Build Better Products: A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products

424 Pages·2016·8.46 MB·English

by  Laura Klein

BUILD BETTER PRODUCTS
A MODERN APPROACH TO BUILDING SUCCESSFUL USER-
CENTERED PRODUCTS
Laura Klein
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
I was going to be snarky and point out that the way to use this book is to
read it, because it is a book, and that is generally what one does with books.
Then I realized that wasn’t quite true, in this case.
I mean, yes, you should read it, but you should also stop reading it
occasionally and do the exercises in each chapter. The process only works if
you do the exercises.
The exercises were developed over the course of several years working with
and coaching teams that were struggling to build and improve products. If
you’re building products, the exercises will help you answer some of the
questions you’re probably trying to answer.
But don’t just do them while you’re reading. These exercises were not
designed to be performed once and then forgotten. They’re templates that
you can use over and over again. They’re patterns you should weave into
your development process. They’re simple frameworks for thinking about
how to build better products.
So, in summary, do read the book. Do stop reading the book and do the
exercises. Do keep the book around (preferably in some prominent place on
your desk where all of your coworkers will see it, become terribly jealous,
and rush out to buy their own copies) so that you can refer back to the
exercises as they become relevant to where you are in the development
process. Do come up with variations on the exercises and write to tell me
about what you changed and why at [email protected].
Do not wear this book as a hat.
Who Should Read This Book?
This book is for people building products. Many of the examples in the book
are of digital products, but most of it’s applicable whether you’re building
mobile apps or enterprise productivity products or connected cars or
disruptive toasters.
Many of the exercises in this book are designed for teams to use together,
and they work better if you include other people who are working on your
product. This is intentional. The book was written for people who make
product decisions, but the fact is that everybody on your team is making
product decisions every day—product managers, designers, marketers,
salespeople, engineers. Even the lawyers. Sometimes, especially the lawyers.
Get them involved.
This book isn’t specifically for entrepreneurs or for people at large
companies. I’ve used these techniques successfully with teams at companies
of all sizes. The only requirement is that you are working on a product and
that you are making some decisions about what you’re building.
What Comes with This Book?
This book’s companion website
(www.usersknow.com/buildbetterproducts) contains additional content
and templates.
CONTENTS
How to Use This Book
Foreword
Introduction
PART I: GOAL
CHAPTER 1
Defining a Better Business Need
Exercise: Creating a Measurable and Achievable Goal
Quantifying the Business Need
Exercise: Defining Your User Lifecycle Funnel
The User Lifecycle Math
The Dangers of Starting from the Business Need
Expert Advice from Christina Wodtke
PART II: EMPATHY
CHAPTER 2
Understand Your User Better
Who Is Your User?
Exercise: Provisional Personas
Exercise: Identifying Problem Patterns
Exercise: The User Map
The Dangers of Defining Your User
Expert Advice from Cindy Alvarez
CHAPTER 3
Do Better Research
Exercise: Picking a Research Topic
Exercise: Picking a Research Methodology
The Most Important Methodologies
The Dangers of Picking Research Methodologies
Expert Advice from Steve Krug
CHAPTER 4
Listen Better
Building Empathy
Listening with a Goal
Never Ask These Questions
Asking the Right Questions When Interviewing
Exercise: Interviewing Better
The Dangers of Listening
Expert Advice from Steve Portigal
PART III: CREATION
CHAPTER 5
Have Better Ideas
Where Ideas Should Come From
Where Ideas (Unfortunately) Come From
A Better Way to Generate Ideas
User-Defined Tasks
Exercise: Mapping the Customer Journey
The Dangers of Idea Generation
Expert Advice from Chris Risdon
CHAPTER 6
Prioritize Better
What People Do
What Should You Do Instead?
What Normally Gets Prioritized?
What Is Necessary?
Exercise: The Quick Estimate
Exercise: Finding the Core
The Dangers of Prioritization
Expert Advice from Teresa Torres
CHAPTER 7
Design Better 167
Starting from Context and Flow
