Delivering a Great OOBE

If Steve Jobs didn’t invent the term OOBE — out of box experience — he certainly set the expectation. Only a handful of tech products have made the general public sit up and take notice. And with few exceptions those products have come from Jobs’ fertile mind. It pains me, a Microsoft alum, to say it, but Jobs, first with the Mac and now with the iPod, has set the standard for how tech gear should be packaged and operate.

The reason Infusion’s user group meeting this spring was such a pleasure to attend was that it was packed with satisfied customers using its product in a myriad of different ways.

Like Jobs, the team at Infusion doesn’t seek attention. They grab it. While the rest of us sent out one-page press releases to announce new products, Jobs rented auditoriums and put on a show. While we advertised our gear in the trade pubs, Jobs ran commercials during the Super Bowl.

You should think twice before spending your hard won VC dollars on a Super Bowl ad, but there are some incredible lessons to be learned from masters like Jobs when it comes to delivering an unparalleled customer experience.

OOBE For The Rest of Us

In the early days of the PC industry, the customer was typically a geek who became something of an extension to the company’s engineering team. He tinkered with buggy products until they worked. But Jobs aspired to bring the miracle of computing to Joe Q. Public. To pull it off, he had to make good on the hype, a tall order for an industry where bugs were the norm. Jobs didn’t just set the expectation – he delivered on the promise.

At Microsoft, when those of us on the Windows team realized our customers had trouble getting their PCs up and running we blamed it on the difficulties of marrying disparate hardware and software. In those days, I spent a lot of time talking to frustrated Windows users.

There are three simple things you need to do to deliver a great OOBE.

• Designate a user-experience manager, one person responsible for all aspects of the product that impact its ease-of-use
• Require people in your company to set up the new product without any assistance from the developers
• Observe customers set up your product, over and over again

Without being aware of it, product designers adjust their own behavior to accommodate product flaws. As a result, it’s important to bring customers who come to the product with a fresh eye and without pre-ordained behaviors.

To get funding for my OOBE group at Microsoft, I videotaped a whole bunch of people – from our top user interface designers to marketing managers – setting up a new computer. Features that today we take for granted – like color-coded cables and ports — came out of those early observations.

Great Experience = Happy Customers

To state the obvious, the computer industry has matured and with maturity has come higher expectations. Few customers have patience for products that don’t work straight out of the box. Only a few companies are so entrenched that customers have no choice but to suffer until the supplier gets its act together.

In most cases, the customer has other credible options. Blow it once and it’s unlikely they’ll give you a second chance. That holds true in even the most technical of vertical markets. Deliver a great OOBE and you too, can preside over a packed room of happy customers.