Technology is hard. Technology is cultural. Technology in any given industry is not for everyone. Just because you had success before doesn’t mean that the way you did things before will work again.
Often times people forget about the cultural aspect of software. To build a successful system you must understand the mindset of the people that will use it. To understand the mindset of the people that will use it, you must immerse yourself into their world. You have to understand it better than them. If you don’t do that you’ll never grasp the little details that are so important to them.
And really, it’s those little details that are most important. Knowing that most of your users have only 1 monitor will change the way you design your system. Knowing if they mainly work mobile will change it a different way. Understanding their lives is the only way to build a system that they will cling to.
Because people are willing to grasp and cling to a system that speaks to them. But you can’t speak to them with broad strokes, you have to get right down in their ear and whisper the words that only someone who knows them well can say. By doing that you show you are part of their team, understand what keeps them up at night and how you can help them make more money.