Problem Child

I recently read an interview with Scott Berkun, the author of "The Myths of Innovation," in which he advises companies that want to be innovative to focus on people and their problems. "Few great innovators worried about anything else. The fact that they found a new idea had more to do with their passion for solving someone's problem than anything else."

I used to joke when managing the web site at Forrester Research that I'd be in "business for life" given the abundance of user challenges with our site. Was the Forrester site any different than most? Probably not, we just talked to our users on a more frequent basis so we were familiar with their gripes.

Are you on a first-name basis with users who complain on a regular basis? If not, why? These customers are trying to accomplish tasks on your site - despite all the roadblocks you have in place - and doing you the courtesy of telling you what's broken. What better way to tee up your next web updates and scenarios for usability testing? Oops, not running any usability tests? Stay tuned, I'm working on some articles that will help you out.