Thank you for buying a corkscrew. Would you like to buy a corkscrew?
Greg Prickril
IBM MSFT SAP - B2B product management coach, consultant, trainer, and speaker passionate about increasing business impact with innovative, customized programs for individuals and organizations.
We live in interesting times. I saw a post by David James at Looop.co and reached out to him for validation on an education-related offering I'm developing. David, someone I had never met, made time to talk to me and enlighten me with some high-octane knowledge and insight. I guess that's the power of social media.
During our chat, he was telling me about the value of delivering training at the exact time people need it and he articulated something I've experienced, but never "realized": Have you ever ordered something from Amazon only to have one of the worlds largest, most sophisticated retailers come back in a matter of hours or days offering you more of the very thing you purchased? While I guess this approach could sometimes make sense, in most cases it is laughably illogical; if I order a high-ticket item like a video camera, what are the chances that I'll buy another one within a few days?
Although I read regularly about the spooky power of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, it seems we've still got a lot of work to do to make it practically valuable to people. It begs inconvenient questions about our own use of bleeding-edge technologies in our products. Are we delivering what people need exactly when they need it or distracting them with virtual smoke and mirrors? Have you encountered this type of "just in time" value? What about its dumb cousin, "just in time" worthlessness?
IBM MSFT SAP - B2B product management coach, consultant, trainer, and speaker passionate about increasing business impact with innovative, customized programs for individuals and organizations.
5 年20 reactions to this article but 173 views. Makes sense LinkedIn.
Resume coach | Enterprise software product manager | 20+ yrs exp | perfectpmresume.com | Resume and interview coaching for product managers and professionals seeking $100K-$300K+ roles.
5 年Someone explained this to me once (I don't actually remember the explanation, but it somehow has to do with the fact that the ad networks don't actually know what I bought, just what I might have looked at). But I think your basic point is correct - these systems are scary not for what they are *able* to do, but for the ways they screw up, and especially the unintended consequences of them being quite stupid.? It does make you think though - if I were an ad network, I might try to develop an algorithm that says something like "I know this person was interested in this item. Chances are he/she bought it, so what's the *next* thing they might want?" and then put *that* ad up. If I'm interested in an A, and you always use A's with B's, then whether or not I bought a new A, I probably want a B.
Interesting.? As a former software developer, I bet it is a bug, probably the result of multiple independent software components not in synch.? In light of the flood of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning buzzwords coming at us from all directions,? with all this super smart software that we hear about all the time (which does happen), it may be somewhat comforting that you see some not-so-smart software around.? ? :-)
I think that I saw on some ad software to report a certain ad as "I have already bought this". Not ideal but something...?
Innovative Product Leader | Driving Growth and AI/ML-powered solutions in e-commerce and subscription services | Passionate about customer-centric Product Development
5 年Having seen this every single time I make a new categorical purchase at Amazon, I'm guessing this is a problem with the feedback loop between the sales systems and recommendations engines. A classic case of systems operating in silos. Or it is intentional. If it is the former and has been in the relevant PM's backlog, hopefully it'll get prioritized someday. If it's the latter, then I hope Amazon recognizes the slightly negative effect this has on the overall customer experience and does something about it, with them being so "Customer Obsessed" and whatnot.