Don't Focus On The Product...

"Focus on the experience you want to create, and build a system that gets you there."

Those words were said not with radio in mind, but with hard goods.

Of course, our product is the experience ... but if we are talking about HD radio, then it's about the hardware and not so much about the experience.

What was supposed to always be about the experience (whatever the intended experience was supposed to be), somewhere along the way the word experience was replaced by appliance ... the appliance for music, news, sports, weather, traffic, etc. Like most appliances, after a while a new and improved appliance comes along, replacing the old one. In this case, that would be broadband and the Internet.

Let's be honest: Radio was NEVER about the experience; programming was created in order to sell RADIOS. Now, as it turned out the experience was pretty good and it all worked out.

Today, as good as a lot of radio programming is, it's lost its luster as new more flexible platforms have come to market - -especially with younger audiences.

What are we to do?

Focus on the user experience. How can we leverage our deep-market penetration and our deployment of new platforms (broadband and Internet) into a more competitive medium for today and into the future?

We need to think beyond "the morning show" and "10-in-a-row" and be open to and TRY new ideas (many of which will probably fail). "Focus on the experience you want to create, and build a system that gets you there."

That brings me to the source of the quote: Peter Merholz, who is the President of Adaptive Path, a company that helps create products that deliver great experiences. Impressive group! Mr. Merholz put together an excellent presentation on the user experience and you can watch it on my website: www.harvealan.com.