Get to know your US clients: expert

By RICHARD WOOD

Expat technology design expert Dr Richard Mander is visiting Christchurch and Wellington this week offering free consulting to developers and exporters targeting the US.

Seattle-based Mander said there was nothing stopping New Zealand firms competing with their US counterparts but they had to move away from just selling technology.

He said distance was no object because US firms were used to dealing with suppliers and business units around the US and the world.

However, New Zealand firms needed to travel to the US, understand potential customers and use the web to their advantage.

Mander worked for seven years at Apple Computer on operating systems, digital cameras, handheld computers and virtual reality.

He now runs his own consultancy, Zanzara, which includes Boeing, Microsoft, Palm and Sprint among its clients.

Mander advised getting to customers directly in the US and working with them.

He said bringing products to market quickly while planning the next development was an approach he learned while based in the US. "There is a lot of discipline around how you take an idea and execute it and get it to market on time."

Key to this was identifying with potential customers their most important requirements and creating a timeline for feature releases.

"It is probably not okay to sit in New Zealand and think you understand the North American customer. You have to go out there and meet them and get to know them."

Mander said by working with customers closely you also created great reference sites to get across the "chasm" from early adoption to true popular success.

He said as well as the personal approach, the web had created an opportunity for New Zealand firms to have a strong presence internationally.

If they were software firms they needed downloadable software that could be tried first and every aspect of the experience had to be smooth.

Mander recommended New Zealand firms stop using .co.nz and get a .com suffix. And that their websites work properly on low-bandwidth connections, because many decision makers would access sites while they had downtime in their hotel rooms.

Mander studied cognitive and differential psychology at Stanford University in California and applies this to the design of computer products.

His visits to New Zealand are co-ordinated through the Kiwi Expat Association and the people-networking firm Smartnet.