Building a Product that Sucks

Chris Blanchard
Pronetos, Inc.
http://pronetos.com/
Labeled an eminent historian by the Boise Weekly, Chris is the CEO of Pronetos, an online social community for scholars. He graduated from the Boise State University Honors College with a B.S. in Social Science (History and Economics), and is completing his M.A. in Applied Historical Research. Chris is a certified web applications developer and is a founding editor of Boise State University’s digital public affairs journal, Idaho Issues Online. In 2006, his publications included an article in the Social Policy Journal, and a book chapter in a monograph published by the Haworth Press. He has authored numerous general interest articles for publications such as the Boise Journal, and The Idaho Statesman.

I'll describe how to build a product/service that is totally non-responsive to the needs of customers, for exmaple:

*Create a product that users can't find
*Use outdated technology
*Use pricing tactics that hold your customers hostage
*Make your customers suffer huge wait times for even an inferior solution

The purpose of the talk then, is to give the audience a template they can use to identify markets that have these characteristics (and there are lots).