The Geek Trap

For many of the companies I take a look at, there is an overwhelming amount of super/highly technical people in the room.  They tend to parse words exactly, view things in a very literal sense, and can sometimes miss the boat when it comes to the business objectives of the company.  No indictment by any means just simply a matter of focus.

Last week, I got caught in that trap myself.  I wanted to share this story with you because I hope to provide you some observations help your own business efforts. The story is a bit long but the set up to the point is important so stay with me.

The fine folks at BabyTel  dropped by to give us an update on the company and show off some new services.  They are out of Montreal and are a really great group of people.  They had a fairly new product lead with them who proceeded to give us the run down on what was happening.

After the big picture, Michael hits the new Facebook application.  This app is going to give the FB users a phone, with voice mail, etc.

He says two things which, to be transparent, were like fingernails going up and down on the chalkboard.

• "No Download!"
• "Works completely inside Facebook."

My inner geek went bonkers.

Me: No download, eh? Really.  What's this puppy coded in?

BT: Our egg phone gadget is a Java app.

Me: Doesn't the user download your app?

BT: Yeah, but it's a JAR file since most computers already have the Java runtime.

Me: Yeah, but that's a download. It's not like a web application.

BT: Yeah, but it isn't the 30 meg, takes forever, Skype like download, it's a simple jar file that works with the runtime already on the computer.

Sensing this could go around and around forever, I let it drop.  Off we went to land of the face for a demo.  His machine was on our network and one of our ace analysts had his laptop in the room ready to rock.

The made friends with each other and we are off to the races.  Michael wisely avoids the words "you have to download" the app and merely says "it needs to initialize" to work. 

Next up, Michael goes to make a call to Jacou our own super geek.  And, sure enough, the java app, the egg phone, pops up onto the screen with the VoIP call working just fine.

Lord, give me strength, I say silently.

Me: That's a pop up app, it's not in FB.

BT: Right, but the user starts up the phone call process from within FB, all the status/contact information is within FB, only the actually call itself is a simple Java applet.

Me: Right, but your application is -and I'm not saying anything is wrong with it- a downloadable Java app that acts as a pop-up when you attempt to make a phone call from within FB. It isn't a 'no download' nor 'stay within' FB offering.

BT: Right, but to the user they are in FB and with fast connections, Java runtime on 95% of all machines, there really isn't anything meaningful being downloaded.

Again, I resist the temptation to stay on this topic and we move on.

I decide to do some research and grab some folks out of our portfolio companies to do show -n- tell.  I targeted the whole gambit, old, young, technical, non-technical, administrative people, etc. I explained it was a no download, integrated FB app.

Here are the data points.

With the number of people I showed this to and/or had them try is, nobody (zero) got caught up in either of the issues I've raised above.  In fact, it was just the opposite.

"Wow, I get to stay in FB"

"Cool, no downloading anything and I stay in FB"

"Excellent, a FB phone where I don't have to change applications to make a call like with Skype."

And so on and so on.

Well, except for two of my friends.  Super tech types who both said, gee Java app download, pop up application, okay, it isn't 'integrated' nor a no download exercise. "Skype me" nets out the same effect as an example.

The trap.  It didn't matter. Nobody cared.  The way the application was laid out, people from a UI and usability perspective got it.  Nobody saw a bunch of Active-X warnings/dialogs, etc, so it must be 'no download."  What mattered was people liked the application and it fit what they perceived were the definitions of 'stay in FB' and 'no download.'

This lesson is pretty powerful.

It's not about the parsing of words or if the company is being precise in terminology; we can argue it all day long.  Nope, this is about the users and user's realities.  When you look at menus, options, features, colors, etc, all of these places have Geek Traps. You have to be vigilant in watching out and making sure you don't get stuck arguing things that don't matter.

BabyTel is getting ready to roll out this FB app to a wider audience shortly and I'll let you know when it is available.  See what you think.

Comments

[Tom Fakes]

I disagree with your assessment. At a technical level, the technical team should know what's going on, and should be able to explain it correctly.

One day, a team will tell you: 'Our passwords are safe'. When the shit hits the fan when the passwords are stolen, you'll find out that 'safe' is a plain text file accessible only by Root, and hardly anyone has the root password.

You have to know the technical bits, *and* the positioning of what you have, *and* know the difference between the two.

[Rick Segal]

Tom,
Thanks for stopping by. I don't disagree with anything you've said; it is a matter of extreme. I think in your password case, I would be taking it to the 'prove it' stage and *I* had better be able to sniff test the answers or my checkbook is going to get used up/wasted pretty quick.

The larger point was actually knowing where to prioritize. "No programming required" used to be a sure sign of uh oh when those words were spoken.

My assesment *in this case* was it didn't matter after doing some additional work. Knowing when to press harder is really the key.

Again, thanks for stopping by.

[dahamsta]

I sometimes get caught in this trap, not as a VC but as a developer doing my own sales. The customer wants X, but imho X isn't - technically - the right way to do it and they need to be told this. They disagree or don't understand, and occasionally we end up going around in circles.

The ones that disagree are in your category, and in all honesty - in my experience - they're usually wrong. (When they're right I have to eat humble pie, but that's never a bad thing anyway.) It's the ones that don't - and will never - understand that are the real problem though; or rather the ones that don't understand but insist they're right anyway.

The worst category by far is the one that sits you on a roundabout and goes over it again and again and again. I just back down these days and either walk away from the contract, or implement it according to their spec and desperately try to resist the temptation of saying "I told you so" when it all goes pear-shaped.

The trick in these cases is making sure you get paid up-front. :)

adam

[Iman]

Close is only good enough for 'horse shoe' and 'hand grenades'. If every company advertised its product for what the user perceives it to be rather than for what it is, where would that leave the frustrated consumer who can never get a straight answer about what they are getting into – and how would you reconcile this with laws about accuracy in advertising and product labeling!

On the other hand, if it looks like no download and acts like in FB, and the geeks don't get technical about it - then so be it and may the buyer beware!

[Tom Birch]

The beauty of BabyTel's java app is very simple ... once you terminate your Facebook connection, the java app can reside on your desktop to become your defacto telephone. Once you shut down your desktop for the day, your Facebook callers with have a call-follow-you capability to ring your wireless phone or home phone.

Can BabyTel differentiate itself from the other "free" telephone service companies like Jajah & Skype.

Marketing is the key differentiator here; not, the underlying technology. Only time will tell.