October 19, 2012
So, Jack Dorsey recently blogged about users vs. customers vs. buyers vs. sellers
I think it’s a bunch of bunk. Not to get all argybargy about it, but I think defining people by what they are to you as a company or product is limiting. They’re people, pure and simple. Instead of saying what do our customers think we should say what do people say. It’s a broadening versus a limiting expression. It also brings home the fact that today’s “customer” or “seller” might be someone very different tomorrow or simultaneously.
People. When I was at Apple, it was the word I always used. Sometimes I would wander into conversations, and people (not designers or engineers or project managers) would be describing who was using the products we were building or had built. It was always helpful to back up and not describe them as an editor, or a customer, but really just as people who were interacting with our creations. It removed the us vs. them mentality that is so easy to fall into that depersonalizes the experience that people would be having with our tools/products/creations (more on that later).