Re: [OT] Built-in product obsolescence

Xiaofan Chen wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 5:57 PM, Vitaliy <spam@...> wrote:
>> The bottom line is, if you want to have a successful product, you need to
>> figure out what your customers really value in your product. The problem is,
>> of course, that your customers often can't tell you anything beyond "we want
>> more of the same, for less".
> 
> Very true. Even in the industry I am in (Industrial Automation) where
> customers tend to be more sophisticated, it is still a bit difficult
> to grasp the gist of VOC (voice of customers). Different customers
> have different needs. The universal need for the product is "do more
> and cost less".

And sometimes they want it to "do more" and don't use the features.  I 
see that on products I work on that are about a decade old now... very 
"mature" and "feature-rich" and the customer base uses 1/10 of the 
features built into the thing.

I figure it makes them "feel better" that they have the OPTION to do 
things they don't do today, compared to competitors products that just 
don't even have the feature-set.

> But there is another way, packaged the product in a way that the
> customers do not really understand and just tell them that they
> can earn money from the product. That is how the investment
> banks sell the repackaged subprime loan derivatives...

Anything that distances us from calling something "money" and makes it 
look less like money and more like a "token" of any sort, leads to more 
cheating as to how it's made/sold/handled.

The book "Predictably Irrational - The Hidden Forces that Shape our 
Decisions" by Daniel Ariely, covers some great scientific experiments he 
and his collegues performed that show this behavior in humans is very 
nicely.

Interestingly, he also conducted an experiment where reminding people of 
their moral values (or any moral values -- he used the Ten Commandments, 
but I'm sure there were non-Christians in his test groups) JUST PRIOR to 
any transaction drops their tendency to cheat for a profit almost to 
zero.  Very interesting interaction between the primal instinct to "get 
as much as you can" and the super-ego telling us when it's time to behave.

It's been one of two books I'm reading this week, and is utterly 
fascinating.

He devotes a whole chapter to "Free" and the power that word has over us 
as humans, and two chapters on Dishonesty and money, and how the science 
shows it shapes our character as humans.

The chapter on "Free" led me to realize why the debate over "Universal 
Healthcare" is so dangerous in this country right now.  "Universal" is 
just another buzzword for "Free"!  Rationally, no matter how you slice 
it, we can't afford "Free" for all.  Never going to happen without a 
trade-off somewhere, probably in overall price (hidden costs mean no one 
is watching -- just like mortgage backed securities) and quality.

I slapped together a meandering blog entry about it:

http://www.natetech.com/?p=249

Anyway, back to the book.  It's a very interesting book, and I put it up 
there with "Freakonomics" as a highly recommended must-read for anyone 
interested in economics crossing over into psychology and sociology. 
There's been a lot of good study that's not as much theory as it is 
observation about humans and purchasing habits in the last few years in 
the areas where the "market" doesn't seem to make sense.  Upon a closer 
look, it usually DOES make sense, we just didn't observe the real 
reasons carefully enough.

People wanted techno-jewelery.  iPod delivered, and still does.

Nate
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