By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady
BLR now has what many think is the finest HR website available (HR.BLR.com), but its origins are very humble. In today’s column, I’d like to write about how we got from A to the current version, 3.1—and about a concept you can use to improve your HR ideas and initiatives.
Clueless.
That’s the only way to describe me as I tried to puzzle through BLR’s path toward the World Wide Web, way back in those distant, pre-Web days. Every futurist was positive the Web would revolutionize our business. Most were high on rhetoric and low on particulars. (And the ones with real ideas were usually pretty, pretty scary!)
We didn’t have any idea of what would develop, either in terms of business model or product form. We just knew it was going to be big, and we wanted to be on the bus when it pulled out.
We started out fairly small—not always in money spent, but always in terms of impact on the business. It was also small, much too small, in one of the currencies that really matter in an entrepreneurial business — lessons learned.
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We did things. They didn’t work. And we didn’t know why, or where to go from there. We kept trying, and failing, and not learning enough.
Finally, things began to take shape. My partner/brother, John Brady, put together a team led by Kim Ryan that went on to create a pretty revolutionary HR site called HRNext.
Then, finally, we began to learn that websites (at least those for us and our customers) are different than a book or newsletter, or even a CD-ROM. Traditional media usually focus on a single subject, such as FMLA, while successful websites cover much more terrain—in our case, ALL of HR.
We learned that selling was different. Most customers find us through search engines, such as Google®, but they then need site tours and help in how to use the site productively.
We also learned (and this is finally getting me to the subject of this e-pinion), that a website is very hard to design—and very different from a book or looseleaf service. After 30 years in the business, we know how to construct a book, but a website required “navigation.”
We struggled to find a way to show all of the analysis, Powerpoints®, checklists, etc. Book-like tables of contents and chapters didn’t work. Then, we came up with tabs, pull downs, and a host of other devices.
Some worked well, some didn’t. The problem was that we had to spend tens of thousands of dollars to design and build something before we knew what worked.
Finally, Kim Ryan brought back the idea of “usability” from a conference. Usability is about building a very rough model (often in Powerpoint) of a website (complete with a few working links) to show to prospective users. But you do NOT ask them if they like or dislike it. Instead, you just put it in front of them and ask them vague questions such as “What do you think this site is for?” You listen and watch. What do they “get”? What confuses them? How much of the navigation is intuitive? What do they struggle with?
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It is amazing to watch what happens. People get tripped up by things that we, as developers, think are easy and obvious. “Hard” things are sometimes as easy as pie. Lessons for all of us.
The point of this e-pinion is not just to brag about our website, hr.blr.com (although all of you, I’m sure, know that I’m not above that!). The real point is that usability is a technique that can work well beyond websites. It is a way to get your colleagues to help you make good ideas even better.
If, instead of trying to “sell” a new idea, you just present it in the most neutral fashion possible (say it is a “draft” or a “talking paper”), and ask what works or what should change, you are giving them license to help you improve. If you listen for what confuses them or what excites them, you will end up with a better—and easier-to-sell—work product.
This is long and rambling, but I’ve enjoyed sharing my experience with you in this e-pinion. Send me your thoughts. Rbrady@blr.com. (And check out HR.BLR.com if you want to see the best HR site available!)
Bob,
I’m glad your group learned about usability – it’s absoutely essential for web or any software application; a very small investment upfront pays for itself multiple times over when software works, as you expect it to, the first time and is easy to learn and use. What most people don’t know is that there is a body of knowledge, experience, processes and tools behind it, born from computer science, psychology and design expertise. You might find it interesting that firms like Cognetics have been around since 1982. You wouldn’t be alone. Until just recently (not even 5 years ago), barely anyone outside of the field had ever heard of it. Now companies are very much aware of the importance of the user experience. Better late than never!
Anne