CBC Radio is one of the things to make a Canadian proud. There’s a wealth of stuff that I find valuable, entertaining and informative–Ideas (a largely open forum for all kinds of interesting topics); As It Happens (telephone-based interviews with people, usually on the where the action is happening, on all kinds of issues all over the world); Randy’s Vinyl Tap (in which the former lead guitarist for the Guess Who takes us on a tour of some aspect of popular music, with the original tunes, anecdotes, and even a little musicology.
In the last couple of years, The Age of Persuasion has gone on the must-hear list. It’s a show about advertising—the good (ads that are persuasive), the bad (ads that somehow miss being persuasive), and how it all works (a very well-crafted tour through psychology, language, economics, creativity…). And from that, this lesson about testing, cleverly disguised as a lesson about advertising:
“Home Depot doesn’t sell three-quarter-inch drill bits; Home Depot sells three-quarter-inch holes.”
This reminded me immediately of David Platt‘s wonderful aphorisms, “People don’t want to drive somewhere; they want to be somewhere” and “People don’t want to use your software; people want to have used your software.”
Testers: is your testing focused around things that make people happy that they have used your product? Are you identifying things that make them suddenly or inappropriately aware that they are using your product?