There is a name for this approach to design. It's called Activity-Centered Design , and Don Norman has written a bunch about it here:

http://jnd.org/dn.mss/human-centered_design_considered_harmf... and here:

http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/hcd_harmful_a_clari.html

Highly recommended reading. I feel like it's a good sign that the community keeps re-inventing this. It means that it has some real legs. Another great example of our best practices slowly strangling good process.

Thanks for this perspective. I would have loved to see this earlier, it could have saved me a lot of wheel-spinning with personas (which are valuable in limited cases)

I don't much care for "personas" but I did enjoy filling in the blanks of the template at the end.

And as subtle as it seems, I think there's a difference between "why do people use your product?" and "why do people hire your product?". "Hiring" seems to imply selection from multiple candidates, payment for (and an ongoing involvement with) the product etc.

Cheers Jamie

Very similar to (and perhaps taken from) the book "The Innovator's Solution": http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Solution-Creating-Sustainin...

The video I linked up and the author I referenced twice in the post is Clay Christenson, author of that book. I certainly didn't "take" it, I made the inspiration very clear.

Those guys are the smartest people I know.