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I'm a multi-disciplinary designer-strategist at HP. My passion is whole product design: the seamless integration of HW+SW+Web to deliver compelling experiences to users.

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Obox Signature Series

Where to Draw the Line

The most important thing a product manager does is decide where their product stops and someone else’s product takes over.

If an app does too little then it isn’t be worth the cost of installation, or registration let alone the actual purchase price. Similarly if it does do too much, then it will clash with some other pre-existing software or workflow that users are already happy with. It’s a Goldilocks problem, you need to find the product that’s just right.

EXAMPLE: TIME TRACKING

At an absolute minimum time tracking is just totaling a list of numbers. Now, if that was all a web app had to offer, it would be useless. Excel or Google docs does that job already. It’s at this point we realise simplicity is overrated. No amount of web fonts, HTML5 transitions, or sound effects can help a product that simply isn’t earning its keep.

At a maximum, time tracking can involve project management, budgets, contractors, invoicing, receipt tracking and employee monitoring. Applications that incorporate so many surrounding tasks tread on the toes of products already in place, in this case, Xero, Ballpark, Basecamp, etc.

Products exist to solve problems that occur in a workflow. They have a start and end point within that workflow. To understand where these points should be, you must understand the entire workflow. Let’s look at the workflow for a team ordering lunch every day…

If you’re building an app that helps teams order lunch every day, the workflow might look like this…

  1. Someone gets hungry.
  2. He or she communicates this to the rest of the team.
  3. Debate ensures about whether to go out or order in.
  4. Second debate about where to order in from.
  5. Menus for different places are passed around.
  6. A decision is arrived at quickly
  7. One person is appointed to gather everyone’s orders.
  8. That person then places order.
  9. That person communicates delivery team & cost to everyone
  10. Time passes.
  11. Food arrives, and is eaten.
  12. Orderer checks if everyone paid enough & who still owes money.
  13. Finances are settled, or the settlement is postponed until tomorrow.
  14. Some will talk about the food on Twitter or Facebook. Some will post pictures on Instagram. Others will review on Yelp.
  15. Everyone returns to work.

When you understand the full workflow, you can focus on the most concise painful subset your product solves, or alternatively the piece you can make more fun or interesting. Don Dodge has a great article titled “Is your product a vitamin or a painkiller” that discusses the difference here.

WHERE SHOULD YOU START?

Start your product at the first step where you can add value. For our lunch example, this is probably step four. Starting any earlier would mean taking on chat products or email, rarely a good idea. (Side-note: Unstructured communication always falls back to email or chat. You can count on no fingers the amount of products who have changed this over the years.)

A real world example would be TripIt. TripIt solves travel management. Their app could start with flight search, but TripIt couldn’t add value there. The first point they can add value is right after a booking is made. By understanding the entire workflow, Tripit designed a great solution. The last thing that happens before TripIt can add value is “User opens booking confirmation”. This is the first point TripIt can add value, so they start with that email and import from there. Similarly, Instragram starts with importing your social network, or time tracking can start by importing projects from Basecamp. Good APIs and import features help your users get off to an easy running start.

WHERE SHOULD YOU STOP?

Your budget, whether time or money, should restrict but never define your scope. A large budget should define how well a problem is solved, never how many problems are tackled. Attempting to tackle an entire workflow from start to finish for all types of users is near impossible.

Your product should stop when the next step…

  • - has well defined market leaders looking after it (e.g. PayPal, IMDB, Expedia), and you don’t intend to compete.
  • - is done in lots of different ways by lots of different types of users (e.g. trying to process salaries in a time tracking app would be tricky)
  • involves different end-users than the previous steps (e.g. managers, accountants etc.)

Where to Draw the Line | The Intercom Blog

http://blog.intercom.io/where-to-draw-the-line/

So much is written about the pursuit of simplicity these days but often there is a confusion.There is a fundamental difference between making a product simple, and making a simple product.

Making a product simple emphasizes removing all unnecessary complexity so that every users can solve their problems as efficiently as possible. Making a simple product, however, is about scoping down and choosing the smallest subset of the workflow where your product delivers value. This MVP approach runs the risk of being labelled a point solution, or worse, ‘a feature but not a product‘.

