Notes from 6/4–13/4

Design

Rules of Flow for Product Management: an AirBnB Case Study

1. Clear goals and immediate feedback
2. Complete concentration on the task
3. Loss of Self-consciousness
4. Sense of control over the task — be clear about where you’re going
5. Transformation of Time
6. Balance between challenge and skills — don’t fatigue user with tasks or steps that don’t reinforce that user’s path towards their goal
7. Effortlessness and ease
8. Intrinsically rewarding experience

Generative Design is Doomed to Fail

But generative design’s problems with choice overload, imprecise metrics, and a lack of design integration are so core to how it operates that they’re probably insurmountable. Or at least not easily solved by the usual trio of proposed solutions: better algorithms, an improved interface, and faster computers. Ultimately, I worry that generative design has become a distraction. I’m left wondering what might have happened if we were guided by the process instead of the technology.

Very well put and very worrying for the upcoming DAI degree

Design by crisis: tectonic shifts in design constraints

Plessner’s concept of eccentric positionality states: As humans, we are aware of what we are and in turn we are aware of that (Plessner 1975). We are aware of contingency, our vulnerability, our imperfectness and we need, design, create and use technology in an effort to ‘solve’ that imperfectness.

Society and the design community react in a way as if with the advent of SARS-Cov2-pandemic a fifth generator is in place, one that breaks open existing constraints, makes them less important or even overrides them.

Cross (2004) states that the lower levels of design expertise are often inclined to be more problem-focused, exactly what we’re seeing right now. A lot of shortcuts to a quick fix for a pressing problem. On the other hand, the more experienced designers work in a solution oriented way. Both are in the process of designing, both give all they have, but the more experienced designers are used to exploring the constraints and involve them in their process.

Development

Complete Introduction to the Low-Code Ecosystem

This sort of covers it. However, this blog post is a plethora of low code tools that help. However, it seems that to use them in the office, it will depend a lot on the current state of your digital ecosystem.me

how to manage HTML DOM with vanilla JavaScript only? for modern browsers and IE 11+

Shortcut to many many examples, the real benefit is how it is presented

Product

What is a Product Roadmap?

A strategic roadmap ensures that teams do the most important things first and that they communicate the deadlines of their (few) commitments precisely. To implement it, it is necessary to (1) define a clear product vision . Then, (2) translate the vision into strategic objectives . Then, (3) Break down the objectives into work themes . Finally, put them in a (4) time frame and clarify (5) legal notices. These 5 points form the strategy hierarchy, which is covered by the roadmap.Rules to outline each of the 5 concepts: (1) The vision does not have to be realistic, it needs to be inspiring. 
(2) Good objectives are composed of synthesis, value and term. 
(3) The theme is broader than feature, more specific than objective. 
(4) The time frame must be broad. Use quarters or 'Coming soon'. 
(5) Shit is going to happen. Take cover.

Creating Product Requirements

1. What is it?

2. Who is it for?

3. When will it be ready?

4. Where will it be available?

5. Why should I get it?

Any problem has multiple scenarios and solutions; we cannot typically solve everything so I try to create boundary conditions by stating a few assumptions and therefore I solve a particular scenario of that problem

I try to list the different use cases after the entire elicitation.

Thinking how the user will typically interact helps me to design the system. Therefore, I define the journey maps of each user persona.

How the Best Product Managers Handle “Downtime”

Tactically, the Best Product Managers:

1. Deep dive into analytics and share what they learn with their organization
2. Create new dashboards, add new user funnels, and create new reporting (Bonus: they automate the alerts/emails so they don’t have to keep checking them)
3. Update their progress towards OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and add commentary. Haven’t used OKRs? Learn more here:

• Set up low-effort “tests” in the product (using Chatlio, Qualaroo, Intercom or any other survey/chat tool).
• Sign up for the product (several times as different personas) and use all of the features themselves from that perspective.
• Simulate real users accounts (if you don’t have this functionality, you should consider adding it!) to see how they have set up their accounts, what they’re using and what they aren’t.
• Reach out to customers who are interacting with the feature(s) your team works on or the next feature you plan to work on. Talk with them, ask them questions, hear about their pain points.
• Watch FullStory sessions of your users (Shameless plug! You need this tool: www.fullstory.com). When are they rage clicking? What separates successful users from unsuccessful ones? What errors are they encountering?
• Send a link to try your product to friends and family to try, get feedback from them on the experience. Note: Your family and friends are NOT your user, but they may provide a few interesting ideas or expose difficult UX, making this exercise still valuable.

