Another day, another LinkedIn post calling users lazy.
I strongly disagree that users are lazy. Not only is that sort of thinking disrespectful, but it’s downright harmful to businesses whose founders think that.
Users are prudent
On the whole, users act with care. They plan for the future. And they prefer not to do work that doesn’t benefit them.
If your product isn’t good enough why would they put in the work to try and/or switch to it?
Would you put in the effort to move to a worse apartment that you have to pay more for? No? Are you lazy?
But even if they weren’t
Let us say that I’m a delusional idealist, which is not only possible but likely, that I’m wrong and that users are lazy.
You are still better off thinking they’re prudent.
| Customer is lazy | Customer is prudent | |
|---|---|---|
| You treat users as lazy | 🤷 Nothing you can do, AND it’s not your fault | 💀 You’re dead |
| You treat users as prudent | 🏆 You design a great product and work hard on sales to overcome their laziness | 🏆 You design a great product that makes them switch easily |
In either case, designing for the prudent user works out well for you.
Treating your users as lazy, at best, means that it’s not your fault your product didn’t work out. I wonder who’s the lazy one?