Database Reference
In-Depth Information
You'll recall from Chapter 4 that you had to deliver the cold, hard facts about
“Novix” to UX Director Hans Blitz: despite spending 80 million dollars on the
new search, the current Behemoth search performed better than the new one in a
head-to-head comparison usability test.
To put it mildly, Hans was shocked. But bad news doesn't get any better with age,
so he quickly scheduled a meeting with Joey Vellucci, CEO, to break the news. You
were glad you didn't have to be in the meeting, although a “ly-on-the-wall” perspec-
tive might have been interesting.
Strolling into work one morning, you spy Hans enjoying a cigarette in “smoker's
alley,” the only place where the few remaining Behemoth workers who smoke can
indulge. It's behind the old mill, where 19
th
century workers brought in the raw mate-
rials for the looms, and where inished textiles were loaded onto trains. Hans sees
you walking by and motions for you to come over for a chat.
“Well, Joey didn't go ballistic like I expected, but he's pretty annoyed and wants
more answers pronto.”
“Hmmm…what kind?”
“Well, irst of all, he's curious about why our recruiting clients are complaining
about our current search if our current search engine does better than Novix.”
“Well, just because we did better than Novix doesn't mean that our current search
is perfect.”
“
Yo u
tell him that,” Hans offers with a chuckle. “He did raise some interesting
points, though.”
“Such as?” you ask.
“He looked at your report and was bafled that recruiters kept talking about the miss-
ing Boolean search; the big selling point that the Palo Alto guys kept hammering was that
you don't need a Boolean with Novix, and that was supposed to be a
good
thing.”
“Yeah,” you admit. “It's a valid point. But what we found out is that a lot of the
recruiters are really creatures of habit who have been using their same complex Bool-
ean strings for a long time. You take that away from them and it's like taking a juicy
T-Bone from a hungry dog. As a consequence, the lack of Boolean search capability
may decrease adoption of the Novix search engine.”
Hans' mood suddenly goes dark, and he glares at you with disdain: “Prove to me
we spent 80 million getting rid of something our clients want!”
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