Five Tips for Creating Products With Kick-Butt Design
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As you might recall, in my last article I made a very convincing (ha!) case that Design is the Soul of Products. And I finished that article by saying that most high-tech products totally suck at design.
There were excellent points made by several commenters, including Scott Sehlhorst who wrote a great post in his own blog.
In this article, I will outline five tips to help Product Managers and Product Marketers create products with "Kick-Butt" design. Let us get started.
Five Tips for Kick-Butt Design
- Start With the User Interface
Right after gathering and prioritizing high-level requirements, get to the User Interface (UI) design. Do this before you complete your MRD or PRD. Yes, before! You may be wondering "Michael, is that not like putting the cart before the horse? Why should I do this?". Wonder no more - here is my answer!
Because the UI is the only thing your end user sees of your product. The only thing!
Yet, most high-tech companies I know of first create the product. Then they throw together a UI before releasing the product. The UI is an afterthought. And it shows.I believe the UI should be the first thought. The most important thought. Remember - the UI is the only thing your user sees. This leads to my Tip #2.
- Work Closely With UI Designers
If UI is so important, it follows naturally that Product Managers should work very closely with UI Designers to achieve kick-butt design.
Yet, in most companies the relationship between product managers and UI designers tends to be an "arms length" relationship. Especially in large companies, these two departments are practically silo'ed. The PM throws the MRD or PRD over the wall. The UI designer creates the UI to fit those requirements.
I believe this is the wrong model. Actually, exactly the wrong model - if what you want is kick-butt design.
I'd go so far as to say that you should have PM's and UI Designers under one department. I have tried it. They are under one department in my company. And, it works great!
- Pay Attention to Details
Remember the Steve Jobs quote in my last article:
The iMac is not just the color or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays together.
On our latest iMac, I was adamant that we get rid of the fan, because it is much more pleasant to work on a computer that doesn't drone all the time. That was not just "Steve's decision" to pull out the fan; it required an enormous engineering effort to figure out how to manage power better and do a better job of thermal conduction through the machine. That is the furthest thing from veneer. It was at the core of the product the day we started.
This is what customers pay us for--to sweat all these details so it's easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. (emphasis mine)
Want kick-butt design? One absolute pre-requisite is "sweating the details". Without it, kick-butt design is just not possible.
One common comment I've heard in bug reviews is "But, this is just a cosmetic flaw. It is low priority, and given the time pressures we can't fix it".
Well, here is my take - no such thing as "low priority cosmetic flaw". Cosmetic flaws are high priority. Very high priority. Often, they are easy to fix to boot.
Try this next time: Insist that all cosmetic flaws be fixed. It may be a hard sell at first, it certainly was for me. But insist on it nevertheless. It works wonders. Mostly!
- Simpler is Better
- Be Brave
This is one of the most important tips to achieve kick-butt design. Keep your product, and its design simple - as simple as possible.
Design for the 80% use case. Do not fall prey to "Featuritis" - more features are not always better. More often than not, more features are worse. Much worse, in fact. Don't believe me? Well - at least believe Kathy Sierra, will ya?!
Check out my earlier article for further thoughts on this very important idea. It is a simple idea - but not an easy idea. At all. This leads to my last tip.
To achieve kick-butt design you gotta be BRAVE. This is an absolute must. Why?
Because most folks in your organization would want to water down the design to make it more like competitors'. A superset of features seen in competitive products.
Be brave - just say "No". Kick-butt products are created by saying "No". More than anything else.
iPod has no FM/AM radio. No voice recorder either. In spite of the fact that 95% of competitive products do. GMail has no folders, even though every single other email product I know of has folders. Think it was easy for their designers to pull these off? No way - they had to be brave and say "No".
There you have it. My five tips for kick-butt design:
- Start With the User Interface
- Work Closely With UI Designers
- Pay Attention to Details
- Simpler is Better
- Be Brave
I fully understand that none of these five tips are easy to practice. Heck - if they were easy, everybody will be designing kick-butt products! But we know that not everybody does - as a matter of fact, I think about 94.79% of high-tech products suck at design. Yes, I measured it using a highly scientific process! 
Be the other 5.21%. Practice these five tips. Persist even though it is hard - it will pay off in the form of products with Kick-Butt design. Well, at least Sucks-Less design!
What do you think? Do these tips make sense? Let me know by clicking the 'Post Comment' link below.
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About the Author: I'm your author, Michael Shrivathsan, an expert in product management and product marketing with successful experience spanning two decades. I live in Silicon Valley, USA. For my day job, I manage the product management group at an exciting software startup.
Comments
Good tips, Micheal. I will have to disagree on one point nevertheless, since I don't think Product Management should interfere with user interface design. Product Management is usually responsible for requirements, whereas UI design team is responsible for user interface. They are complimentary but separate functions in my company.
Posted by: Deepak | November 14, 2006 01:14 AM
Great article. It seems to be another attempt (my first attempt is linked to my name) to infuse interaction design/user experience with traditional requirements approaches.
I believe that the "best answer" is some combination of ID/UX, agile, and structured requirements. We just haven't figured it out yet. This article is another step on that journey.
Thanks again,
Scott
Posted by: Scott Sehlhorst | November 14, 2006 07:28 AM
Nice. I wonder is it applicable to all products with GUI. Say, if I have a product for $0.5M which is used only by 5-10 customers?
Posted by: Alexander | November 15, 2006 04:03 AM
The post makes sense definately. But I work at a large company, where the process of how PM and UX teams work together is well established. Just like you say each team is in its own silo. As a result, I cannot follow #1 and #2.
#4 is controlled by UX team. #5 is controlled by product marketing team.
All of this means I can only practice #3. Is my (sad) situation is unique, or do anybody else have similar issues?
Posted by: Stanley | November 16, 2006 10:41 PM
Firstly, I have to agree with Deepak. Your article has some excellent points, however it is assuming the idea that Product Management (a.k.a. Marketing) should drive the design process. This is something that I have come to the conclusion that is a completely dated and archaic approach to the design process.
Stanley, your situation - sad as it - is not uncommon. My experience is that this siloed effect for product development is fostered by the product management aspect of driving the process. Marketing, somehow, has become the power player in the product development world.
In a user-centric, holistic design approach, Marketing's role is to define the user. Who is the target market? What the cost targets should be, product goals. Not "drive the design", or "define the UX"....that job is the designer's job.
In a recent product cycle, our team stripped back the Product Managment's "power" and placed it in the hands of the designers. We reduced the product cycle by 30%, we eliminated "featuritus", we reduced the product volume by 20% (in a size sensitive market).
I am not implying that Marketing shouldn't have a role. It is just that over the years it has taken more than its share of control and it is time to bring the pendulum back to center.
Posted by: Jon | November 21, 2006 10:16 AM
Michael,
Nice article. I totally agree with you that User, and User Interface should be center of all products's design.
Users are the ones with needs for products. If we are to develop a product that users will buy then we have to cater to their needs. We can only "express" our "understanding" of user's needs through our products: their form, functions, performance, and associated things.
In my experience there are two roles that are important to kick-ass product development:
1. An understanding of User Needs
2. Satisfaction of user needs through products/services
If these two roles are performed by two different departments (e.g. Marketing, and Design), then for effective products there needs to be a seamless communication.
Unfortunately, total control of any single function/department on the overall product development process expects too much from them. I have yet to meet designers with deep market understanding and marketers who can do effective design. But I have definitely worked with teams who understand each other's roles, show respect to each other's contributions, and work together to meet the customer's needs.
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June 19, 2007 10:26 AM