Sarah Doody
I did another experiment last week…
I launched something that wasn’t perfect. But I knew I needed to launch it so I could gather feedback. It was a series of emails. Because I wanted to give the user control, I had a link that people could click if they didn’t want to get those emails any more.
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.
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.
One question I get asked all the time is, “how do I learn more about UX?” I feel like a broken record sometimes, but I’ll keep saying it … there are problems all around us!!
Here’s my big tip of the week … if you want to learn about UX then create your own product.
Yes, I know many of you work on other people’s products — maybe you’re at a big company or, maybe you’re at an emerging startup. And yes, I’m sure you put a lot of careful thought into what you do. But I honestly believe it’s totally different when you are working on your product.
About 7 years ago I was working at a startup. I was one million percent sucked into the excitement of it all. So much so that we failed to truly validate our idea. As you can guess, this didn’t end very well. We raised money, got some users, and I learned a ton.
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Do you ever watch the television shows about people who live in “tiny homes” – let’s face it, some of them are really tiny. I’m always amazed at couples with kids, sometimes multiple kids, who decide to live in a tiny home.
Last weekend I ran a half marathon in NYC and placed 60th out of 1,417 in my age group. The race was two full loops of Central Park, and the park is no joke people! There are a lot of rolling hills and if you aren’t prepared for them, they can be intimidating.
I’m a runner and my first big race this year was going to be a marathon in May. But, I recently got an injury and have spent the last few weeks trying to figure out what’s wrong. So disappointing! And if you’re a runner, you know how torturous it is to not be able to run.
Think about some of your favorite brands and what it’s like to interact with them. How often do you visit their sites or use their apps? How have those positive experiences translated beyond the screen? Have you purchased a product, connected with people, or recommended the service to a friend?