Build a Car. Don’t Make a Faster Horse.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
― Henry Ford
Henry Ford’s famous line is often used as a guideline for innovation, but I think that the majority of tech start-ups misinterpret the quote. By and large I’m not talking about “cool” products like games or social networks (before they become useful), but websites and applications that serve a direct business need. When you understand what users want, you can examine why they want it, and then figure out how to give them what they need. Too many start-ups fall into the trap of giving users what they want without really examining why they want it, completely ignoring what they need.
Many start-ups ask users for input in the form of surveys like, “which feature do you want us to build next?” or push-poll style questions like, “when you look for a deal, do you look in the newspaper or online?” They are building faster horses, not cars. They are asking questions that serve their own purpose, not their users’.
The earlier versions of the Windows phone were faster horses. People wanted to use Windows on their phone, so Microsoft gave them a start menu and applications without taking into account why users wanted those features and how Microsoft could address the underlying need in a way that fit the platform more intuitively. Microsoft overlooked the fact that the way people use phones and the things they use them for are wildly different than how they use computers. The iPhone, on the other hand, is a car. It addresses what people need—to have their whole life available in two or three taps. There are no hidden menus to navigate because everything is easily accessible on the screen.
When people wanted to send each other files that were too big for email, sites like Yousendit, Sendspace, and drop.io became popular. Sharing files with other people was part of the problem, but not the core issue. These sites made sense and gave people what they wanted, but failed to understand the root problem, which was the need to seamlessly manage files across various computers, devices, and locations. I don’t know how many times I emailed myself sendspace links to download later. When dropbox came along, it was so easy to use that my mother figured it out on the first try. Dropbox effortlessly won over users because emailing someone a link was no longer necessary. Moving files from place to place was easy as it could be. The underlying need, not the want it created, was addressed.
Flight reservation websites are another example of an industry full of faster horses. The vast majority of them provide nothing more than a long list of prices and flights. Yes I know they find better deals, and while I want that, what I really need is something to make choosing the best flight from that list easier. Picking a flight takes so long when I need to scroll through pages, read all the prices, compare times, layovers, and so on. I end up creating a little list of flights and comparing them myself, and that’s a pain. Hipmunk.com gave me what I needed. All the pertinent information is represented visually in a way that makes the right one for me obvious. Hipmunk also has tabs, and while tabs exist in all modern browsers, integration into the product itself shows a great understanding of what people need when they’re looking for a flight. Price charts, fancy when-to-buy graphics and whatever clutter other sites throw on the screen don’t help me do what I need to do. I need to make an easy decision, not accidentally book a car with my flight when I’m trying to pay for it.
My interpretation of Henry Ford’s iconic quote is that it’s up to us to listen to what our users want and then give them what they need. Next time you’re considering that next product or feature, take some time to think about why your users want it, and whether there is a more intuitive way to give them what they need. And if you’re thinking about your next business or start-up idea, remember that true disruption comes from a deep understanding of what people need, not what they want.