Google Calendar: powered by experience strategy
by petermePerhaps the most satisfying thing I read today is that in 6 months Google Calendar has gone from launch to being almost in a horse race with Yahoo Calendar for top spot.
Why should I care? Because Google Calendar’s success is an example of the power of experience strategy. How do I mean that?
Among the presenters at last September’s Future of Web Apps conference was Carl Sjogreen, the product manager for Google Calendar. Carl described the user research that his team did before any design or coding took place (not common practice at Google), and how they informed the vision of what Google Calendar should be. From his deck (PDF):
Here’s a product whose very definition was predicated on empathy for true customer needs. And it’s succeeding brilliantly. (We refer to such a vision as an “experience strategy,” which I’ll talk more about in my next post.)
Don’t forget: Yahoo and MSN’s calendars have been around for *years*. Google Calendar has been around for 8 months. And it’s very much on target to surpass Yahoo!’s standing as number one calendar.
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on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Experience strategy, Product Design, Web Applications.
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January 5th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Agreed, Peter. It’s an excellent example of focusing on value and not competitors.
It’s also a great example of a socially-focused product in that it focuses on how people collaborate and work together, as opposed to, say, an *information*-focused product.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
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January 6th, 2007 at 8:54 am
But for Pete’s sake, why can’t they integrate a decent task manager? That is the one ingredient everyone is waiting for and I can’t imagine that the user surveys did not get this one:-(
January 15th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I completely agree with Mohan, the lack of a task manager is one of the major bug bears with this application and will prevent more people adopting it in the long term.
January 19th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Hmm. It’s superb when it works. Read the plaints on the Users - Troubleshooting group:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-calendar-help-bugs?hl=en