It seems both simple and hard. Think like a user. When you’re building something. Anything. It’s easy - sometimes necessary - to think like a builder. Like an engineer. So often we think about how we’re going to build something and we get lost. Lost in the technology. The feasibility. Answering the question "will it work?” Figuring out the minimal viable thing we can deliver.

It is important to take moments and step back; to approach the problem as though you just delivered it to yourself. Do you love it? Is it what you expect? As someone without any of the baggage you have as the builder? It is key to think like a user throughout the creation process.

Let’s take for example an electronic medical record (EMR). There are so many awesome things that an EMR could be and do. Document a medical history. Substantiate a service for an insurance company. Help propose treatment plans. Flag patient risks. It’s easy to get lost in the details of how we build all those things. It is easy to get preoccupied by what technologies we use. And how we implement the solution. And lose focus on the user.

When I started Virtual Clinician my idea was a simple one: provide an EMR that was easy. Not just easy to start using, but trivial to start using. I wanted someone to be able to use their browser to say “sign me up” and the system would create an instance for them immediately that could be used. The world was full of EMR systems that needed consultants to be hired. Software to be installed and configured. Hardware and software to be bought. I wanted a doctor who had no more experience than experience with online shopping to be able to sign up for a high-quality EMR.

I had to build it. And I got lost in the technology. And the feasibility. And I forced myself to think like a user. And be sure that we created something that was so easy to sign-up it was entirely automated. I found that asking the question “is that necessary?” and “would the user think that was necessary?” as powerful tools for eliminating steps that were artificial to the essence of what I was doing.

I find that often I have to remind myself to slow down. And give myself time to think like a user. And open my mind. And I see the things I am missing through the eyes of the user.