Oh my look at those Feature Sets!

I love TED presentations, they’re great! I was watching a TED talk by Barry Schwartz, and he gave a very intriguing presentation on the effect of choices. I believe it is a great talk for anyone who has influence on UI, in any product or service, since we have to make decisions as to creating a feature (setting) rich environment or a simplistic subset, and the associated opportunity costs.


I really enjoy the points which he makes as to with more options you have more expectations, and are less, if not impossible, to satisfy. No excuse for failure, with choices you do better but feel worse. And while this presentation mostly focuses on consumer choices, such as the quantity of different salad dressings at a super market I believe the basic concept can be applied to most user interactions, from software UI to marketing. To often we provide the user more options than they ever would desire, with the excuse of providing options, when in reality we’re just creating disappointment. This presentation just reenforces my belief that less is more, when considering options.

Negotiation Unraveled

Any negotiation begins because one or both parties have an issue in which they would like to get resolved, these issue should be mentally flushed out before beginning. One of the most interesting things that I discovered when reading Negotiate This! is how Herb Cohen uses the nature of active listening, to effectively negotiate.

My overall favorite concept is from the chapter “Deadlines are not always Draconian,” where the value of a deadline is discussed. Because deadlines are set for many different rationale’s they should be analyzed and the risks and benefits calculated from eclipsing the deadline. Deadlines are not as firm as they may originally appear, and deadlines should not be blindly followed just because they exist. While you may have a deadline, it is also important to remember that the other side always has a deadline as well, else why would they be talking to you?

Within his book, Herb also discussed some questions you should try to gleam answers for when you begin negotiating with another party. While these may seem like common sense, many are never done.

Why are they negotiating with me?
What are their time constraints and deadlines?
By whom and how will their decisions be made?
How do they react to conflict?
What is their negotiating style?
What are the limits of their authority?
What is their negotiating experience and background?
Do they have a realistic alternative to making this deal?
What incentives do they have to make this deal?
What are their underlying interests and concerns?
What’s their track record for honesty and integrity?
What are their expectations with respect to the outcome?

Negotiating is the game of life and humbleness can go along way when positioning you in a negotiation. From humbleness you have the most options to maneuver.

“How did you become a hero during World War II?”
“It was involuntary, they sunk my boat.”

-President Kennedy

However, sometimes you must respond to a direct threat, which can be difficult especially in the process of negotiation. These threats can typically be defused though remaining calm and detached. Responding with an inconsequential response, typically an inquiry for clarification. If all else fails pointing out why you don’t have the capacity to comply (lack of authority, legitimacy, precedent, etc...)

Finally, Don’t ever underestimate your options or capacity to make things happen. Because what matters is not what power you’ve got, but what the other side thinks you’ve got.

Volvo S80

I was working with the TV on tonight when a two part Volvo commercial came on, advertising the S80, what I found so interesting about this commercial was their use of different buyer persona's to elicit a cool factor. It was in my mind a perfect example of the difference between the cool factor and something that will be utilized once the purchase is made.
The first part of this commercial was about a blind spot detector which drew my attention away from my current project, and was directly followed up with an introduction to their heart rate detector, in brief summary the device detected if their was a heart beat in your new S80 and alerts you before you enter your car. Now this has cool factor written all over it.

This is especially important when your market space is already saturated with competition, such as with automobiles. While items such as these two new features which Volvo is showcasing on their S80 may have significant effect on a buyers decision to buy, in most cases they will not be a highly utilized element once a purchase has been made. This isn't to say that such features are not important to incorporate into the design of a product since they very well could make the difference between a evaluator deciding to go with your product or your competitors. But design choices should be made when implementing these cool factors, so that they are not over designed during implementation.
Since these features will only be used when making a buying decision, but not during normal operation, they should consciously not be over engineered. Based off of interviews with potential customers during design these features should be identified. With the identification of such features, more engineering time can be utilized on larger ROI features.