When shooting for a “simple product”, be careful where you draw the line.

What Do Consumers Really Want? Simplicity - Karen Freeman, Patrick Spenner and Anna Bird - Harvard Business Review

Excerpt:

 In fact, we found that the single biggest driver of "stickiness" — customers' likelihood of following through on a purchase, buying the product again, and recommending it — was, by far, "decision simplicity," the ease with which consumers can gather trustworthy information about a product and confidently and efficiently navigate their purchase options.

The bottom line: These days making a purchase decision easy is what makes customers choose your brand.

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Sherwin-Williams Paint Color Visualizer

https://www.sherwin-williams.com/visualizer/


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9 Principles For Great Branding By Design | Fast Company

http://www.fastcompany.com/1830073/9-principles-for-great-branding-by-design
  1. Branding and design are, to a large extent, inseparable. "A brand is not your logo or ID system," says Brunner. "It's a gut feeling people have about you. When two or more people have the same feeling, you have a brand. You get that feeling via smart design, which creates the experiences people have with the brand. Everything you do creates the brand experience, ergo design IS your brand."
  2. If design is the brand, stop thinking of branding and design as distinct disciplines. "It's all about integrating design and brand," says Doucet. "We need to cease thinking of them as different disciplines. The essence of the Apple brand comes through its design. Take the logo off a BMW and you still know it's a BMW."
  3. Don't overdesign. "With the increasing emphasis on design in the world today, it's important to avoid the 'over-designed syndrome,'" says Hill. "A simple, well-thought-through, authentic design is often the best. Everything doesn't need to be redesigned; sometimes what we have in hand is better than what we seek. It's not all about being different; it's about being better. ."

Gartner: BYOD tablets in enterprise


Excerpt:

Gartner analysts predict that enterprise sales of media tablets will account for about 35 percent of total tablet sales in 2015. However, these sales will not be defined as enterprise purchases, since many enterprises follow a buy-your-own-device program. Many tablets will be owned by consumers who use them at work.

This phenomena poses a threat to vendors, which is similar to the threat Research in Motion(NASDAQ:RIMM) faced in the smartphone market. Vendors will have to focus on the IT enterprise and on consumer support to launch devices successfully. Tablets will have to be created for consumers first and then rely on an ecosystem of apps and services to make them more manageable in a business environment.


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Why Apple Won’t Turn You Into ... (cultofmac.com)

Excerpt:

The reason you love your iPad isn’t because the iPad is “good” in some abstract way, but because it’s “right” for human nature. We love the interface because we love touching things, and having those things react the way physical objects might react to touch. The iOS user interface is based on a profound understanding of the human mind.

Our Paleolithic brains have no trouble “believing” that icons and screens and pictures and “albums” are really there. Looking at objects, touching them and having them respond to our touch makes us feel good.

Apple understands this deeply, which is why it has become the world’s most valuable company. Apple bases everything on human nature, and discounts technology for its own sake.

Google, not so much.

Google is founded on and obsessed by engineering and the power of algorithms to the same degreeas Apple is with design.

BYOD is unstoppable. Smart companies must build apps

http://gigaom.com/2012/04/08/byod-is-unstoppable-smart-companies-must-build-apps/

Classic 4 in. 1-handle Bath Faucet in Stainless Steel

Your friend has shared a link to a Home Depot product they think you would be interested in seeing.

$72

Classic 4 in. 1-handle Bath Faucet in Stainless Steel

http://bit.ly/HpGG3G


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How to Negotiate Your Next Salary - Amy Gallo - Best Practices - Harvard Business Review

Excerpt:

Focus on "we"
Throughout the discussions, be aware of how you are coming off to the hiring manager or recruiter. Ertel says you don't want to appear like you're giving a list of demands. Instead, show that you're trying to come up with solutions that meet your needs and those of the employer. Use positive language. Demonstrate that you are open to other proposals aside from your own. It's a tricky balance; you want to push just enough. "You don't want to negotiate so hard that people are sick of you before your first day," says McGinn. The key is to know what you care most about — whether it be money or other aspects of the job offer — and stick to those points.

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