|
>>
|
No. 393
Anything involving Virtual Teams needs to the solve the question of "Why should we not walk away from this solution". This is generally tied to the problem set of "I don't understand this" and "How does this make things easier or better for me?"
Case in point, I don't talk tech around the workplace any more. I realized that my coworkers had two problems. First, they didn't understand the technology I was referring to (web-based project tracking) within about two blinks of the eye, and second, they had no desire whatsoever to explore the issue. One coworker actually put forth an obviously more work-intensive solution, proclaiming it was better, not because it was actually better, but because it involved concepts she understood and therefore was willing to deal with, despite it being worse.
So, if you're going to develop a tech solution to Virtual Teams, you need to have something that solves these problems:
1. I don't want to think about it
2. I ignore what I don't understand
3. I won't do what seems hard
4. I don't have time to look into this
5. I don't care about this and don't see the utility
Virtually all these problems require two things (at the very least): Abstraction of complexity to the point where it's equivalent to picking up a phone and talking, and heavy marketing. Technology is less of a factor because if you do the abstraction part well, no end user will be looking at that part of it anyway. The IT people may scream at you, but no one cares about them, anyway (it's sad, but also very true). Going cross-platform will complicate matters, but most businesses are still Windows/PC based, so you can focus on that platform and expand your dev team once the product kicks off.
Once you answer those questions, and once you deal with the issues discussed above, you will have a marketable product.
|
-