He’s not what you’d call one of life’s winners.
In April – in only his second start of the season – Inter Milan backup goalie, Radu, kicked the ball into his own net.
It’s been described as the worst goalkeeping error in Serie A history.
Not only that, but it cost Inter the league title.
Last Sunday, having been sent to Cremonese (which, I assume, is Italian for “Coventry”), Radu played his first game since April’s howler.
Unfortunately, in the 95th minute, he caught the ball and fell backwards into his own goal.
That handed Fiorentina a 3:2 victory.
Unsurprisingly, Radu has become a bit of a joke among football fans.
But…here’s the thing.
Earlier in the game, he made a spectacular save, clawing away a free kick that was headed towards the top corner of his goal.
But no-one remembers that…
Cremonese fans aren’t saying, “He prevented a certain goal, but then he gave up a crazy goal. So, on average, he was OK.”
No, they’re on twitter calling him a figlio di puttana.
And there’s a lesson here.
People will focus on the most emotive experience they have with you.
There’s no point in having software that’s fantastic 95% of the time…if it’s a giant pain in the arse to use the other 5%.
Your users are going to focus on that 5%.
And that’s going to kill your retention rates.
So, make sure you’re getting the basics right. Ask your users what their most common frustrations are and fix those things.
All the best,
Steve Gibson
