Business consultants often get a bad rap but the clarity of thinking that they can sometimes bring to planning and development can be worth every penny.

So simple! Crucially, Twitter is founded on a formula that so many web-based start-ups really need to study:  (Established Needs in Market + Simple Proposition) x Technology. Sure, we're all experts after the event and it's easy to critique the merits or failings of someone else's hard work.

But Jack Dorsey's presentation below shows a clarity of thought and understanding of consumer behaviour at Twitter's inception that should be used as a benchmark for all online NPD. As you can see in this video, Twitter was conceived in response to very real, current behaviours.It offered a solution that was so simple that users can immediately become efficient advocates. And the technology was developed with very clear, single-minded objectives in mind. A means to an end, not an end in itself.

In contast to complex, slow industries like aeronautical engineering or pharmaceuticals, barriers to entry on the web are [almost] negligible. The speed and relatively low cost with which a new venture can be set up has meant that hundred of thousands of ill-conceived businesses a born, with no hope of any future. I've seen milllions of dollars of investors' money being burnt through in pursuit of online services which simply do not address any real, known needs in the market.  Furthermore, some of these services are so cumbersome and convoluted that it's difficult to pin down any specific benefit that might be offered to prosepctive users. (You don't need links from me to find examples and anyway, I'm not in the business of kicking people when they're down). Some very gifted and intelligent people genuinely believe that if technology can make a capability possible, then a market can be found for the new offering. Similarly, many developers are so hung up on the sophistication of their product, that they expect the market to be in awe.

But even the newest products and services using the smartest technology are only successful if they provide a better solution to an existing need or want. And most of these needs and wants are as old as the hills. We forget Mr Maslow at our own peril...