Systems Thinking: A Product
Is More Than the Product
Donald A. Norman

Nielsen Norman Group and Northwestern University | [e-mail]

September + October 2009

interactions

A product is actually a service. Although the designer, manufacturer, distributer, and seller may think it is a product, to the buyer, it offers a valuable service. The easiest example is the ATM, or as many people think of it, a cash dispenser. To the company that manufactures it as well as to the bank that purchases it, the ATM is a product. But to the customer, the ATM provides a service. In similar fashion, although a camera is thought of as a product, its real value is the service it offers to its owner: Cameras provide memories. Similarly, music players provide a service: the enjoyment of listening; whereas cell phones offer communication, interaction, and other pleasures.

In reality a product is all about the experience. It is about discovery, purchase, anticipation, opening the package, the very first usage. It is also about continued usage, learning, the need for assistance, updating, maintenance, supplies, and eventual renewal in the form of disposal or exchange. Most companies treat every stage as a different process, done by a different division of the company: R&D, manufacturing, packaging, sales, and then as a necessary afterthought, service. As a result there is seldom any coherence. Instead, there are

contradictions. If you think of the product as a service, then the separate parts make no sense—the point of a product is to offer great experiences to its owner, which means that it offers a service. And that experience, that service, is the result of the coherence of the parts. The real value of a product consists of far more than the product’s components.

A successful product or service has to navigate a complex terrain of hurdles, constraints, technologies, and opportunities. There are myriad market forces, fundamental needs, competitive strategies, core competencies, and market adoption forces. And the product must deliver its promises, not only functioning well, but also providing pleasure in the interaction. This list only scratches the surface. I have deliberately left out numerous critical issues that determine a product’s viability and I am certain to have unwittingly left out even more.

How to negotiate this thicket of issues is the subject of many books and specialized seminars. Not all companies manage, and even those that do face occasional failures. To me, however, the most important aspect for the delivery of a cohesive experience is systems thinking. It is amazing how few companies understand and

practice this. Let me give some examples.

There are many great digital cameras available today. Most are attractive and take good pictures; some are even relatively easy to use. But many camera companies wrongly believe that the product is all there is to the camera. The product is more than the product. I have seen the initial enthusiasm for wonderful cameras destroyed because of the many hurdles to first use. Beautiful cameras are packaged in nondescript, hermetically sealed boxes. Opening the box for the first time is an operation fit for a hammer and saw (sometimes literally), with occasional damage to one’s body or the product in the process. The manual for one of my digital appliances still bears bloodstains. And even when the product is finally extracted from the box—with its intimidating installation discs, legal warnings, and manuals—it cannot be used until a lengthy battery-charging procedure is complete. The initial excitement falls prey to lengthy, complex manuals in umpteen languages, which start not with a joyful opening statement, but with lengthy legal warnings about dangers and misuse. Amazing negligence lurks in the hearts of companies.