Focus On What You Do Best & Delegate The Rest.

Focus On What You Do Best. Delegate The Rest.

Quick update on what I’m working on and hopefully some lessons you can apply to your own projects!

First up, the re-design of the website for The UX Notebook. This week I did some quick feedback sessions with readers of this weekly newsletter as well as some other people in the UX industry. I wanted to get some fresh eyes on the project so that I could make sure I wasn’t stuck in a silo.

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Launch Your Own Product: My Lessons Learned

Launch Your Own Product: My Lessons Learned

Want to put your design skills to the test? I highly recommend that you launch your own product. It’s a great way to put to practice things like project management, feature prioritization, identifying and validating a problem, market research, marketing, and more.

I promise, it will be the hardest thing you do. But you will also have a lot of fun, because it’s yours.

The re-design of my product, The UX Notebook website is going well. And yes, I’m trying to practice what I preach and not be my own worst client!

One thing that’s been helpful is that I have a few people working with me on the project, so I’m avoiding the situation of designing this in a silo.

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Designing With Lenses: See ideas through a different design lens

What is a design lens? Why is designing with lenses so important in user experience and product development?

As we know, it’s easy to get tunnel vision, to get stuck on your perspective, to design in a silo. Design lenses help us see our product and vet product ideas through different perspectives.

Recently, I’ve been doing this in one project of my own, a re-imagination of the website for The UX Notebook.

When I start any project, I allow myself time to go into research mode. I ask a ton of questions, talk to people, and explore similar products. But I create a deadline for research. Why?

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User Research: Talk To Real People. You Are Not The User.

user-research-talk-real-people

User research is often skipped by teams because they think it will slow them down. They think that it will be expensive, create distractions, and result in more process and meetings.

All of these assumptions, are wrong.

Want to know the truth? The truth is that if you skip user research, you’ll pay later. You’ll end up re-building because you’ll realize you built the wrong thing. You’ll end up launching and then hearing crickets, because you’ll realize that no one wants what you created.

You must treat user research as an investment, not an expense.

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