Desirability

Larry Keeley of the Doblin Group has created an intriguing conceptual model of three primary qualities in high-technology business. Keeley calls the first quality capability, and it is what technologists bring to the party. They ask, "What are we capable of? What is possible?" Engineers must know what can and can't be built. A product can't be a success unless it can be built and made to work.

Keeley calls the second quality viability, and it is the contribution of businesspeople. They ask, "What is viable? What can we sell?" Business executives must know what can and can't be created and sold at a profit. A product can't be a success unless it can support a growing company.

Because all successful high-technology businesses need a balance of both of these qualities, the tension between their constituents is strong. Businesspeople are totally dependent on technologists for their ability to create things that work. And technologists are totally dependent on businesspeople to provide them with the tools for their efforts. This makes for an uneasy symbiosis.

Programmers like to add features and functions to their products. They find a creative challenge in making the program's inner workings run at a high level of efficiency. It is an expression of capability, and some technologists can be happy without ever shipping a viable product. If their employing company fails, they merely switch jobs. Their individual success is independent of the success of the business.

On the other hand, businesspeople like to own market share and sell lots of product. They find a challenge in motivating people to buy their product. It is an expression of viability, and some businesspeople can be happy without ever shipping a technically sophisticated product. Most businesspeople would be quite satisfied to sell pet rocks, as long as they sold lots of them.

Although the two sides depend on each other, their divergent goals create a structural weakness in their relationship. It is as unstable as a two-legged stool, and this is where Keeley's third quality comes in, as a balancing third leg for the stool.

Keeley calls the third quality desirability, and it is what designers supply. They must ask, "What is desired? What do people want?" Designers determine product behavior that will make people happy and satisfied. A product can't be a long-term success unless it delivers power and pleasure to the people who must actually use it.

Design takes a product that can be built and performs well, and that can be distributed and sold profitably, and makes it a success by making it into something that people really want. This third leg brings stability and converts an interesting technological achievement into a long-term success.

Although it's possible to draw out something desirable in an existing product, Keeley believes and I agree that it is more sensible to first decide what customers will find desirable, and then challenge the engineers and businesspeople to build and sell it. This approach can yield significant advantages to the savvy player. It pulls you out in front of the competition. While they are back in the pack, reacting to each other's competitive moves, wrestling with "possible?" and "viable?" questions, you are out in clear air focusing on your customer's as-yet-unmet needs. Let your competitors fight among one another while you leap directly to providing your customers what they desire most.

For example, in the early 1990s, Borland International was a serious player in the Windows software market, and I had the opportunity to learn about its business while I did some consulting there. The company was a remarkable marriage of highly skilled businesspeople and razor-sharp software engineers. Seemingly every day I was introduced to another impressive skunk-works project. A top-notch businessperson and an equally bright software engineer headed each such project.

Each project had similar qualities: cool technology, clearly demonstrated market need, obvious commercial potential, and bright people. At first, the effect of seeing so many talented people at work on such cool stuff was impressive. But after a while, the true nature of these projects became apparent: Very few of these awesome projects ever actually shipped. None had envisioned their customers. Little revenue was generated and lots of money was squandered, and after five years of this tug-of-war between capability and viability, Borland unsurprisingly fell on hard times and was forced to lay off the majority of its people.

Borland, like most contemporary high-tech companies, had no significant design talent on its staff, and there was little understanding of the role of design in either its business or its technical culture. Consequently, it was very difficult for Borland to convert any of its capable, viable projects into desirable products.

Desirability is easy to confuse with need, but they are dramatically different. I desire a six-week vacation in Bermuda, but I don't need it. If I have gallstones, I need gall bladder surgery, but it is not something that I desire. As a real-estate agent, Sally needs to sell four houses this year. But Sally desires to make four families happy and comfortable. She needs to use the multiple-listing-service (MLS) software to sell property, but she desires that the MLS program not make her feel stupid.

In the short term, a person can be powerfully influenced by needs, but over the long term, what a person desires can have a greater and more-profound effect. People's desires always have a way of emerging after their needs are satisfied. When a person needs something, she will do what is needed to get it, but when she desires something, she is loyal to it. She knows that it is a discretionary purchase, and she will buy what makes her happy and will not necessarily judge rationally. When a consumer desires a product or a brand, his loyalty is one of the strongest forces in business.

Keeley's tripod model shows us how to generate customer loyalty. A software company can be viable by meeting real-estate agent Sally's needs. But it shows us that it can grow stronger, last longer, and lead an industry by satisfying Sally's desires. If the product merely meets Sally's needs, it forces her to become either an apologist or a survivor. Either way, although she needs to learn how to use it, she won't be happy with it, and she won't recommend it to her colleagues. However, if the product meets Sally's desires, it becomes her friend and helpmate in her everyday work. Sally becomes a fan, an enthusiast. Sally tells her colleagues and friends about the product. She is happy at her job and takes pride in her work. If the MLS software gives Sally power and pleasure, it generates strong customer loyalty within her.

A product that doesn't have desirability designed into it might address a robust market need, but any success it enjoys will be the success of the dancing bear. The single greatest weakness of dancing bearware is that it never generates customer loyalty. Without the long-term brand loyalty of satisfied customers, your entire company is highly vulnerable to competition.