Responsive design and front-end development has gotten increasingly complex and challenging for software designers and developers. At the same time great tools e.g. frameworks and css pre-compilers are available to create consistent and tailored cross-platform experiences for users. The current trend is mobile first which in my view is an interesting approach, especially since the use of mobile devices continues to grow.

Mobile first is today debated and discussed, is it good or bad etc. I think the answer will become clearer if we rephrase the perspective to People-first. That is by understanding peoples needs, wishes and desires we are able to shape a better understanding for how we should design our solutions. Undoubtedly people doesnt always know or be able to express their needs and desires but by letting the people perspective dominate it will be easier to rollout a future path in design of applications.

Why do we need to rethink how we deal with people when we initiate, carry out a change project and reason about the results of a change initiative? Since we are all people it is pretty obvious that people:

• are rational
• don’t react to emotions
• sharing the same views as the project initiator
• have the same opinions
• have the needs we have defined
• cant misunderstand anything from the point of view of a project initiator or sponsor
• don’t have a history with other practices or solutions
• have less optimal preferences in relation to optimal choices

I’m ironic of course, we all know more or less that the statements above aren’t completely true. Instead we may be rational from time to time, may share the same views but still have different opinions and so on. But because we are are people we tend to make judgements and estimates about what other people think and how they will act based on what we ourself think and feel. Whats even more intriguing is that we may even have to much confidence in our own estimates about how we self would react in certain situations. Since we tend to make the wrong estimates about both ourself and often make assumptions based on how other people feel, understand or will react to for instance a change initiative it seems reasonable to strive towards a better understanding of adding a people perspective to a project or change initiative.

How do we add the people perspective to a project or add the weighted importance to a change initiative? First and foremost we need to change the mindset about the importance of people and use tools and techniques that adds more emphasis and weight to the people perspective. We will discuss this more in future posts.

The time has come to start a serious blog.I will deal with thoughts and experiences shaped since I connected to the Internet the very first time back in 1993.

I’m trying to elaborate on why IT solutions often turn out to create less value than anticipated and causing users and stakeholders more pain, limitations and other less dssirable outcomes.

My purpose is to create a platform for discussing and understanding how we can create great products, experiences and organizations where IT is a crucial part. This is typically the case today, that is IT is a strategic component in most organizations, however the people perspective and its implications are often not gaining the justified attention with regards to its impact. The intention of this blog isn’t to bash on certain methods or perspectives. Instead I’m looking forward to better understand various methods, perspectives and implications for truly successful outcomes of change efforts where the people perspective hopefully will be apparent.