Want to spot the next hot tech trend? Just follow the moms

Clay Shirky has an important message for all those tech analysts who spend their lives trying to spot the hottest new tech trends: Follow the moms.

"If you want to know what technology is going to change the world, don't pay attention to 13-year-old boys,' he stated in a video podcast posted to Ted.com yesterday. "Pay attention to young mothers because they have got not an ounce of support for technology that doesn't materially make their lives better."

Shirky's comments got me thinking - a lot - about the mostly love relationship moms have with technology these days. Here are a few observations.

A 13-year-old boy may be willing to devote hours learning the intricacies of a new tech product or tool, simply because it scores highly on the cool or geek factor. A mother with young children, on the other hand, doesn't have that luxury. Her spare time is beyond precious: it's practically non-existant.

What's more, her product or brand loyalty can be won or lost on that basis: if the purchase process is a hassle, the user instructions aren't sufficiently intuitive, or if she isn't instantly delighted by her new tech tool, she'll abandon your product and move on to another tech solution before you even have the opportunity to discover that she was your customer.

That mom may give your product a second chance if her friends are totally raving about it (she'll hang around on Twitter even if she doesn't see the point at first because her friends are totally sold on it). But if the technology doesn't demonstrate its usefulness to her own life - and fast - she'll log out and never come back.

Moms have high expectations of tech tools. We don't care as much about the glitz factor as we do about function. Make them attractive, yes, but, dazzle us with all the things these tech tools can do to make our lives easier day-to-day. And don't assume that moms are newbies when it comes to the world of technology. That attitude is dated, to say the least.

And, tech companies, please make your products as reliable as possible. After all, if we're going to entrust our contacts, our schedules, and our modes of communication to a particular tech tool, we expect it to be functional 24/7. (By the way, a 2 am to 3 am maintenance window isn't okay if your target audience is a community of moms. Moms don't have a 2 am to 3 am maintenance window. Mom time = anytime.)

Oh yeah: one last thing. We moms expect our customer service experience to be as positive as our impressions of the product itself. After all, if you're asking us to invest our time in adopting your product, don't we have the right to expect your company to invest in customer support as well? If you don't, you're sending moms the message that our time isn't particularly valuable -- and moms really hate to hear that.

Moms: What have your experiences been like with the tech products you love - and those ones you don't love quite so much? What sells you on a particular type of technology? What drives you insane? (Dads, feel free to chime in, too. I only commented on moms this time around because Clay Shirky was commenting on moms specifically.)