Or maybe I should say, "What are they thinking?" since this isn't a past problem I had - it will be an ongoing issue until it is fixed...
I received a summons for jury duty. Not a big deal except for the fact that I'm going to be out of town at a conference at the same time.

So I started the process of getting an exemption.

The Problem: Not taking advantage of available technology to ease the pain of interacting with the court.

I called the courthouse and left a message. Next I had to wait for the Bailiff to return the call and let me know what I needed to do. Next she FAXed me an official court document - you know the kind - hard to read, copied 1000 times, written in legaleze so I had to spend the next 30 minutes trying to figure out which parts to fill out. Then I had to print off my supporting documents (conference registration and flight confirmation) and FAX everything back to the courthouse.

Needless to say - I'm not sure if it was right - and won't know if it was until I get picked up by the police for contempt of court. This, because they don't notify you UNLESS the deferral is denied.

The Solution: Catch up with the rest of society. Even the License Branch has started this process and you know that's progress!

We live in a new reality - people are connected and want to be able to take advantage of this option if at all possible. We'd much rather fill out a form online or submit paperwork via email than picking up a phone and using a FAX machine.

This gives me the opportunity to pimp an amazing online tool that we use at Granger. It has saved us hours of work and more than pays for itself.

It's called FormAssembly and allows you to create, implement and manage forms online. It has a sweet form creation tool and allows your submissions to be held in data so you can easily manage, archive or export them as needed.

When stuff like this is available - why wouldn't you take advantage of it?!

The Problem: I recently received an email from The TypePad Team asking me to fill out a survey. Here is what it said exactly:

Hello,

Yesterday you should have a received an email from me telling you about an upcoming survey for TypePad. This is your official invitation to participate in this survey.

We want to make TypePad better by understanding more about you, what you blog about, and your experience with TypePad. The survey should take about 5 minutes to complete and your answers will be treated with the utmost confidence.

I realize your time is valuable and your participation and feedback is extremely important to helping us improve TypePad. If you could complete the survey by Wednesday, February 10th, we would greatly appreciate it.

To take the survey, please click here: (I won't put you through the pain)

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at: (not necessary)

Sincerely,

The TypePad Team

Lack of Excellence: My problem with this was two-fold.

First, the survey itself is NOT a five minute survey. I thought I'd be nice, so I decided to fill it out (even though I'm not really using TypePad any more). But 8-10 minutes in I was so frustrated that I dropped out and never finished the survey. I suppose if you checked boxes wildly you could be done in 5 minutes, but I was trying to check the correct boxes and give explanations that would add value.

Second, (and maybe this was at the end) there was no real assessment of the negatives. Questions were more along the lines of, "How would you rate this totally excellent and awesome feature in TypePad?" instead of, "Do you feel TypePad does a good job by offering this feature?" or "Do you feel TypePad offers the right features?"

I've never been a big fan of TypePad in general and I'm in the process of moving at least three long time staff bloggers from TypePad to WordPress. But that doesn't mean I wish TypePad ill will. I simply don't understand the philosophy they operate under and hope that they course correct quickly for the sake of those that are still using their platform. I think they truly believe they have one of the best platforms out there - when from everything I've experienced, they charge a lot of money for something that is behind the times, poorly themed, and locked down so tight you'd have to move a mountain to try and customize it. All making me ask, What were they thinking?

The Problem: The Zune Marketplace is quickly gaining popularity due to it's subscription based service for music. Download as much music as you like for $14.99/month and keep ten of these songs (DRM free) each month as well.

I love my subscription. I can download as much or as little as I want every month. I don't have to wonder if I'll like the music, I simply download the entire album and if I don't like certain songs I just delete them.

But it's the podcast section that I just can't figure out. I mean they have podcasts, you can subscribe to them. And you can even search for them fairly easily. They have categories and the sync process is as seamless as any iTunes functionality.

But when it comes to submitting one, you better be prepared to get frustrated. Here's why:

• When you enter the rss feed link it simply tells you it was submitted
  
• You get no confirmation email or message in your "social" Inbox
• You get no updates as to when the podcast might be accepted and included in the Marketplace
• You get no notification when it has been added to the Marketplace

Lack of Excellence: If you're going to keep up with your competition, you need to do it at least as well as they are doing it - and preferably better!

There is no reason why the "system" can't send out email notifications along the way. Implement an eCommerce solution if you have to, that tracks the submission as if it were a product sold for free. But at least make an attempt. We shouldn't have to do all the leg work to find out if our podcast has been accepted or not.

People like to be in the know. If you keep them in the dark throughout the entire process they'll get tired, irritated and begin asking, "What were they thinking?"

The Problem: Desktop and laptop computers are now being shipped with a sweet new version of Windows Vista - the 64bit version. This upgrade not only speeds up common functions and applications, but will most likely become the standard OS for all future Windows-based computers (until the next big advancement).

