I don't know that "coolness" is an important core product attribute outside of fashion and consumer products, on its own (though it is an important adjective to describe products and features). We should listen when a product engineering team thinks something is "cool." Listening to customers is important, but we should also not forget to listen to our engineering teams. While they might not be the end user persona, they know the product deeply in a different way, from which insights can arise.
Totally agree. Engineers stay close to the product and other products and are really good at connecting the dots or reimagining a future that the rest of us might not be thinking about. They can think of ways the same core job might be accomplished in a brand new way.
In the product design community, we often talk about “delight” as a pinnacle product quality. Delivering something that customers think is cool is delivering delight. And that is for sure good and desirable! I rather prefer “delightful” over “coolness” for the subtle difference that “cool” seems to involve a measure of social proof (people have to deem it cool) while “delightful” is a more inherent and stand-alone quality (people experience delight directly).
That's a really good point, Liz. And delighters is a word I've heard used in the product community. My only (slight) argument here is that a delighter could be something that delivers some value, even if it's small and sort of polishes the product experience. When I say "coolness", I mean something that doesn't improve the value of the product, but makes it fun to use. However, maybe I'm splitting two things that are the same!
I don't know that "coolness" is an important core product attribute outside of fashion and consumer products, on its own (though it is an important adjective to describe products and features). We should listen when a product engineering team thinks something is "cool." Listening to customers is important, but we should also not forget to listen to our engineering teams. While they might not be the end user persona, they know the product deeply in a different way, from which insights can arise.
-Tim D
Totally agree. Engineers stay close to the product and other products and are really good at connecting the dots or reimagining a future that the rest of us might not be thinking about. They can think of ways the same core job might be accomplished in a brand new way.
In the product design community, we often talk about “delight” as a pinnacle product quality. Delivering something that customers think is cool is delivering delight. And that is for sure good and desirable! I rather prefer “delightful” over “coolness” for the subtle difference that “cool” seems to involve a measure of social proof (people have to deem it cool) while “delightful” is a more inherent and stand-alone quality (people experience delight directly).
That's a really good point, Liz. And delighters is a word I've heard used in the product community. My only (slight) argument here is that a delighter could be something that delivers some value, even if it's small and sort of polishes the product experience. When I say "coolness", I mean something that doesn't improve the value of the product, but makes it fun to use. However, maybe I'm splitting two things that are the same!