Ramon's Vision about the Future of Mobile (Droidcon Belgium 2010)

Editor's Notes

1. Ramon's vision about the future of mobile. Spaniard loving and living Brussels. New Media Business and Marketing consultant. Webmission co-organizer and Beta Group advisory board member. I have to start with bad news about my vision...
2. The bad news is that I wear glasses: my vision is not that clear ;) It is also distorted by: Culture Personality Attention span These factors are in constant evolution and so is my vision. It is also shaped by my communications with people, face to face and with the use of tools. In other words, it is shaped by my relationships.
3. The good news is that I'm a mobile & Internet junkie. My best shots come through Social Media (mega addict). I love mobile: it is a multiplier of communication and a relationship builder. Increased contact means more and stronger relationships (weak and strong links). As any good junkie, I can also justify my addiction and with it point at what I think are the two main factors of success for the mobile plus Internet mix:
4. Ubiquity: the World is in my hand, accessed from my phone no matter where I am.
5. I get what I want when I want it: NOW. Very powerful and hyper-addictive. No image can depict the physical feeling of satisfaction I get every time I want something and I instantly get it. It Is a physical experience. A lot of satisfaction shots throughout the day.
6. What is the key to the future of mobile? Where is the holy mobile grail that will resolve the questions about flash vs html5, operating systems, multiplicity of devices, and more?
7. Sorry it is not technology: the answer is people: the users. They decide what to use and what to do with it. So focus on people! People are all about relationships. Relationships built through conversation (in different forms). It is about persons talking to persons: one to one, one to many, many to one, and many to many conversations. Mobile technologies play an important role: they are multipliers of communication and of relationship building.
8. People are not binary. Not only right or wrong, black or white, on or off. Many different ways of doing the right thing, and there are many right things. Think about your personal development from childhood to adult: copy, good or bad, and do what you are told vs own decisions, personality, and creativity. You choose what to do applying your common sense and experience, but you are not alone in this world.
9. It is your brain on technology. Obsession with the building blocks instead of what will be their use is also a drug, with very bad effects on the health of your product. It may be great fun to do something very difficult and succeeding in doing so, but that fun only applies to the person doing it. What do others care? Nothing. Do you care about your users? Worry about what they need and want . It is not technology or the tool that matters, it is what we do with it.
10. Technology is not to be thrown at users like we throw punches. (touch multi-touch example) It is about what users make of it, about what makes their life better. Best pan for fried eggs in the world! Be it. You don't have control over what people will ultimately do, but you can greatly influence it. Il Postino and Pablo Neruda: "Poetry doesn't belong to those who write it, but to those who need it." > Il Postino Geek“Technology doesn't belong to those who make it, but to those who need it”. So please...
11. Stop the suffering: make your users' life easier and they will make your life easier, on top of increasing the success of your product. Don't make them cry of pain when trying to figure out how to find and use your product. Same applies to yourself: life is already hard enough, don't make it harder. How do you stop the suffering?
12. Get into their shoes from the very beginning. Figure out what it would be like if you where them and also talk to them (they know better than anyone else what they want.) You are building your product for them, not for yourself. Walk your product and processes. It does not mean you have to do everything they say: the choice is all yours, as success or failure will be, but bear them in mind.
13. Getting into their shoes will help you be relevant. Relevant to your users not yourself. Use their words. More important comes first.
14. How can you be relevant? Be relevant by developing relationships with your users. The better you know them the easier it will be for you to understand them and to be relevant. The better they know you and the more they interact with you the stronger the relationship will be. The stronger the relationship the longer it will last. Satisfaction will increase with the relationship. Don't limit yourself to typed communication: get real. Let them know you personally: go out into the world, network, give presentations, broadcast videos, talk over the phone or voip, arrage meetups...
15. Very important part of a relationship is how you present yourself. Imagine a party with a guest that approaches you wearing a plastic bag in his head. Would you talk to this guy? What kind of trust does he project? (By the way: profiles without pictures suck!)
16. And in a room full of people with the same bag in their head, how would you know who you already know and who would you choose to talk to? How can people easily recognize you? How do you stand out and differentiate? What makes you memorable? We are humans, we like humans, we talk to humans not companies or products. Don't hide yourselves! Build person to person relationships. Dare to have a personality. My vision about the future of mobile is about people. And the future is reached every second.
17. This is my vision, how about yours?