Or, what do you want the computer to do for you?
This is part 4 of an ongoing series devoted to helping people discover a better way to purchase a computer. In this series I am explaining in detail how I go about helping friends and family through the confusing process of making a computer purchase when they don’t know very much about computers, other than they need one, by pretending to have a conversation with a fictional friend named Sarah.
For those just joining us, click for parts 1, 2 and 3.
Sarah and I had been discussing my 5 Steps for buying a computer for about 10 minutes now and so far we had figured out her Budget and The Form she wanted the computer to come in. Since she had come to me nearly in a panic, overwhelmed by all the choices she thought she had to make about things she didn’t understand, I thought we were doing very well. Sarah must have thought the same because she actually smiled as she reached for her fifth cookie.
I tried not to smile as I took a bite of my first.
“So, GeekMan. What do you mean when you say ‘The Function’?”
“Well Sarah, when I say ‘The Function’ I’m talking about what the computer will do. Specifically, what you need the computer to be able to do to satisfy your computing needs.”
“How am I supposed to know that if I don’t know what my needs are yet?”
“Sarah, you already know what you want the computer to do, you just haven’t thought it all the way through and itemized it for yourself yet.”
“What you talking about, GeekMan?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Sarah may not know much about computers, but she sure does a great Gary Coleman.
“That was great, Sarah.”
“Thanks, but the question still stands.”
“OK, let me try to answer you by asking you a few questions.”
“Alright.”
“When you came to me for help you said you needed a computer, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Why did you need a computer?”
“Well, I’ve been staying later and later at my office, trying to catch up on all the work that’s been piling up, and I thought it would be a good idea to get a computer to use at home at night instead of staying so late at the office. Plus, sometimes my friends send me emails inviting me out but, because I can only read them when I’m in the office, I sometimes don’t get them until the next day, which is usually too late.”
“What programs do you use most at the office?”
“Not too many. Email, web browser, Excel, Word and the occasional PowerPoint presentation.”
“Anything else?”
“Well, sometimes, if I’m alone and working late, I listen to music.”
“OK Sarah, you’ve just described your computing needs.”
“I did?”
Sarah looked confused for a moment as she mentally reviewed the last few moments of our conversation, but she quickly realized that I was right and she gave me a sheepish smile.
“Oh, I see. You mean the computer I buy needs to allow me to work from home, surf the internet and listen to music, don’t you?”
“She can be taught!”
“Ok, ok. I admit it, I was a little slow to catch up there, but I did figure it out… eventually.”
“Yes, you did. Congratulations, have a cookie.”
“Don’t be mean. So, is that it? Is that really all I need to satisfy this step?”
“Not exactly. While we could stop now and find you a computer that fits your current needs very well, it probably wouldn’t grow with you as well as it should. What we’ve got so far are just your basic needs, the things this computer needs to be able to do at a bare minimum to satisfy your computing needs. Now we begin the dreaming phase, where you think about all the things you might want to try doing with the computer in the future.”
“Well, I don’t really know what else I’d like to do, really.”
“Alright, let’s start with a few more questions that might help.”
“Sure.”
“OK, do you own a digital camera?”
“Oh yeah! I’ve got one of those cute little ones, and it takes great pictures! I’m always taking pictures of my friends whenever we get together. So much so, that a lot of them make fun of me for it.”
“So, would you like to be able to edit those pictures on the computer?”
“I guess so. But I know that the best way to do that is with PhotoShop, but I can’t afford to buy that, can I?”
“I wouldn’t recommend it, especially since it would probably be overkill for simple photo editing and printing. But there are plenty of alternative to PhotoShop out there, from free software widely available on the net, to products like PhotoShop Elements or Paint Shop Pro for under $100. It’s not necessary to know which product you want to buy right now, although that would help. You just need to know what you might want to do on the computer so we can get one that will be able to handle doing it.”
“I see. So you’re saying I can start with a free or cheaper version of the software I might need to do whatever it is I want to try doing, but I’ll need to make sure the computer itself can handle doing it before we buy it.”
