
How important is a woman's perspective for Web 2.0 startups? - nurall

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lee
As a woman who is also a co-founder, I'm very curious about how different
groups of people relate to what I'm building. The sites I've been involved in
have been on the social network side of 2.0, so I'm very interested in seeing
what people who tend to get obsessed about relationships can add to what I'm
building. Often, but not exclusively, these people are women.

As a demographic, our lives differ from men's in subtle and surprising ways.
Our motivations for getting on the web and our needs in general are different.
You can find a lot of data online about these kinds of things.

I find it hard to generalize based on the people I know, who aren't typical of
either gender. I hang out with geeks of both genders and tend to ask people
what they think according their areas of expertise or the relationship I have
with them.

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nurall
So far, I have asked three women whose opinions I trust and there was a marked
difference in the response to the quality of the prototype, in comparison to
the men's response.

More than anything else, I observed that more importance was given to
aesthetics in general by women.

Does this small sample space scale? Can you share your experience?

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dawie
I can't, but I am definately going to get a woman's perspective on my demo.

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noelchurchill
They're both important. In my own experience, I discover good ideas by talking
about them with other men, but I refine the idea and work out all the details
by talking about them with the women in my life (mom and girlfriend). If I get
the woman's approval, I know it's a good one ;)

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waleedka
I was showing the templates that my graphics designer created for my web site
to a female colleague:

she: I like this one.

me: the one with the orange background?!!

she: yes, it looks nice.

me: well...it's colorful; but for everyday use, you'd prefer the blue shade of
course.

she: no, I like the orange.

me: are you serious?

she: yes.

me: you would want to see this page every day?!!!

she: yes.

me: hmmmmm

That's when I realized that it's important to add theme customization.

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comatose_kid
I wonder if theme customization is really important in the context of
acquiring users. First impressions will be based on the default scheme. And
most registered users probably won't even change the default....

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chwolfe
Who are your potential customers? The higher the percentage of women who make
up your customers, the more important a woman's perspective is during the
design phase.

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jward
Unless you're targeting a specific gender / race / etc I'd suggest getting
advice and opinions from as many people of diverse backgrounds as possible.

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juwo
In Kawasaki's book, he says a critical thing is to let a woman read your
business plan. They can tell if it's BS.

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timg
Um, is there a reason for this?

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juwo
Maybe it just sounds nice.

If you go to his website and look for Art of the Start presentations, you will
see this as a major point.

