Ignore the current user, focus on the future audience.
CRE is not technologically advanced as a general rule. Don’t get me wrong, many in the industry are on the cutting edge of consumer technology. But that’s not a replacement for industry specific tools. Using Evernote on a personal account is different from an organizational intelligence tool that shows everything going on.
If you want to build something that is going to change what we do in this industry you must first forget about the person who would use the tools today. That’s not who will bring change. The user of today is generally limited in their ability to drive technology change. Often because they fear the change that new tools can bring or are so ingrained in the current processes that any change is frightening.
In reality, early adopters will be the ones in the best position to figure out whether the new tools are working right. They will be the ones that reap the rewards. But they’ll do it by thinking differently. The early adopters are probably also the people working in the fringes of the industry. They crave process improvement and tools that drive efficiency. But these are the same people that aren’t front and center today.