Start-up Entrepreneurs' Blog

What Geeks Should Know About Software and Start-ups

September 20, 2010

What don’t geeks know about software?  I have been searching for some audio software. I read some review sites and selected a software package to try.  I went to the website to download a free version and …. here I am, venting about start-ups run by geeks who just don’t get it!  Your typical, know-nothing computer user doesn’t want to know anything about the technical guts of a software package, they want it to be user friendly: easy to download, quick to learn, and intuitively obvious to use.

So what happened? I went to the website to download. First, the landing page was completely covered by text, too much text. It took me a while to find the download click. There were six different OS options.  Then there were the optional download modules … LADSPA, plug-ins, MPEG, MP3, output formats, installer versions, and so on.  They had multiple lists – recommended options, alternative options, build options, and so on. STOP! I’m busy. I want quick and easy to download. I consider time my most valuable resource and it’s limited.  This is just one of many software packages I need to use on a daily basis.  Don’t they know the typical user only uses ten percent of any software package and each different user chooses a different ten percent of the options?

Since I deal with advice to start-ups, I sent an email to their customer support. They send me back an email via their auto-responder which asked me to re-send my comment back to one of eight email addresses that would categorize my comment into the right “bug tracking category”.  Are they joking?

First impressions count a great deal. My thought was that if they couldn’t make the download simple and easy, what were the odds that they would get the usability simple and easy? If I did bother to download the software, would it turn out to be a headache? This is not the only software out there; it’s a crowded market so why should I risk my valuable time on them?

I see this situation a lot in the software business with entrepreneurs? They identify a need in the market and then they have no concept of the typical user. They get some traction among early adopters and these are usually other geeks. But other geeks won’t build the volumes needed to create a profitable company.  Not only is the software user interface critical to transitioning a software package into the mainstream, the process of obtaining the software says something to the user as does the user’s experience with the  sales process. If you meet someone who dresses sloppily and is scatterbrained in conversation, what do you think their living quarters look like? Would you expect their home to be clean, neat and orderly? No, because you transferred your impression of them to everything else about them.  It’s no different with products.  If you go to purchase a product and the salesperson doesn’t return your calls, doesn’t show up for meetings at the appointed time, and doesn’t have crisp, clear answers to your questions then what do you think about the product and the customer support you will inevitably need?

There is more to the product than the technology. Users care about what, how, and when the product can solve their problem.  The technology behind the product doesn’t really matter to the user. While every geek knows the expression, the devil is in the details, the details are more than the technical ones. And this is not an isolated incident, I had two software start-ups ask me to review their software last week and I couldn’t get either software package to work as expected. I’ve encountered this scenario many times in the past.

Filed under: Marketing & Sales

Tags: customers, early adopters, geeks, software start-up, start-up first impression, technology start-up, useability, user interface