So you'd expect large companies to be in the know and to have 64bit versions of their applications ready and waiting for the OS to hit the marketplace.
For the most part I am impressed with the number of apps that either offer a 64bit version or that work even without a specific upgrade for 64bit.

So you can imagine my shock when I started up the speedy 64bit version of Internet Explorer (IE7) and realized that there is no 64bit version of Adobe Flash Player.

Lack of Excellence: Don't worry, I understand that the marketplace is a mine field of copyright issues, patents, sovereign partnerships and other problems that may keep a company from developing the very thing the marketplace is waiting for.

But this seems different. For some reason the Flash Player team appears slow on the uptake. Not just in this situation, but in others as well.

1. Flash support on mobile devices: Flash video streams so well over the Internet. Is there a reason why flash isn't a standard piece of mobile browser technology?
2. Flash support for 64bit IE7: Adobe undoubtedly knew the 64bit version of Windows Vista was coming out. Why wasn't the Flash Player team ready?

Again - I'm sure there are complications and I don't have a good grasp on the development process for Flash Player. But if the technology is available and it can be done I'd definitely ask, "What were they thinking?"

First off let me say I have nothing against Target. In fact I love the store and spend more time there than I do in Walmart, Meijer and Kmart combined. They have gone the second mile to create nice shopping environments and offer products that are well made and offer a touch of class to your home.

Service: That said, I run into this problem a lot when I'm there. I couldn't find a picture so I'll have to describe it. Pretend you are standing just inside the big sliding doors where all the carts are kept. You turn to look down the long line of checkouts stretching the width of the store. How many are open? My guess is 4 (unless it's December 20th).

Lack of Excellence: 4 open registers out of 40! Talk about overkill in the construction phase. Think of all the extra floor space they would have if they had have settled on 10 registers instead of the 40! Not to mention the fact that you often wind up in a line behind 6 other people and spend 15 minutes waiting around for your turn.

Website Application: What if we did the same thing when designing our websites? It would be like locking certain important pages down so only a limited number of people could access it at one time. If you went there maybe you'd see the following: "This page is currently being viewed by 100 people so you will have to wait until they are done."

Or better yet - lets talk apples to apples: "You are currently in 8th position in the online checkout process. Please wait your turn and then be prepared to enter your credit card information promptly."

It simply doesn't make sense in the online world. You expect your shopping experience to be between you and the remote secured server. I checkout when I want to and it should only take me as long as it takes to type in my info. Anything longer than that and we start getting antsy.

In Summary: Now I don't want to be too hard on Target when I ask What Were They Thinking. I don't have the responsibility they have in designing store layouts and being prepared for a large influx of customers. Nor do I have to manage the number of employees in the building at any given time and how many of them should be on checkout. But at times it just doesn't seem to make sense.

This is actually the product that pushed me to make the What Were They Thinking blog post series a reality.

Product: Tide 2X Ultra with new and improved dispensing system.

Lack of excellence: Just looking at the new bottle one might think, "How intelligent - a spout! That should make it easier to use." And for those who don't care about using the proper amount for each load of clothes it just might be. Tip the bottle over, push the spout a few times and you're good.

But for those of us desiring to use the right amount for each load (and no more than necessary which would end up costing more) this system breaks down immediately. Look on the back of the container and it shows you how to remove the clear cap and pump the right amount into it for each load. So far so good. I Get the right amount, dump it into the washer and then realize that in order to replace the cap I have to wash it out completely. Replace it without washing and it will drip out from under the cap and run down the bottle - leaving everything in its path sticky and slimy.

Quick review: The old version of the bottle worked like this: remove cap, pour right amount into cap, dump into the washer and replace cap. Excess detergent drains back into the bottle. This saved time (and money since nothing is washed down the drain.)

Learning from our mistakes: I would suggest that making improvements to things is great - but every new thing also needs tested by people that use the product. Just because something can be done doesn't necessarily mean it should be done.

I was talking to someone on our team about this the other day and she said:

Sometimes creative people are so creative that they don't think about the functionality of their design...

Now one would assume that Tide (Procter & Gamble) has both the creative designers and those testing for functionality. But in this case it appears something slipped through the cracks. That's why I asked, "What were they thinking?"

I've decided to start a new blog post series called What were they thinking? I've been planning to for a while, just wanted to make sure I had a good direction in mind and had thought it through. Here's why: Posts like this can come across as very negative and derogatory. And I wanted to make sure that they added value rather than just appear like I'm complaining.

That said, here is my hope for this series:

1. Each post will describe something (it could be a product, website, brand, service or really anything for that matter)
2. Next, I'll try to explain where I think there was a breakdown that caused a lack of excellence.
   
3. Finally, I'll try (may be difficult in some situations) to use this lack of excellence to illustrate something of value - so we can learn from the mistakes of others.

This is just an introduction to WWTT so look for the first post later this week.