Where’s my flying horse carriage?

A good rule of thumb is never ask your users “What do you want?”

That’s like handing an artist an unlimited budget and an infinite canvas and saying to them “Make some art for me!”

Rarely do you want to figure out what users “want.”

You really have to focus on what users “need.”

And to figure out what someone needs, you never ask what they want.

What is the user trying to achieve?

How are they achieving that (if possible) at this time?

And are there opportunities to improve their results (higher yield, faster yield, better quality yield)?

Finally, do we want to improve what they have (faster horses) or replace what they have with something else (flying cars)?