1. Learn about what other teams are working on and struggling with by shadowing them. This doesn’t have to just be Engineering! Think Marketing, Client Services, DevOps, and Sales too.
2. Think about ways to improve how Product, Engineering, and Design work together. They map out how the flow of work exists today from customer to delivery, highlight pain points, and come up with candidate solutions for each pain point to share and get feedback on.
3. Schedule a 1-on-1 with a member of another team and candidly discuss progress, blockers, and opportunities for improvement. Often, you’ll find there are many ways to help each other!
4. Know who their key competitors (or similar companies) are in the market and how they’re trending over time.
5. Track their competitive analysis and share what they’ve learned with other Product Managers to spread the knowledge.
6. Know not to simply copy new features they see competitors introduce, but rather, get inspired to try new ideas or tests in their product or in interviews with customers based on what they’ve seen in the market.
7. Use downtime to mock up a new feature on a whiteboard or in a wireframing tool (I prefer Whimsical). They bring in others to critique or ask questions about what they’ve drawn.
8. Do research on an upcoming project concept. This could mean reviewing API documentation, integrations, software that needs to be purchased, or simply thinking about why something is or isn’t important to your company.
9. Read about and research major trends in your industry. You can (almost) never read too much!
10. Learn a new skill relevent to their current role/company (ex. Machine Learning on Coursera for me)
11. Reach out to Product managers/leaders at other companies and schedule coffee chats. These companies don’t need to be in the same industry you’re in! You can still learn a lot from other technology companies solving very different problems. I’ve learned a ton in over 150 coffees I’ve had in the past 2 years.
12. Write a blog post on what you and the team are building to explain the customer value you’re hoping to deliver, the challenging decisions you made, and to invite valuable customer feedback. I write a lot for ICX Media and it helps me continuously improve.

Uber’s App Redesign Project Doc

Something to really study if I ever ship products

Tinder product walkthrough

Brilliant way to teach UX, and also show what they can do

How to Manage Product Strategy and Prioritize Like a Pro? Guide for Product Managers

• Goals describe the company strategy in terms of desired outcomes: where we want to be, by when, and how will we know that we got there.
• Ideas describe hypothetical ways to achieve the goals. They are hypothetical because there can be many ideas on how to achieve a given objective, but at most 1 in 3 ideas will deliver a positive result. Product managers collect all ideas in an Idea Bank, prioritize them using appropriate prioritization methods and frameworks and put as many ideas as possible to the test in order of priority.
• Step Projects occur when the bigger project behind the idea should be broken into small parts, each no more than 10 weeks long (according to GIST). Each step-project is like an experiment that tests the idea.
• Tasks are the parts of every step-project. This part of the system is well covered by Agile planning tools, Kanban boards, and other modern development project management techniques. There is nothing to change at this level.

How we use Notion to work together at GoSquared

Lots of NOTION TEMPLATES FOR USE AT WORK!

Free template! Want to use this as a template for your own product specs? Why not! Grab ours now.

Free template! Want to run your product roadmap in Notion? Grab our product roadmap template.

Free template! Want to use our content calendar to help with running your own content schedule? Grab our template!

Free template! Want to use this template for running weekly meetings in your own business? Grab it now!

Assembly Empower your team with employee recognition

Tools

GoJS Interactive JavaScript Diagrams for the Web

See samples »

Get More Out of Google Colab

1. Mounting your Google Drive
2. Uploading and Downloading Files
3. Making tuning Hyperparameters Easy with Form Fields
4. Running JavaScript and HTML
5. Using the Webcam (and turning those images into NP arrays)