

Focus on the Job, Not the Customer. A different way to look at your  app - destraynor
http://blog.intercom.io/when-personas-fail-you/

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jasonrr
There is a name for this approach to design. It's called Activity-Centered
Design , and Don Norman has written a bunch about it here:

[http://jnd.org/dn.mss/human-
centered_design_considered_harmf...](http://jnd.org/dn.mss/human-
centered_design_considered_harmful.html) and here:

<http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/hcd_harmful_a_clari.html>

Highly recommended reading. I feel like it's a good sign that the community
keeps re-inventing this. It means that it has some real legs. Another great
example of our best practices slowly strangling good process.

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bomatson
Thanks for this perspective. I would have loved to see this earlier, it could
have saved me a lot of wheel-spinning with personas (which are valuable in
limited cases)

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hopeless
I don't much care for "personas" but I did enjoy filling in the blanks of the
template at the end.

And as subtle as it seems, I think there's a difference between "why do people
use your product?" and "why do people hire your product?". "Hiring" seems to
imply selection from multiple candidates, payment for (and an ongoing
involvement with) the product etc.

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destraynor
Cheers Jamie

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gdw2
Very similar to (and perhaps taken from) the book "The Innovator's Solution":
[http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Solution-Creating-
Sustainin...](http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Solution-Creating-Sustaining-
Successful/dp/1578518520)

~~~
destraynor
The video I linked up and the author I referenced twice in the post is Clay
Christenson, author of that book. I certainly didn't "take" it, I made the
inspiration very clear.

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lessallan
Those guys are the smartest people I know.

