Oh, how I related to the latest post on the 37signals blog. The post details some of the lessons learned from watching Amazon. Some really interesting points there. Here's the one that struck home:
"Getting rid of the influence of the HiPPO’s, the highest paid people in the room. This is done with techniques like A/B testing and Web Analytics. If you have a question about what you should do code it up, let people use it, and see which alternative gives you the results you want."
This happened this very afternoon as we were listening to a vendor report on the results of some usability testing. After the mtg, our CTO (definitely a HiPPO) said, "usability is all opinion anyway." And he's right. And as long as he's the HiPPO, his opinion (right or wrong) is the one that matters most. We've been talking about getting real analytics out of our web-based platform for a long time now. It's time to figure it out and DO IT. I'm sick of having to bow to the HiPPO.
1 comments:
HIPPO and HI-PO (high performing). Ahh so close. Group think truly happens in a room of hippo/hi-po.
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