From product information to product communication

In times of user forums and service portals, user information is no longer a one-way street. But while many manufacturers still ignore – or even fear – user-driven information, we should think of ways to tap into this great pool of knowledge that users give away freely.

Text by Carl Carlheim-Gyllensköld Johan Elisson

Inhaltsübersicht

From product information to product communication

One day, our manager came by with her mobile phone. It had crashed and she needed help from her tech-savvy employees. A quick Google search gave us several solutions to the problem; some through video, others through forum threads, some in blog entries. We did what most of us do; we gave each solution a few seconds and decided on one that felt good. Bingo! A few minutes later, the mobile phone worked again.

The interesting thing was that none of the solutions came from the actual mobile phone company. Why?

The product information world is changing

Producing technical information has been a relatively routine process for many decades. Products are manufactured, documented and marketed, and when they are sold, the printed documentation is handed over to the user or distributed to service technicians.

But this world is changing.

With the breakthrough of the Internet, a slow, structural ...