A nice reminder of the wisdom of “You are not the user” at a product manager’s blog: Eating Dog Food?
The real issue is that this is just another symptom of a big problem we have in our industry, but especially here in the valley. We tend to believe that our customers and users are much more like ourselves than they really are.
and even better, a reminder that there ar ea number of people you shouldn’t consider your user either
Why Silicon Valley just won’t shut up about FriendFeed
Has it ever occurred to Arrington that he is, in the argot of product managers, an “edge case”? Entrepreneurs desperate for coverage, and aware that he never reads email, are trying a new way to reach him — and Arrington, in his compulsive neophilia, actually tries out the new medium, for a while. He then quickly tires of it, and throws a tantrum. Catering to such a person’s whims is no way to run a company.
To that list I add Scoble and your CEO. And no, Steve Jobs is an exception, not the rule.