Technology has long promised to make our lives better. While in some ways it has, we can all relate to yelling at our computer or cell phone as we try to do something that we can’t figure out how to do it. I have certainly been there.
One of my favorite thought leaders in how we can work differently to deliver on the promise of technology is Richard Sheridan. He cofounded Menlo Innovations and wrote the book, Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love.His premise, which I completely agree with, is that how we work makes all the difference in the experience for our teams and outcomes for our customers. You can sign up for a virtual tour describing Menlo Innovations’ culture here.
One aspect of Menlo’s approach is something called High-Tech Anthropology where they go out into the world to study the people they intend to design and build software for, learn what their goals, habits and workflows are, and make sure that whatever they are designing will delight the people that one day will use the software they deliver.
I love this philosophy and would invite you to consider the following questions:
- What could you do to make the interactions with our team and technology delightful?
- How do we make it easy to use our systems?