Easy to Use and Convenient – These may be the 2 Most Important Considerations of All

Let’s assume you have a product or service that people want, or need, or want and need.  Let’s assume it is good.

Before you go from “I have a product or service” to “people are actually paying for it” – before the sales or marketing or customer service – you’re still not quite there yet.

I think there are two considerations, cousins to each other, that are critical.  Consider these “must have/must do” considerations.  Here they are.

Ease and convenience
or…
Make it easy to use.
Make it convenient.

Is this the next new wave of the future? (the SousVide Supreme)

I thought of this again when I read this article — Slowly but Surely:  Sous-vide cooking is destined for ubiquity in home kitchens by Rob Mifsud.  Here’s the key excerpt:

Granted, the microwave, which produces lousy food quickly, and sous vide, which produces great food slowly, have little in common in terms of function. But microwaves owe their near ubiquity to two very important features that they share with thermal immersion circulators: They’re easy to use and convenient. (emphasis added)

Do you remember when your first friends got a microwave?  (Note:  I realize many reading this have always had a microwave.  I’m an old guy!).  Like the tv years before it, it seemed that microwaves just moved up and down the streets into the homes magically.  Once people realized how easy and convenient they were, everyone had to have them.  And now…, everyone has them.

Well, whether or not the sous vide machines spread in the same way, there is no doubt about the importance of the observation:  “easy to use and convenient.” 

So, what about your product or service?  Is it easy to use?  Is it convenient?  If not, you’ve got your work cut out for you.

(And, by the way, only the customer gets to pass judgment on these considerations.  It is only when the customer says, “yes, it is easy; it is convenient,” have you actually succeeded in making it easy and convenient).