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[OM] Re: olympus Digest V3 #316

Subject: [OM] Re: olympus Digest V3 #316
From: Stephen Scharf <scharfsj@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 20:00:52 -0800
Richard,
There's lots of good reason why "customers" would do it for free...
they value what Adobe is doing for them and they value being
engaged in the development process. I know I do...

Adobe is doing, in Six Sigma parlance, a proactive "Voice of the  
Customer" (VOC) process.
There very sound reasons for doing proactive VOC, and it is at the core
of Design For Six Sigma (if you've seen the products of Samsung,
Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, etc. lately, you have seen DFSS at work).
This is how you design and create superior products that not only  
satisfy, but
delight your customers (look up the Kano model of customer satisfaction
for more on this...). Adobe is actively doing this BETA testing program
as their implementation an proactive VOC process, with the intent
of designing Lightroom "by photographers, for photographers...".
Lightroom will be a better product for it, because, as part of this
BETA rollout, Adobe gathers actual data on the features and
specifications that their photographer customers want or need. This  
creates for Adobe
what all manufacturers of products should obtain before designing
products; the *specification of value* placed on these products
by their customers. They are actively monitoring the features
requests forum for their beta program, and incorporating features
that they deem to be of the most value for their customers, while
keeping true to the design intent. Not only does this get Adobe
the data they need from their customers "voices", but users
feel engaged as part of the design process, and will help to create
  a better product for everyone in the long run.

I know how seriously Adobe takes VOC, because they sent a team of  
three User Researchers
to visit me last year to understand my needs for the type of photography
I do. They spent three hours with me, videotaped my entire workflow
and digital darkroom design, and solicited input from me on how
why Bridge was just too slow for my needs when I have cull thousands of
images from a day's shoot to deliver "selects"
to the racetrack PR dep't for deadline press;  why I was using  
BreezeBrowser
at the time for file management, sorting and culling selects, and
then how I had to go into Photoshp and edit each image one at a time for
color correction, cropping and export (this is where Lightroom
has been *such* a huge advance for me).  They also wanted to
see how I do color correction, black and white conversion,
my printing workflow, and how I used the ImagePrint
RIP for printing black and white prints.

Contrast this with Apple's first attempt at Aperture:
It was overpriced, too slow, and did a poor job of RAW
conversion. As a result, the application was
bomb for Apple, and they had to drop
price $200 just to get some people to buy it.
Apple completely missed the mark
with Aperture because they DID NOT do a proactive
VOC process in the way Adobe is doing with Lightroom.

Regards,
Stephen.

On Nov 21, 2006, at 6:21 PM, Listar wrote:

>
>> I wonder if they will give a discount to beta testers, better  
>> download
>> and register just in case ;-)
>
> I don't know how this whole "beta testing" program for commercial
> software developers took off but seriously, why would anyone do  
> this for
> free?  Are not your ideas, input and bug testing worth something to  
> you
> (I don't mean you personally swisspace... I'm just on my soapbox at  
> the
> moment)?  How wonderful for commercial software developers... they get
> quality control along with the consumer's valuable input and  
> suggestions
> for no cost while the consumer gets to try out their latest  
> development
> riddled with bugs and short comings for free... woo hoo!!  What a  
> deal.
>
> Richard L
>



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