Ditch your pink couch

What is a pink couch?

Ugly, is what it is.

Many of us own a pink couch:

“I really like the way this looks, we should keep it”: You liking something doesn’t mean it’s good, only that you like it. If we’re building things to serve others, it needs to be good to those we serve, or they won’t engage.

“I want this feature adding, I think it’d be really useful”: You thinking it’s useful doesn’t make it useful, except to you. If we’re building functionality to be useful to others, they set the benchmark for what is useful.

“I want to use this marketing style, it’s really cool”: You think it’s cool doesn’t mean it’s cool, only that you think it is. When designing a message for our chosen audience, it’s them who determines what’s cool (and whether or not ‘cool’ is even part of the success criteria or not).

Don’t hold on to your pink couch. It’s ugly, remember?