Clients invariably come to us with an simple problem;
"Our intranet is too hard to use. This page is broken, this tool doesn't really work quite right...."
I'm sure you've heard this as many times as I have.
So...we take a look at our data (Knowledge), we look at what we've learned from talking to the client (Comprehension), then we solve the problems that they weren't able to articulate (Application).
What they really meant to say was that the algorithm they had been using to determine the next stage of the lifecycle only works for 70% of the population, and we need to make sure it works for 90%. That page that was broken really needs to be a whole new tool in the application, and the application doesn't really support their workflow.
Now that we understand their data we can use it to solve their problems. But if we haven't gone through the act of listening and collecting good information (data), then we won't be able to make that leap to solve the problems they don't know they have.
I find that this is what really separates a good developer, manager, designer from the ones that are just OK.
The good developer goes beyond the spec, and wants to understand why this understanding will lead to a better application of the information you've received. If you've worked on a team, and you frequently receive or generate specs, how often are those specs right the very first draft? Specs are complete when we stop asking questions, not when we've found all the answers.
How does all of this relate back to our website, our application? The good websites take that information, say...our movie preferences, and give us a list of what other people who liked our favorite movies watched.
Netflix (and Amazon, and Walmart, and your local grocery store), does this all the time. They give the user new information to make informed decisions. The user is learning new information that allows them to solve a problem: "What movie do I put in my queue next?".
The user solves the problem, so they are applying the information you have presented to them, just as you applied your data to a new problem by showing a user what similar users were doing....and you never even had to change the data. Nice.
However, if you can extrapolate what that data means, you are performing valuable Analysis...
"Our intranet is too hard to use. This page is broken, this tool doesn't really work quite right...."
I'm sure you've heard this as many times as I have.
So...we take a look at our data (Knowledge), we look at what we've learned from talking to the client (Comprehension), then we solve the problems that they weren't able to articulate (Application).
What they really meant to say was that the algorithm they had been using to determine the next stage of the lifecycle only works for 70% of the population, and we need to make sure it works for 90%. That page that was broken really needs to be a whole new tool in the application, and the application doesn't really support their workflow.
Now that we understand their data we can use it to solve their problems. But if we haven't gone through the act of listening and collecting good information (data), then we won't be able to make that leap to solve the problems they don't know they have.
I find that this is what really separates a good developer, manager, designer from the ones that are just OK.
The good developer goes beyond the spec, and wants to understand why this understanding will lead to a better application of the information you've received. If you've worked on a team, and you frequently receive or generate specs, how often are those specs right the very first draft? Specs are complete when we stop asking questions, not when we've found all the answers.
How does all of this relate back to our website, our application? The good websites take that information, say...our movie preferences, and give us a list of what other people who liked our favorite movies watched.
Netflix (and Amazon, and Walmart, and your local grocery store), does this all the time. They give the user new information to make informed decisions. The user is learning new information that allows them to solve a problem: "What movie do I put in my queue next?".
The user solves the problem, so they are applying the information you have presented to them, just as you applied your data to a new problem by showing a user what similar users were doing....and you never even had to change the data. Nice.
However, if you can extrapolate what that data means, you are performing valuable Analysis...
