the NY Tech Meetup, and when someone from the audience asked the founder on stage, “Why would someone need this?” he actually said, “I don’t know.” He sure didn’t.”
Funny anecdote. Data point of one.
Whitney concludes with this call-to-arms:
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