Perception vs. Reality
I was walking through the Heathrow airport a few weeks ago and, as almost always happens to me, I was stuck behind someone in the security line who held the entire line up after waiting until the last minute to take off their coat, unlace and remove their monstrous boots – then unzipped their (probably-a-bit-too-large) carry-on in order to remove their laptop before being waved through the metal detector. My perception of this person was either that they were completely inconsiderate of the people behind them, or perhaps it was their first time in an airport.
Regardless, the reason they behaved this way could have been for dozens of reasons. I don’t know why they did this (and in the big picture didn’t matter one iota). My perception is my experience, and it belongs to me.
The problem, of course, is that perception is reality. I can’t go a day without reading a magazine article, blog post, or email without seeing someone state their perception as the truth – the one and only fact based entirely on the information they have to build their perception. Sometimes (imagine a good news reporter), their perception is very close to fact. Many other sources, on the internet, for example, base their reality on very little information. There’s even a meme (I think it’s a meme) that says (sarcastically) “If it’s on the internet, it must be true!”.
Every once in a while, I get annoyed when when I read a perception of reality that is much closer to fiction than fact. Then I remind myself that perception is reality. If you want change, their are two choices – you can change reality, or you can change perception. One is nearly impossible, and the other is merely hard.
Perceptions can, and often do change over time, but it takes work if you want to change someone else’s perception. Imagine, for example, that your company released version 1 of their flagship product. It has a lot of nice functionality, but it’s difficult to use…and has high profile security problems. Your company follows up with version 2, which addresses most of the security problems and is a little easier to use. Finally, 18 months later, your company releases version 3. This version has been redesigned from the ground up for usability and security – in fact, 3rd party testing has shown that it’s the most secure application in its class, and that usability is on par with every other application in its class.
So – what do the customers say about version 3? They say that it’s hard to use and it has security problems. Are they wrong? If you go by facts, of course they are – but their perception is that the product has problems. It will be version 4 or 5 before customers come around – and that will only be some of them. You lost some of those customers forever with versions 1 & 2. If you play your cards right, however, you plan to pick up new customers in version 3 – customers who have a blank slate when it comes to perception. Or, you can release more often. I’m a big fan of incremental releases – if customers see steady improvement and a string of stable versions, their perception can change more quickly (as long as you actually show them steady improvement and a string of stable versions).
Perception as reality isn’t limited to software. It’s just as applicable to concepts and people and just about anything else. Try this (assuming you’ve read this far): The next time you read a blog post, forum discussion, or article, ask yourself if the author’s perception of the facts is in line with your perception of the same facts. Can other people have different perceptions of these same facts. Different perceptions are merely different opinions – creating different realities for different people. It’s up to you, as the inquisitively minded tester to sort out the difference.
Comments
- Anonymous
April 23, 2009
Alan,You are right. Perception is reality for people. In fact, there is no reality, only perception. These words that you are reading right now on your computer screen are really not there. There is just a beam of electrons that traces patterns on the screen. Your eye (really your brain) holds these patterns for longer than they really exist (due to something called persistence of vision) and you end up seeing these words.Switching to the software example given by you, I agree that existing customers might have bad perception about the version 3. Pushing frequent releases of stable, functional, secure and usable versions to these customers would turn them around because of the new positive experiences. Perception also depends on the intensity of inputs given to people. This means that in addition to the incremental solid versions, if the customers hear and read good things about these versions, their perception might become positive sooner. Of course, changing a perception is a complex affair and does take time. It is best not to allow a perception to become sour in the first place.Thanks,Inder P Singh - Anonymous
April 27, 2009
Well, perception is PART of our reality. It may start with sensory perception, but also goes to thoughts, emotions, feelings, values, beliefs, and a whole mess of other factors.In advertising, one knows that "Reality is based on perception, and perception can be manipulated. Ergo, reality can be manipulated."See this link for but one of many frameworks for looking at what happens after we perceive something:http://www.primarygoals.org/MeaningMaking.htm