I am working on a new feature set for one of our software products. I find myself deciding to be opinionated in the way these features are implemented. That’s a tough call, I’ve found restaurant managers to be opinionated themselves, and stubborn. You are bound to battle with current customers and alienate prospects, but I think it’s important. As a designer and Engineer that’s part of what you have to offer; decisions.
I mean, who wants to collate dozens of “tip management spreadsheets” and distill them to develop best practices and specific solutions. Managers going about their day don’t have the time or the interest. Doing a “deep dive” on a specific problem that many people in an industry experience should produce opinions. Share them! Implement them! Or what did you do all that work for?
There is no point in building a completely agnostic solution. It’s important to have opinions. Not everyone is going to agree - you can’t please everyone - but without opinions you cease to be a designer of solutions and become a request filler.
Aug 14