I recently reread Marty Cagan’s Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love. It was my second go-around. I found myself nodding. Again. 

What continues to resonate is this idea of spending quality time with users, understanding their very real pain points, and validating product design assumptions. Yes, assumptions. 

The way I see it, anything we design or build is basically an assumption until it has been validated in some way, shape, or form. (And don’t even get me started about how the term “requirements” gets tossed around like gospel from on high that is never to be questioned. Alas, that’s a blog post for another time). 

Cagan writes that “Testing your ideas with users is probably the single most important activity in your job as a product manager.” 

“Single most important activity.” 

Wow, that really gets right down to it, doesn’t it? As a UXer, that’s pretty much second nature. Validating is just what we do. But for other folks, maybe not so much. I’ve seen first-hand how this type of activity can somehow be interpreted as being beneath them; and even secondary to marketing the thing. 

Given the above, I couldn’t help but think of changing diapers. Let me explain.

Do you know how some people - ahem, of a certain stature - tend to sometimes outsource their menial activities and chores? That makes perfect sense on a lot of fronts, frankly. However, there are still things worth doing that are super-important and immensely rewarding. 

Things like, oh, I don’t know, playing a key role in raising your kids and spending quality time with them perhaps? Hiring nannies to handle everything during their formative years means that you’re kind of missing out on some pretty important stuff; stuff that can potentially shape the both of you. (Translation: Outside agencies and consultancies doing all your key research, for example.) 

Well, I think that same type of distance from the good stuff can affect product managers who rely solely on things like market forecasts, projections from so-called industry experts, as well as high-level Forrester reports for crucial product decisions and priority calls. This is also especially true during the formative years of a product. 

As a quick example, when Airbnb was working out their strategy and value propositions early on, the founders flew to New York to spend time with their core user base. It was there, in the very apartments that would be listed on the site, that they got to see what interacting with their service was like. 

In the flesh. Down and dirty. 

They did things like take photographs of the spaces because those were areas that hosts needed help with in terms of quality and uploading capabilities. 

They witnessed scenarios around exchanging money, including what happens when a traveler doesn’t have the correct change upon arrival; or, their currency happens to be foreign because New York is a popular international destination. Hint: It amounts to awkwardness in any culture. (By the way, great Soapbox podcast about Airbnb from the fine folks at Zurb: zurb.com/soapbox). 

Of course, designing great products and services means having a big-picture strategy. However, success also means reducing even the tiniest points of friction, which amount to very big wins at the end of the day, especially with digital goods. And it’s hard to know what those pain points are unless you experience them first-hand. 

So, get in there and get to know what that friction feels like. Getting your hands dirty with the pain point poop that is your users’ frustration is critical - and maybe even a little like changing diapers. How else can you get that much-needed sense of empathy to help influence key product design decisions? 

And yeah, agreed. I took that poop metaphor a little too far.