MaRS

Mesh U gives us a love lesson

Think you have a great site idea?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Would you date your idea?
• Would you marry your idea?
• Would you set your idea up on a blind date with someone else?

If not, chances are you didn’t design for love.

That was the message of yesterday’s session with Kevin Hale of Wufoo at MeshU, part of the Mesh conference happening at MaRS.

It’s good advice for all of us with really great ideas: love them, yes. But we must also love our user, our client, our customer. But love is not always easy. We love our ideas. They’re perfect to us. But love takes work and we have to treat our clients like a date we’re trying to impress.

Remember your first date? Your first kiss? What kind of an impression did it give you? Did they pick their nose? If they did, you might not have given them a second chance. However, if you are in a comfortable, time-tested relationship with someone you trust and they pick their nose… not such a big deal. It’s the same with our own businesses: first impressions count.

But that’s not all that counts. Trust is one of the most important factors in a successful relationship, be it marriage or a customer relationship! You’ve got to build that trust so that when that first inevitable fight comes along (when your user needs to access your help files, FAQs, feedback form or Contact Us page) they’ll be more understanding and more willing to overlook this infraction. And for your part, you’ve got to diffuse that argument even though you hate that they’ve just used all caps to complain that you don’t have a feature they want. Just like in any relationship, sometimes you’ve just got to smile and nod.

So build that relationship. Build that product. But build it with — and for — love.