“Exactly. Going back to the car analogy again, it’s like buying a truck with the expectation that one day you might need to haul something. Or buying something with four-wheel drive and low gears because your area gets a lot of snow during winter and you don’t want to get stuck. Or buying a minivan because you’re planning on having kids someday. None of those scenarios might ever happen while you have the car, but if they do you’ll know your car can do what you need it to do.”
“Very Nice.”
Sarah’s impersonation skills were really good and I couldn’t help but laugh at her dead-on impersonation of Borat.
“OK, so now that you understand you don’t need to spend a whole lot on the software right away, do you think you’d be interested in photo editing in the future?”
“Yeah, I think I’d really like that.”
“Great, then we’ll make sure we spec out a computer powerful enough to be useful for photo editing but still within your budget.”
“Sounds good. Anything else?”
“Do you think you’d ever want to watch movies on your computer?”
“I don’t think so. I mean, I’ve got a TV and a VCR so why would I want to use a laptop when my TV is, like, three times the size?”
“OK, no movie watching for you. How about movie editing?”
“Don’t you need a super-powerful computer for that? And doesn’t the software cost more than my entire budget? Didn’t you just say I didn’t need to up my budget? There’s no way you’re going to convince me to spend $10,000 on a computer just so you can come over and make a movie on it!”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her as she began wildly waving her arms to make her point. She really looked like a crazy woman, or maybe a giant, angry chicken.
“What’s funny now?”
“Uhhhh… nothing. Look Sarah, I’m not going to try to convince you to spend more than your budget will allow. Remember, I’m the one who made you decide on the budget in the first place!”
“Yeah, well I still won’t spend more money on movie software when I don’t even know if I’ll use it.”
“Fair enough. But allow me to point out that just like photo editing software, movie editing software has changed over the last couple of years and now you can get pretty powerful editing software for under $100.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. And to be honest, you can do some pretty amazing stuff with even the ‘basic’ video editing software you can find for free on the net.”
“I can?”
“Yep.”
“What else could I do?”
“Well, how about making your own music or editing music? Or playing games? Do you think you’d like to create your own websites, or do animation or 3D graphics? How about making cards or other crafty things? There’s really no limit to what the computer can help you do, you just need to know what you might, or might not, like.”
“Well, would I need a more powerful computer?”
“Absolutely.”
“Aha!”
“Aha?”
“I got you! You’re trying to make me spend more money!”
“Calm down, Sarah. I’m not trying to get you to spend more money. Your budget will easily accommodate a laptop able to handle almost everything I mentioned, even moderate video editing or light 3D animation if you’re patient. In fact, most computers sold today with mid-level hardware will handle almost anything the average user might want to do. There’s no need to up the budget, we just need to know what you want to do so we can make sure the computer will fit all your needs.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Sarah sat back and thought about that while I sipped my hot cocoa and nibbled on my cookie. I had to say, Sarah was beginning to grasp the method behind my 5 Steps pretty quickly. Truthfully, she seemed to be starting to enjoy the process a little bit, even if she still didn’t really care about the computer itself.
“Ok then, let me see if I can speed this up a bit. I think that I would definitely like to do some photo editing, and possibly even some video editing in the future, but nothing big. And making my own cards and calendars and stuff sounds interesting, too, but I don’t know if that’s really something I’d do on a regular basis. Maybe only around holidays and birthdays, you know? And I like listening to music, but I’m not at all interested in creating my own, so I don’t need anything like music creation or editing software. I also don’t care about games, except the occasional hand of solitaire, so that’s out. Lastly, I’m definitely not interested in 3D graphics or animation. If I want to see that kind of stuff I can always rent a movie.”
“Very well said, Sarah.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re very welcome. And now that we’ve got a good idea of what your computer will need to be able to do to satisfy your needs, we can move on to outfitting your computer with the things it will need to have in order to meet those needs.”
“Does this mean we’ve finished with Step 3?”
“Yep! Now we move on to Step 4: The Inside…”
To be continued…
One Comment