Video of my presentation from Wakanday JS Everywhere conference 2011.
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Being a Problem Solver
I hate when people are complainers, but not problem solvers. If there is a problem, then let’s figure out how to make it better. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be better.
Football analogy: 2 minutes left, down by 5. Don’t throw the bomb. Just move the chains. Throw for 5-10 yards at a time. Little by little, you will move the ball down the field.
Here are some techniques I use to help problem solve:
List Possible Solutions
When faced with a problem, go to a whiteboard or a piece of paper and list out the possible options. It’s amazing how this simple technique will quickly eliminate all but a couple of choices. The key to the choice will be to figure out each is optimizing for. Often, it’s a question of values: Do we optimize for ease of use or for flexibility? Once you define which you value more, your choice is made. Then start to execute.
Don’t Talk in Opinions
Opinions are like nipples, everyone has at least one. Opinions are not helpful in solving a problem. Recommendations with justifications are much more helpful. It’s not a question of “like” or “don’t like”, it’s a question of effect. What is the goal? What will help us get to the goal?
Describe with a Magic Wand
Imagine you had a magic wand. No constraints, only possibilities. What would you have? It’s actually useful to describe this because often, other people will have ways of making part of your vision a reality. Don’t constrain yourself to what other people do to solve the problem; imagine a new future.
Never get Stuck
Never get bogged down in can’t and won’t. There are solutions to everything. Think out of the box. Keep moving forward. If one problem yields another problem, then keep delving. Never get depressed and give up. Losers give up. Complainers give up. Problem solvers keep trying. You know what they call someone who tried to fix something 100 different ways and failed? Experienced.
Today, I drove my kid to school. He has 40 pounds of books in his backpack. So many books, he needs a suitcase with wheels to lug it around school. He has a locker, but he is complaining that he doesn’t have time to get to the locker, switch the books out and make it to class without being late. My mind went into problem-solving mode:
- Is he using his locker effectively?
- Can we buy multiple copies of the books and put them strategically in the right places?
- Does he need another locker on the other side of campus?
- Could the books be put on an iPad?
- What do the teachers think?
- What does the principal think?
- Is this a student-wide problem or just my kid? Is it a segment of the school?
There are answers to every problem. It just needs effort and a can-do attitude. The will to solve problems is much harder than finding a solution that improves the situation. I look at the US Congress and think these people have all kinds of answers, but no will to enact those answers.
The UX of MS Word for Students
The difference between a task completing or not is often about knowing the right button/gesture to tell the system what you want. My son (6th grade) has been writing more and more reports on the computer using Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. School reports are exactly what MS Word was designed to handle. However, the UI of Word is so overloaded with so many functions that finding the right button to press becomes nearly impossible.
In the end, I have to show him where all the features live so he can get his job done. Table of Contents, Style Guides, Bibliography indentation, etc etc, are all needed for the paper, but he has no idea what they are and how they work. I, on the other hand, know all about them and where they live. I think I am in the 1% category of people who use MS Word and know how to make an automatic table of contents.
Which is the better UX? It seems obvious to me that eliminating functionality isn’t the answer. Notepad eliminates all of the complexity of Word, but also it makes it so you can’t end up with the document you want. It seems like you need to be able to do this somehow, but should it be as hard as it is currently?
Could the system be easier? Should it detect certain things about the document and automatically insert bibliographies and tables of contents and title sheets? Should it use templates more liberally with starter pages? Would this just be considered ham handed like the iPhone/iPad auto-correct that never works right?
MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is probably the most-used desktop software ever. They are the backbone of computing. Only the browser has made a dent in their reign. Their respective user interfaces have been honed over decades. Yet still, it is quite difficult to add in the elements of a 6th grade student report. I am not sure where this leaves us, but it is good food for thought.
The UX of the Crazy Idea
It’s always so hard to make the leap. Most people defend the status quo. It’s scary! Who wants to leap out into the unknown and risk failing? What if you miss the mark and fall/fail? (I never noticed how similar those two words are.)
However, the reality is: If you want “good stuff” you have to try. You have to make the leap. The wonderful thing about life is that there are all kinds of second lives. You can try again. You can fail and resurrect yourself like Mario and Luigi. Life moves on and there are more levels to play and more crazy ideas to try.
What if it wasn’t really a crazy idea. What if the status quo was the real insanity. Moving forward is the sane thing to do. We all want good stuff. Don’t be afraid. Try…make the leap. The worst thing that can happen isn’t so bad.
You know what they call someone who has tried and failed? Experienced.
The Perfect Product Shot
Truth: Most products are not that good.
I don’t blame terrible designers or unreasonable managers for this. The bottom line is: It is incredibly difficult to develop a product that is great. I mocked up a diagram to help explain.
Imagine you are in space, with a basketball. You are floating in one direction in the X, Y and Z dimensions. Now imagine the hoop also moving in 3 dimensions. It is your job to toss the ball into the hoop. A successful shot will result in a perfect product. The difficulty lies in everything moving. You have to shoot the ball where the ball will be, not where it is now. Plus you are moving too, so it makes a miss very likely. A miss is a bad product.
Underneath the Analogy
The hoop is the market.
The Audience
The audience changes all the time. One years fad is another years flop. You have to know your audience very well to know that the product you are creating is right for the market. Very often a product overestimates the willingness of the market to adopt the product solution.
Timing
Timing is another dimension. Are you hitting your market exactly at the right time? The flip phone was perfect 10 years ago, but today is an anachronism. I built a product once (Hotkoko) that was “ahead of its time”. Timing is crucial to achieving success.
Complexity
Exactly what does the product do and how complicated is it? This is also known as “scope”. How many problems does the product solve? How easy does it make it? Sometimes a complicated solution is perfect; other times simplicity is key.
The hoop is moving in all of these dimensions. While you are building your product, some of these factors will move. You can’t build what people want today. You have to build what people will want when you launch the product. Skate to where the hockey puck will be, not where it is today.
The shooter is your company.
Skill / Experience
I’d love to build a halodeck (like Star Trek) where people could have safe adventures. However, I lack the skill and experience to build it. More down to earth, think about the people you have in the company. What is the DNA? Some companies are built for social and gaming. Others are built for business and productivity. Some have great database skills and others great UX talent. Know what makes you tick. Your corporate DNA will affect everything you build. This is a key factor in hiring strategies if you want to build a new kind of product.
Time/Budget
Even if you had the right people, do you have the time and budget and political will to actually build the thing you want? Products take time and energy. If you have no time, but have lots of budget, then acquisition is often a solution. If you have time and no budget, outsourcing to a cheap third-world country sometimes works, but it doesn’t help as much as one may think. Having the time and money to build something is a key factor in where you make your shot.
Environment
Are you in Nebraska? Kenya? There are places where it is incredibly difficult to find funding, talent, resources and wherewithal to build a product. Are you trying to be “intrapreneurial” where you are trying to build a product within a larger corprorate environment? There is a reason I love Silicon Valley. There is engineering talent here, venture funding here and lots of entrepreneurs. It is the perfect cauldron to build a technology company. When you are outside this little tech Eden, then you need to make due with what you have.
Bottom Line
This is an incredibly difficult shot under the best of situations. You are moving, the market is moving. When someone uses the term “visionary”, I think they mean you can see where the basket is going to be and can make a decent shot. Intuition plays an enormous role in shot making. We can’t build everything we ever dreamed.
Like in real basketball, sometimes all the preparation and vision in the world might not make the shot. And other times, dumb luck will throw up a prayer and sink it. The best thing to do is prepare as best you can so that when the moment comes to make your shot, you will be ready.