Think back to when you were younger and wiser and try to remember what you thought of your parents. I bet, for the most part, you didn’t like them all that much. Sure you loved them but for the most part they were frustrating, bossy and just didn’t “get” what you were going through.

A few years and a lot of experience later, you’re probably over most of your problems with the folks who brought you into this world, but now that you have a business in your life it is time to rediscover that lost contempt.

Like any good teenager, successful product designers hate every single thing about their product.

Be Your Own Worst Enemy

When building your next masterpiece, you have to be willing to see it for what it is.

It’s easy to look past the flaws and only see all the sweat and blood you’ve poured into it. It’s easier still to rationalize for your product and assume that anyone who levels criticism against it just doesn’t “get” it.

It’s much more difficult to learn from criticism. It’s much more difficult to recognize that no matter how hard you’ve worked, your product is just one of a thousand other potential time sinks in a marketplace flooded with “good ideas.”

What else does hating your product get you?

• You’ll realize that anything that you feel uncomfortable about is something your customer will loathe and be willing to change it.
• You’ll be able to take bad feedback with a grain of salt, and realize that you’re building a product for consumers and not for yourself.
• It’ll make it easier to tell the difference between working to improve your product and working to verify your biases.

More too the point, the more of your own hype that you buy into and the more in love you are with your design the harder it’s going to be to make the changes that you need to in order to take your product to the next level.

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So start nurturing a healthy contempt for your product. You may eventually grow out of it, but for now it’s the best thing you can do for your fledgling idea.

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