Sarah Doody
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.
Last week I had an idea. I couldn’t get it out of my head. So I stopped what I was doing and took action. The idea had to do with UX portfolios. Instead of working on content, brainstorming cute domain names to buy, and all the other things I was tempted to do, I held back, and didn’t “build” too soon.
Have you ever heard the saying, buy it cheap, buy it twice? My mum mentioned it the other day, though I can’t remember the exact context.
It seems like such a simple and obvious concept. Why would you do it cheap only to have to pay to fix it later? Why would you purchase something that wears out only to have to purchase a replacement?
At the start of June, I spent 8.5 hours trapped in a toilet room, overnight, with a cat, in Paris. Very long story and I’m sure you have so many questions. So I published the story on Medium in case you want to hear what actually happened.
One of the hardest things to do is know when to execute on an idea. If you haven’t launched your product or idea yet, then my best advice to you is to just launch it. Stop debating the details. Stop worrying. Stop overthinking it. Just get your idea out there because you can’t test and measure an idea that you haven’t launched yet.
Recently I’ve been doing some UX coaching with companies. For these companies, they have their own internal UX designer or team, but they know that they are stuck in the weeds. So, they look to me to be that second set of eyes and coach them on how they can move faster, see what they’re missing, and make smarter product decisions.
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.
Earlier this week I needed to get the link to a 2011 article of mine about storytelling in UX. So I Googled a few words of it and I noticed one of the results was from LinkedIn.
When was the last time you took a risk?
I’ve taken a few risks lately … I submitted a talk proposal to a conference, I sent an email I’d been procrastinating about, and I’m changing a few big things in my business. And how could I forget, I’m running a marathon next weekend!
I spent almost 4 years living in Portland, Oregon at the beginning of my career. I was young and was fortunate to be hired by a big software company there, so I worked full time and finished school full time. It was a ton of work! But it was awesome to be getting real world experience while I was getting my degree.