I was lucky enough to attend Wizards of the Web in Austin, Texas last month. This is run by the good folk at Future Now (whose blog is a must read for those in ecommerce).

While we learnt all different things, the biggest thing that I came away with – not new, but hammered in hard – was:

You are not your user.

Different people approach things with radically different motivations, approaches, goals, experiences, and expectations. The number 1 secret to a top performing site is to recognise that and to accommodate those differences as best you can. Basically, be all things to all people! And yes, it is possible. Easy, no, but possible, yes. As Bryan Eisenberg said, either you do the hard work, or your customers do the hard work, it’s up to you.