November 2001 — Industry Perspective
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Learning From Teachers Beyond the Classroom
- Keeping people focused outside. It's easy to design things in your office.
- Ensuring their market contacts are broad and authoritative. It's easier to work with people you know than search out new contacts.
- Making sure we are listening more than we are talking. Enthusiastic people want to convince others they have good ideas.
- Talking to a range of users. The most sophisticated users often have the most interesting ideas; less sophisticated users can be more critical. Those inputs are harder to listen to, but can be more important.
To summarize, we were very fortunate to learn our most important lesson early on: The only way to be successful in the education marketplace is to listen to teachers, understand their challenges, act appropriately on their advice, and be a part of expanding their vision for the classroom. The education community has grown and changed since the day we received that first product order in 1986, but our mantra to listen has remained true and served us well throughout.
Contact Information
Texas Instruments Inc.
Dallas, TX
(800) TI-CARES
http://education.ti.com
