Angry Monkey
Posted on July 20th, 2009 in Marketing, Usability | 8 Comments »
I just finished reading a long rant by a marketing genius about complexity. I’m going to extract two lessons for you. Leave me a tip when you pay the bill on the way out…
First, marketing folks are just as angry about complexity as usability professionals. They are human, afterall. The difference between “them” and “us” is that they express their anger, analyze that anger, and turn that anger into an opportunity.
Let’s get all fancy pants with a little quiz. Here’s the question –
Do you see complexity as a problem to be solved or an opportunity?
The difference is profound. It’s why that junior marketing executive is making $187,674 (before the fat, year end bonus) and you’re still making under $100K.
Waaay under $100K.
“But it’s not about the money!”
OK. If you say so.
In that case, let’s move on… That is, if you’re interested in this stuff. If you’re not, that’s cool. I know that many folks reading this think marketing is dirty. (I get it. Usability folks like to poop on me when I talk about marketing.)
The second lesson is HOW this marketing wizard expressed his frustration…
The Wizard was talking to a guy about poorly designed smart cards. And, how the whole process is broken. The rocket scientist — literally, a NASA rocket scientist — didn’t understand the pain. He talked about the elegance and convenience of these pay-as-you-go cards. The Wizard simple said:
“That’s bullshit!”
He clearly explained that every new smart card requires a new learning curve. You have to LEARN again and again. No matter how simple each card is, you have to learn how to use it. You have to learn the process. If there’s learning involved there probably isn’t enough simplicity. Instead — there’s PAIN.
Marketing guys speak the language of the Angry Monkey…
Any time YOU are frustrated, you are the Angry Monkey. The difference between great marketers and usability professionals is that the great marketers call bullshit when they see it — that’s the language of the Angry Monkey.
The Angry Monkey is HONEST about feeling pain. The Angry Monkey doesn’t have time to put up with bullshit so the Angry Monkey tells you about it. Openly. Instantly. Emotionally.
The Marketing Wizard shared one more thing: We crave simplicity. We crave EASY. We’re starving for it.
Is this an opportunity to you?
Or, is this just something else to research?
Question: Are you hunched over solving problems or do you provide solutions to the starving crowd? I’ve already told you what puts more green in your wallet… Now you know why.
An Angry Monkey,
~ John S. Rhodes
8 Responses
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I’m definitely an Angry Monkey. I see opportunity in every obstacle to getting something done. The problem is I work in IT, surrounded by left-brained lizards, and it’s hard to get an evangelist to support your idea that things could be easier when IT fears that this makes them less necessary. What they want is just to “make things prettier”. They view me as an Art Monkey. ;)
John,
There are many of us in the user experience and interaction design field ready to “provide solutions to the starving crowd” and satisfy the Angry Monkey. Some of us are having trouble finding folks similar to your marketing friend who are looking for that help. Anyone you’d like to introduce me to?
Jeffrey:
There is a lot of fear. It often kills opportunities. The Angry Monkey, however, ignores fear and crushes it! That’s also why the Angry Monkey makes more money than UX’ers, day in and day out.
~ John
Philip:
The Angry Monkey is doing just fine. He easily provides solutions to the hungry crowd. He can easily spot desperate buyers. That’s what he’s good at doing…!
UX’ers on the other hand — well, they see challenges. So, the point is that the Angry Monkey is a wealth magnet whereas most UX’ers are busy satisfying themselves. Intellectually. In labs. Doing research.
The “itch” that the Angry Monkey feels is far different than the “itch” of the UX’er. The UX’er uses research to find answers. The UX’er is thinking about the problem — not the opportunity.
The exact same situation yields an “itch” of opportunity for the Angry Monkey.
~ John
I’m too stupid to understand this post. Can anyone help me by providing an example of what the Angry Monkey has done with complexity that the stupid UXer hasn’t? So far, all I’m getting out of this is some obvious points about one man’s “what” is another man’s “how.” Not everyone can be a visionary, and somebody has to solve problems somewhere down the chain for those visions to work, no?
So – examples please, or GTFOH.
The Angry Monkey, however, ignores fear and crushes it! That’s also why the Angry Monkey makes more money than UX’ers, day in and day out.
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