In the left-brained world of software development all problems are nails, and logic and reason are the hammer. It goes something like this:

We’re building a new piece of software. We should understand who it’s for so we can build the thing they want. How can you know what to build if you don’t understand the person you’re building it for?

And in essence, this is correct. Knowing the needs of the audience who’s problem you’re trying to solve can be a big help in building the right experience. But therein lies the rub. When understanding the dreams, motivations, and fears of human beings that are not ourselves, are tools are woefully crude. More often than not, whatever tidbits we do glean about our audience are just that — scraps, fragments. Certainly not a complete picture. Even worse, we have no idea how heavily to weigh these factoids, and we have essentially no idea how large the space is that remains undefined.

But in a world where people are clamoring for logic and reason as the basis for decisions, we’ll base our choices on the data we have. Is this really any better than flying blind?

Matters get even more complicated as the value of technology is now no longer just about its functionality but also about the emotional connection it makes with the customer. Worrying about an emotional connection is usually reserved for products of the arts. But software too is now subjected to this dimension. Who is the target customer for the TV show 30 Rock? Would knowing anything about what elements bind the show’s audience help the writers make it funnier? More interesting? Would the creators of the program have been helped by speculating about their target audience in advance of their first episode? Possibly creating a mock persona of the 30 Rock audience member? This is not to say that there aren’t things that bind the audience of the show — mostly their appreciation of Tina Fey’s sense of humor. It’s just that what binds this audience doesn’t really help its creators make a better experience.

Here’s the difficult truth. The customer for your new piece of software is… YOU.

It has to be. There’s no other person you can know.There’s no other person for whose feelings you can really intuit, their dreams, what makes them tick.

Once a product exists, once a product is in production, then you can shed your burden. Then you have real customers. You can find out who they are. You can watch them use your product. You can ask them questions. But until your software is in use, by real people, in non-contrived environments, the customer is you. Whether there are other people who share your feelings and values about the product your building, and will pay to user it, is another matter entirely.