I want to distil into this short, simple text the things I have learned from developing the Topaasia® card game concept over the last 18 months. This is because I want to get these lessons written down and crystallised into at least some kind of understandable form. In practice, this small body of experience is based on intensive product development work over the past 18 months, during which the current concept took shape through versioning done in customer work (around 100+ different versions). I highlight five (5) lessons, which are in no particular order of importance. Based on the experience mentioned, these are the most important lessons for me personally, and the aim is not to seek any universal laws, let alone right answers.
1. When the customer sets the length of the song, you find the right tempo and the playing starts to flow It is amazing to see how quickly prototypes get finished, small fixes happen here and there and energy levels rise when the customer sets the pace in the product developer's calendar. What I mean in practice is: go and sell that rough draft, and then you get to deliver it (and you must, if you are as good as your word). Sell the rough draft so that an exchange takes place and there is an entry in both your calendar and the customer's. Business. Movement. Goal-oriented work tied to a deadline. 2. Do your best and fear the worst Be prepared for the fact that even though you have done your best, you can still disappoint the customer, in the worst case wasting several people's time. It is a chilling thought, because the customer has taken a risk, in other words shown trust. You have also taken a risk (= sold yourself into a tight spot) by tying the exchange (the euros) to the customer's satisfaction. All in all, the setup is such that you give everything you have, without holding back or hiding anything.
3. Act like Spider-Man, collecting feedback from everywhere and everyone Listen (DO NOT MAKE EXCUSES) to everyone who opens up. Pay particular attention to the details and follow the guidelines below. * Arrange a meeting with "the most critical" person and ask them who, in their view, is "the most critical" person they know. * Track down the rascals who proudly wear a hypersensitive bullshit detector around their neck. * Once you have received feedback from one industry, go and seek it from the next, preferably one towards which your prejudices are at volMAX. 4. Customers tell you the right answers Trick yourself into getting energised again and again by believing in your own vision. Face reality by listening to customers' needs, challenges and sources of enthusiasm, and compare these with their experience of the value they received. Make the necessary changes, gain some new insight, focus, and go back to tricking yourself.
