RAFFIAPALM

Resources for product teams from industry experts

Excerpts

  • User research is all about insights, which is why I’m such a fan of having strong user researchers in the organization. Mostly the insights they generate are qualitative and therefore not “statistically significant,” but don’t let that bother you — qualitative insights are often profound and can literally change the course of your company.

    The user research community generally breaks down insights into two types. The first is evaluative, which essentially means, what did we learn from testing out this new product idea? Did it work or not, and if not, why not? The second type of insights are generative. This means, did we uncover any new opportunities that we aren’t pursuing, but maybe we should?

    — EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan

    Source: Amazon Kindle
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  • A well-conceived vision consists of two major components — core ideology and an envisioned future. Notice the direct parallel to the fundamental “preserve the core/stimulate progress” dynamic.

    A good vision builds on the interplay between these two complementary yin-and-yang forces: it defines “what we stand for and why we exist” that does not change (the core ideology) and sets forth “what we aspire to become, to achieve, to create” that will require significant change and progress to attain (the envisioned future).

    To pursue the vision means to create organizational and strategic alignment to preserve the core ideology and stimulate progress toward the envisioned future. Alignment brings the vision to life, translating it from good intentions to concrete reality.

    — Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras

    Source: Amazon Kindle
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  • Soon enough, virtual reality environments may overtake our physical world as the primary locus of our experience, which means every aspect of our environment will have been designed by someone.

    Even today, it is hard to go anywhere that has not been deliberately shaped by human design. The concept of ontological design posits that in the act of designing our environments, we actually design ourselves, as the human mind is shaped greatly by its experiences. Hence there is a continual cycle of shaping between the individual and his environment.

    The earliest opportunity we have to shape our own behavioral algorithms is through the active structuring of our environments. This process allows us to avoid the inputs which trigger unwanted behaviors or ensure that we encounter those that trigger desired behavior. However, the purpose of environmental design does not just lie in avoiding negative cues, but in using cues to condition habits, making us invulnerable to threats when they inevitably come along.

    — Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture by Ryan A. Bush

    Source: Amazon Kindle
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  • Surround your disruptive core product, the thing that got you to the dance, with a whole product that solves the target customer’s problem end to end. That will keep you on the dance floor for a long time to come. The way you design a whole product is to work backward from the target customer’s use case, filling in the blanks as you go along, either with new R&D, an acquisition, a partnership, or an alliance.

    — Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore

    Source: Amazon Kindle
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  • If you’re not actively taking what employees learn from their networks and bringing that knowledge back into the company to help solve challenges, it’s as if you’re flying millions of miles a year without bothering to attach your frequent flyer number to the reservations. The asset is there, but you have to claim it.

    — The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, et al.

    Source: Amazon Kindle
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