Ben Galbraith, vice president of global product Walmart, still surprised by the number of people still believe that the best how to create new software is “to bring together a group of nerds and put them together in a room until they create a product.” In fact, said at a recent conference BizTech @ Wharton, the successful development of software requires the active participation of business leaders.
Galbraith, who was, among other things, director of developer relations for Palm and director of developer tools at Mozilla, cited the example of Mike Markkula, the first person who provided support for Apple and its second CEO. “As Mike was aware of the technology development process, he was the leader that Apple needed to understand the key ingredients for success. Defined how big technology products should be developed and how to place on the market, “Galbraith said.
An important guideline that leaders should follow is to get developers to stop focus on the fantastic projects such as the creation of different software to all that had been until then, so perhaps, as Galbraith, it may not be the best strategy for companies. Although it has stressed that the search for pure innovation is “an excellent tactic [...] when you have billions of dollars in cash that can be invested in that,” the results are unpredictable and can take years. That, however, is untenable for a company that needs to put a product on the market and get some return, he said.
admirable innovations that are not so admirable
What is the alternative? The gradual strategy. Galbraith noted that some of the most notable products ups were actually simple modifications of other less successful products. The iPod, for example, was not the first MP3 player on the market actually had many competitors. But the iPod “ended completely dominate the market,” Galbraith said. Google Maps was created at a time when MapQuest had already made a name, however, in a few months he managed to dethrone. Today, Google Maps is responsible for 70% of searches of places, he said. Slack, online chat program for the workplace, said Galbraith, appeared out of nowhere about eight months ago and unseated programs that dominated the sector, such as Campfire and HipChat. “Does anyone know how much it Slack?” He asked the audience. “A billion dollars in eight months. The other companies are not even close to that. “
” What surprises me [...] is that these successful products have not really done anything new, “Galbraith continued. “I do not think I can cite a single resource of them really convinced me over the competition”. He said even the iPhone, which many people believe that innovation is a fabulosa- has an interface that resembles that failed Palm Treo, whose production was halted five years ago.
Hitting with details
According to Galbraith, what really sets these products is the attention to detail. This is due, in part, to interactive design or usability. Galbraith quoted Jakob Nielsen, usability consultant renowned Internet, whereby people need just a split second to perceive the delay in the response of a software. “After a second, the individual begins to lose focus because you have to wait; why, after ten seconds, you feel angry, “Galbraith said. “When we perceive that, we realize the level of demand when creating software experiences that people really pleasing.”
A good design also means providing an attractive visual experience, Galbraith said. Referring to the example of Google Maps MapQuest front, Galbraith said MapQuest maps were “very ugly indeed. There were too many details and low contrast; were too full and as a result, the experience was not very nice. ” Google Maps, however, he said, he perfected the visual experience with a better user typography, skillful use of contrast and simplified elements on maps “were able to really enjoy the consumption of that content compared to the competition “.
Galbraith said that according to other usability guru, Don Norman, people feel better when they interact with attractive things that reduce stress and allow them to ignore minor obstacles that may prevent the realization of the task.
When we succeed in these two design elements (interactive design and visual design), Galbraith said, “the passion awoke to the user is almost unheard of.” He cited a number of recent tweets Slack users that no wonder they expressed their great passion for the product. Comments were not dependent on marketing campaigns, Galbraith said, because, so you know, Slack makes little or no marketing. One of the tweets, Galbraith said, read as follows:. “The precise definition of the details produce a feeling of pleasure in people and a sense of loyalty is priceless”
Take seriously software
Galbraith spoke about his experience as head of software development at Walmart, one of the largest companies in the world, but not well known industry by paying attention to the design of software and consumer usability. They asked what was the biggest challenge for Walmart in the area of electronic commerce. “Changing our way of doing things,” he said.
He explained that provide scale development of products is very difficult in the vast and complex enterprise context. The problem, he added, is no shortage of ideas: “Often, people come to us with an idea for ecommerce and say, ‘Look, the idea is this, thanks. I’ll be back later to collect payment for my rights. Just transform your business’. ” However, the really hard part is execution: we have to deal with one blow with the many parties involved with the company and product lines. “We bill billion a year [...] Some business lines are usually larger than the entire industrial segment with competing,” Galbraith said. “The challenge is to organize ourselves in a way that we can be quick and effective.”
Galbraith said four or five years ago Walmart decided to get serious about e-commerce. “We were not going well,” Galbraith said of the first attempts of the company. He said the “Web Mobile was mediocre and forced people to go to the web of computer to buy what they wanted.” The application took almost a minute to open. Galbraith, however, noted that the introduction of some concepts of interactive and visual design mentioned by him resulted in about six global products that culminated with an increase of 450% of revenue. “The company, which had ranked among the worst products, went on to receive four star reviews.”
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