

Ask HN: How to understand the end user's concerns and needs? - Whisno

Hi HN,<p>Since I started working, I discovered that what makes a development successful is not as much the programming skills as having a clear comprehension of the business logic.<p>I work in a company that publishes an ERP, where I developed features related to accounting and warehouse management. In each case, my problem was to figure out what exactly people in the trade would expect from the software. And although I did acquire some hindsight on the matter with time, I feel that learning it from the developer&#x27;s point of view is not the most efficient method.<p>So, do you have advices on how to understand the end user ? (and I mean the average, representative one). Is it possible to learn correctly from books or evening courses ? Or to work for some time in a team closer to the business logic (eg. peoples who manage the ERP within a company) ?
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anonyfox
I strongly recommend cindy alvarez' "lean customer development" which is spot
on: [http://www.amazon.de/Lean-Customer-Development-Building-
Cust...](http://www.amazon.de/Lean-Customer-Development-Building-
Customers/dp/1449356354) ... In fact the lessons learned from this book are
invaluable I'd say. If you want to be serious about product design for
endusers, read this.

When doing the UI/X later, this book helps a lot: [http://www.amazon.de/Dont-
Make-Think-Revisited-Usability-ebo...](http://www.amazon.de/Dont-Make-Think-
Revisited-Usability-ebook/dp/B00HJUBRPG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books-intl-
de&ie=UTF8&qid=1436568356&sr=1-1&keywords=Dont+make+me+think)

~~~
Whisno
That was a blind spot of my curriculum, thanks !

