I'd like to start a multi-topic debate on the best and worst products from a product managers perspective. If you have a case to site, please do so and we can debate how to approach either repairing the product (worst products) or learning from products with excellence. If we gather enough material on any one product, InsideSpin will organize it and send it to the vendor on behalf of the members.
Some examples for me include:
Best Products
1. Most any router or switch -- plug it in for home use and it works out of the box. Probably easiest device for non-technical consumers to use. I can't think of too many technology devices or software products where that would be true, in fact, I wonder how average consumer uses computer technology at all given the way its packaged and administered (BTW - WIndows 7 is starting to look promising in this category as well, never thought I would say that).
2. Google Chrome -- easy to install, learns quickly building up reusable site list. Only issue is that the Options dialogs are bit-head oriented, but no one really needs to go to them very often. It starts faster than Explorer and seems to handle the Internet better overall especially the way it helps you find new sites.
Worst Products
1. Most any software package that comes with a non SLR digital camera. All crap, poor sync facilities, numbering systems, card maintenance, manuals, etc. Most people just use default settings because advanced settings are so hard to understand and use. The only exception seems to be high-end DSLRs, which seem good overall.
2. Quickbooks -- has improved over the years, but generally non-intuitive. Given they are targeting the average small business owner acting as their own accountant, it really is a mess from a data input perspective. Some new features have eased the burden but it is mostly impossible to work with well. My most recent experience is version 10, needed to handle Foreign currency which it touts but has many problems with still.
3. Lifecycle Treadmills -- we have one, good mechanical device but the software has lots of gaps. This is a good example of where a quality PM process would help -- likely one good product cycle would fix it up, a whole bunch of little things making it less than it could be. It's the best treadmill brand mechanically, but not top end in terms of software - anyone know the product manager?