𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗰 𝗭𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘀?

(𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑛𝑜 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟)

It’s hard to fight against Steve Jobs and the iPod Silhouette ad their heyday.
However it wasn’t just the Zune ads that sucked, the whole proposition never got off the ground and is counted as one of Microsoft’s biggest failures because of a 𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵.

– 𝗪𝗶𝗳𝗶 𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴- was the Zune’s big differentiator. It seemed like a cool idea but was clunky in how it was rolled out. Microsoft didn’t understand how it fit into customer’s lives, and customers didn’t really need it. Better research would have had them focussing on product attributes that customer’s cared about.
– 𝗟𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻- the Zune software wasn’t as good as the iTunes software, and customers weren’t shy to say so. The team didn’t iterate on this feedback enough to make the platform useful for customers. Usability testing, heatmaps and prioritising issues would show them where to improve.
– 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 the Zune team didn’t understand the Zune “job-to-be-done” in enough detail. When the smartphone became the camera/mediaplayer/device to rule them all they didn’t adapt quick enough to take advantage of this. This left them by the wayside. Understanding how customer perceptions change over time is crucial (which is why I like to run longitudinal surveys)

Product sense and intuition helps, but you need to have a deep understanding of your customer, your website and how your product fits into their life, or you’re destined for trouble…