Exercise: What Happens Next?
Exercise: Matching Inputs and Outputs
You Should Have a Style Guide
Exercise: Make a Style Guide
The Pros and Cons of Design Patterns
Expert Advice from Kate Rutter
CHAPTER 8
Create Better User Behavior
Encouraging Behavior Change
Don’t Make Your Users Explore
Making Visitors into Users
Exercise: Designing Backward
Exercise: Identifying User Intent
The Dangers of Changing User Behavior
Expert Advice from Amy Jo Kim
PART IV: VALIDATION
CHAPTER 9
Identify Assumptions Better
Unexamined Assumptions
Types of Assumptions
Exercise: Finding Assumptions
The Riskiest Assumption
Exercise: Creating a Falsifiable Statement
The Dangers of Identifying Assumptions
Expert Advice from Learie Hercules
CHAPTER 10
Validate Assumptions Better
Some Useful Validation Testing Methods
Exercise: Pick a Validation Method
Exercise: The Hypothesis Tracker
The Dangers of Validating Assumptions
Expert Advice from Janice Fraser
PART V: MEASUREMENT
CHAPTER 11
Measure Better
Build Metrics in Early
Types of Metrics
Exercise: Pick a Metric
Measurement Methodologies
The Dangers of Metrics
Expert Advice from Avinash Kaushik
CHAPTER 12
Build a Better Team
Types of Teams
The Problem with Silos
The Problem with Communes
The Problem with Dictators
The Problem with Anarchies
The Solution: A Heist Team
Expert Advice from Irene Au
Expert Advice from Dan Olsen
PART VI: ITERATION
Index
Acknowledgments
About the Author
FOREWORD
No one makes bad products on purpose, and yet we have so many of them in
our lives. There are certainly plenty of fancy books with copious advice on
“how to do it right,” but somehow they have little impact on the world.
Much of the problem is the faith that authors have that there is a magic way
to do things, and all we need to do is describe the magic. But product teams
and software projects are magic resistant. They require something more to
improve how they function.
The good news is…the book you have in your hands right now! It sheds the
pretense so common in books on design and product management, instead
favoring clear advice, straightforward lessons, and exercises you can do easily
with your team. Laura Klein has wisely put the focus on you and your world,
and she sets up her lessons in a fashion that makes them simple to apply. The
star of every chapter is an exercise, and this is no accident. These techniques
spark conversation, insights, and improved understanding—three powerful
forces to have on your side. The sooner you start to apply her wisdom to
your situation, the faster your ability to build better products will rise.
—Scott Berkun Author, Making Things Happen
INTRODUCTION
What is a better product? This is not a semantic question. It’s not a
hypothetical one either. It’s a serious question about how we define
improvement.
Let me start with a story that may sound familiar. I was talking with a
company, which shall remain nameless. The company wanted to improve its
corporate website. The site allowed visitors to sign up for free trials, make
purchases of new seat licenses, and all the other sorts of things you might
expect from a large enterprise company that sells software as a service (SaaS)
to other businesses.
The site hadn’t been updated in awhile, but not for lack of trying. They’d
made two or three attempts over the course of as many years, going so far as
to hire outside agencies to conduct a redesign. But somehow, while their
efforts had generated a lot of Photoshop files and some spectacularly large
bills, there had never been a user-facing change.
Finally, on the fourth try, they succeeded in jumping through all the hoops
necessary to finish the project. The new design cost over a million dollars
(and I am not making this number up). That was just the design. That
number didn’t cover the cost of implementation or internal management or
changing any of the marketing material to match. It didn’t cover anything
other than some Photoshop files. It also didn’t cover the costs of the
previous three redesign attempts. The final cost of the project was several
million dollars.
So, what did all that money buy the company? Well, it bought them a
redesigned website. That’s what they wanted, so the project was successful,
right? The website was better!
To be clear, the new website didn’t help the company do more of what they
really wanted to do. It didn’t sell any more products. It didn’t convert more
free trial users into seat license holders. It didn’t make current customers any