Here’s a quote I love …
Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn once said, “if you’re not embarrassed by your first release, then you launched too late.”
I heard this saying years ago and always share it with my consulting clients. But as with most “sayings” it’s much easier to say than it is to apply.
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.
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.
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?
One of my friends, Tami, is a really great communicator. She doesn’t waste time and she gets to the point. A lot of people could think it’s abrasive or cold to receive an email reply from her that’s only a short sentence. But the truth is, she’s simply being smart with her time and not adding clutter to our already busy lives!
In June some of my friends were in NYC for a conference. They’re entrepreneurs. You may have seen them on SharkTank … they created the product Nerdwax, an organic beeswax that stops your glasses from sliding off your nose.
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.
At the beginning of May I was in Toronto, Canada to run my second marathon. I wasn’t sure what to expect because the NYC marathon has 50,000 runners and this one only had 1,500.
To be honest, I was a bit concerned that it’d be really lonely because with that few runners, I thought I’d end up alone in spots and lose motivation. Well, Toronto proved me wrong.
I’m back in NYC after spending some time out in Los Angeles. I got invited to go to a great business event and here’s the big lesson I took away from it …
Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up.
A few days ago I was on a bus from Boston to Maine and the guy next to me starting chatting. I had a lot of work I wanted to get done on the bus ride, but he kept talking and it was a bit difficult to duck out of the conversation.