You can build the best thing, do your best work. But if no one notices, it doesn't mean anything.

Let me try to illustrate with a story. We were on a vacation to Disneyworld years ago. Disney, if you weren't aware, has engineered just about all the efficiency out of their experience. They track traffic, ridership numbers, they even have data on which garbage cans are the most popular.

So it's not surprising to see this pathological obsession over efficiency applied to the Starbucks that's in Epcot Center. There's not a line in this Starbucks. There are multiple lines, with multiple registers waiting for you. And at each register was a big green flag that the staffer would wave (like, three feet in the air) when they were ready for the next order.

Again, efficiency. Turnover. Next. Customer. Please.

But this design had a problem. Can you guess what it was?

It was the customer. The person who was "next", had their head buried in their phone (or, being generous, was occupied with a clutch of kids and trying to keep them entertained in a sub-caffeinated state). Either way, the result is the same - the holdup was the customer. They weren't engaged. Starbucks and Disney had built what they imagined was the most efficient system for maximizing throughput (which, by the way, is what you and I and everyone else expect from this coffee shop). But without active engagement from the customer (i.e. "paying attention"), the whole thing falls apart. Seth Godin calls this "enrollment". That is to say, the customer in "in it with you". They're an active participant in this journey with you.

So remember. Just like being technically correct is insufficient, having the best product/service on offer is also insufficient. You have to get the other side involved with you.