Posts

Should Product Managers Do Wireframes? The Answer is a Resounding Maybe.

To promote a recently penned blog post, Product Plan CEO @JimSemik recently posted the question “Should product managers wireframe?" on LinkedIn. I have some thoughts on that I’d like to share. This question assumes that we’re talking about product managers in the software business. If you’re a product manager for a soup company, you might not get as much out of this answer. We all know that a product manager’s primary responsibility is to understand the market, customer and align it with your business strategy.

Does your app save content offline? Humanize your filenames.

Web applications sometimes download filenames for offline use. Naming those files is an afterthought. Read how your should do it.

Humanize Your Data

I’ve been playing around a lot with the app Rescue Time, it’s a really cool productivity tool that helps keep your workday focused. I’ve used it for a number of years. Today, I was taking a look at some of my stats and came across this pretty cool statistic. Wow, I’ve been productive for over 5 thousand hours. Wait, how long is that? Is that a year? So I popped on over to a time conversion website and plugged the data in.

3 Things I Learned About Usability Testing By Looking at Customers in Their Underwear

Usability testing is critical to building a better product. Learn how I've used qualitative and quantitative testing to help me improve my products.

Focus On Customer Experience like Nike and Disney

I just did an interview on the Design Your thinking podcast we covered a lot of ground related to product development. Some highlights include: Why you should focus on the customer and not the product. I give some tips on how I keep myself organized (hint - hire a great team) What tools I use to accomplish my day to day tasks. Check it out.

How to prep for a Product Manager Interview

The job interview is a nerve-wracking, fear inducing prospect for a lot of people. The thing is, with some prep work, your really don’t need to stress over the interview. In fact, I like to tell people that a job interview is a two way street. If you think about it you’re both prospects. The company is trying to figure out if you are a good fit for them. At the same time you should figure out if they are the right company for you.

You're a Product Manager? What's that mean?

How many times has someone asked you this question? I’ll bet often. Over the years how I’ve answered this question has evolved to this… I delight customers by giving them meaningful products. I think it summarizes nicely the core role of a product manager. Everything you do is in service to this end. Without focusing on this core concept then it doesn’t matter what process you follow, what tools you use to wireframe, what your competitors are doing.

Lazy UX Design - Phone Number Fields

Grrr, I hate poorly designed forms. I’m especially annoyed by forms that want humans to think like computers. Case in point, take a look at this phone number field from Bed Bath and Beyond. Phone numbers in the US can take many forms - parens around the area and dash separated are the most common. What isn’t common is a form typed out without any separators. However, lazy design forces that on people.

Don't start a business until people are asking you to

Derek Sivers just posted an article about starting a business that has some really great advice that while obvious is often overlooked. In a nutshell: Don’t announce anything. Don’t choose a name. Don’t make a website. Don’t build a system. You need to be free to completely change or ditch your idea. Yet too often we get sucked into doing all of those things? Why? Because it feels like work.