We develop inbred thinking in this industry. We spend most of our time with people who scored over 700 on their math SATs, we know people involved in IPOs and stock options, and we work with folks who take computers apart for fun. We forget that the people within our industry are very different from the rest of the world. That's why going into the usability lab or a focus group seems like a trip into the twilight zone. It seems like those users are in the minority, visiting us from some twisted and slower universe. The reality is this: We are the overwhelming minority. Those visitors in the usability lab are the majority, and they are the folks using our products and paying our salaries.

There is no substitute for watching someone use something you've built. It's the only way to see how your intended goals match with the reality. Would you want a surgeon to operate on you without examining you before as well as after the surgery? Would you want a building contractor to remodel your kitchen without discussing your plans and making sure you got what you needed? Good craftspeople want to understand the world in which their product will be used before building it. We have the amazing power to create things, and it's easy to fall into the trap of building things that appeal to us as creators, instead of things that will appeal to our customers. There's no way to know how biased you are without working through usability engineering and other forms of customer feedback. You must spend time with users throughout the product cycle, repeatedly refreshing the team perspective on what you're building and for whom.