In the absence of knowledge comes ‘this is how I got it to work.” People and groups will fill in gaps in knowledge. If you either don’t train people, or your product leaves areas of ambiguity, then people will take the easiest path forward – they’ll either give up, or,…
Over a year in development. Marketing staff to create content for promotion. A development team ready to fix bugs and add functionality. Lengthy arguments as to whether or not the background should be sea foam green or something else. Total number of users: 0. After 2 years. The platform was…
I’ve been re-reading Adam Grant’s book, Originals for the third time and this time, focusing on increasing output and not increasing quality. Sounds backwards doesn’t it? Most people I’ve worked with in the past want to create brilliant work but what Adam points out is, even geniuses like da Vinci…
My wife texted me the other day and asked me a question about whether a project for the home was expensive or complex? My response was an off handed comment that “The cost will reveal itself once the complexity is understood.” Since you don’t know everything up front, you can’t…
A players think they’re B players. B players think they’re C players. C players think they’re A players. I forgot who said this but it wasn’t me. A players know they have a lot left to learn. B players know they have a long way to go. C players don’t…
Engineering-glish: The act of speaking to end-users as if they were engineers. I have a new analogy that I’m using with software engineers. Every time I hear “why would someone do that?” or “They should know not to do that…” my response is now, “How many of you drive over…
Hydrocephalus affects more than 1 million people in the US each year. Costs related to treating hydrocephalus exceed $2 billion each year. Amount of money spent on research annually: $8 million. We’re raising money again this year in the hopes of finding a cure, not for our son, but for…
Your favorite song comes on the radio while you’re driving. You know the one. The one single song in all of music that makes everything seem ok. You reach down and crank it up. And to your surprise, your transmission is 200 feet behind you. This is one example of…
But I see examples all the time of a button on the left collapsing an accordion on the right. Stop doing that. You’ve increased the Frustration & Astonishment Factor. If all the text off all the buttons on a page, your users should still have a reasonable idea of what…
I don’t know exactly where the conversation is going when I speak with stakeholders. I have a general feel but their responses could take us in an entirely new direction that we never thought to explore. I usually start with “what drives your business” or “what makes people want to…
Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want (Strategyzer) by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Gregory Bernarda, Alan Smith
Beyond the Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation by Phil McKinney