Designing Cloud-Based Products: Does Hardware Even Matter Anymore?

Entrepreneurs are building cloud-based products for customers with an ever-growing list of ways to access those products. There's the web browser, tablets, smart phones, phablets, wearables, browser apps, plugins, bookmarklets, etc. Who knows what devices will deliver software products in five years.

The interesting part is that for any given piece of software, consumers are accessing it via different devices for different reasons. They'll use the mobile phone app for a certain task while using the desktop for something else. Or they'll use the tablet app for one thing, but the mobile phone app for another. These are the behaviours that must be understood to deliver a satisfying and delightful product experience. Entrepreneurs need to know which device customers are using to build appropriately.

Customer research and data analysis has showed that customers are doing specific accounting tasks on specific devices. Extracting trends from your app analytics will help you understand how your customers are accessing the product and what specific tasks the doing. When the product is in its infancy, without a significant dataset, ask your current and potential customers what they might use your tablet app for versus what they'd use your Smartphone app for. Have them tell you what they'd expect to get out of the desktop app. You'll likely be surprised by their responses and you'll have a better idea of how to build.