For the Love of Nerds
Roses are #FF0000
Violets are #0000FF
If you don’t understand hex codes
This poem’s not for you— Bill the Lizard (@lizardbill) February 14, 2019
We start our special Valentine’s Day edition of This Week in Product with a little ditty for all our UXers — this poem is for you. If you’re still trying to get in favor with your engineering team, we’ve got some advice for that, too.
For the Love of Frameworks
Set aside all #prodmgmt frameworks, methodologies, techniques, buzzwords… what’s left?
Only the problems that motivated people to create all these things.
And that’s what’s important. Focus on that.
— Raphael Farinazzo (@rfarinazz) February 11, 2019
You know we love a good strategy framework, but we also see how structured methodologies can sometimes keep us in a box when thinking about moving our products forward. Sometimes you have to shed away all the conventional pearls of wisdom (which often clash with each other, anyway) and go work in a vacuum for a little bit in order to focus on what really matters. Maybe you can do that this weekend?
For the Love of Books
Yes, I know I just said you should take some time to disconnect and think freely in an unpopulated space, but, what kind of influence would that be? Really, what I would probably encourage you to do is pick up one of these awesome books recommended by Women in Product for the B2C product manager. Not a B2C product manager? We’ve got a more general list we recommend if you’re looking to pick something up this weekend.
For the Love of Data
The problem with the “data can tell you WHAT is happening but it can’t tell you WHY it’s happening” trope is that it implies that that’s a shortcoming somehow.
There are NO analytical models can truly explain WHY things happen. Even the user stories we gather.
— 🎆 🌸 Samuel Hulick 🌸 🌄 (@SamuelHulick) February 9, 2019
This thread of tweets is important reading for anyone who’s had a conversation this week about the value of collecting data. If you’re a PM, chances are you have. And increasingly, you’re probably having these types of conversations if you’re a UXer, too. Still not convinced about the rigor of UX research? Check out this interview with Jeff Lopes, director of UX from PagerDuty and our personal guru on the matter.
For the Love of Research
While we’re on the subject of research and its effects on product and design, check out this killer position at Shutterstock. This is your opportunity to work cross-functionally and be the voice of users and “solve problems with integrity.” Sounds good to us.
