Unexpected Use Cases

My favorite example of misused products are Q-tips. Think about it, they are notorious for being used as an ear cleaning product, but that’s not what they are intended to be used for. “With the most soft cotton at the tip*, Q-tips® cotton swabs are perfect for arts & crafts, manicures, makeup application, cleaning and more.” Their box even says to not insert the swab into the ear canal! 

I know I blow @Sara Fowers chat up with product questions so she’ll appreciate this one where I was on the other side of the fence…

The first tool that our company released, DESTINI Profiler, was a way-ahead-of-it’s-time modeling tool that captured construction costs with it. Think relatively simple geometric blocks that, as you pushed and pulled, the costs associated updated. Add 20,000SF to the lobby level of a hotel? Sure, that’ll be another $1.25m…. any other bright ideas??

As the tool progressed, the models became higher fidelity, but never to the level of detail of, say, an architect’s rendering that you might see in a newspaper when a fancy skyscraper is announced. 

I am absolutely an expert in the tool - and I’ve pushed the boundaries as far as they could go… so I thought!

One day, we got a support call from a client. “The model is really slow to load...”

He was literally using it to model the full interior, with stairs and fancy handrails, the bar down in the hotel lobby, the entry doors, detailed balconies with railings and glass panels…. everything.

Definitely learned some new tricks that day! And revised our training manual to stress that users should avoid that particular use case LOL

 @Casey Wilt That is amazing!! I love that you took that and made changes to your trainings to help others who might consider doing the same thing! 

I love this question @Sara Fowers because as a Product Manager so much of my time is spent focusing on the primary use case of a product. Some of my favorite customer calls are when I get introduced to a new process or function that is completely outside of my imagination. I don’t have a specific example that comes to mind, but I get sucked into websites or YouTube videos that highlight people using products in unexpected ways that create valuable life hacks. Thank you for your example @Casey Wilt. That is really fun to read about.