When an app has too many features and pop ups, most users get confused and frustrated. This is feature creep: when the product’s core functionality becomes hidden in too many options and things to do.
Feature creep happens when a team is determined to stay productive, but loses sight of its strategy. Sometimes stopping is better for the product than doing more.
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On Airbnb, people stay at strangers' homes. On Twitter, people get trolled. Both are global tech platforms, but why do people treat strangers well on one, and badly on the other?
The answer lies in platform governance: the rules you make to encourage good interactions and punish the bad stuff. Learn how to set up platforms where people are nice to strangers with this week's podcast episode.
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Developers don't work in the same ways as non-technical professionals. If you don't know how to work with developers, you can waste thousands of dollars and get very frustrated, as you'll see from the story Sophia shares on this week's episode.
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Success in tech consists of two parts: making great products and using them to build a business. No matter how brilliant an app or algorithm is, if people do not want to pay for it, it is unlikely to live for long.
This is why all tech innovators need to learn the core skills of commercialising innovation.
Listen to this episode to learn how Salesforce, Starbucks and Xero commercialise their tech products, and so you can apply their lessons too.
The top 3 questions you need to answer to ensure your tech product has business success are:
Always focus on the benefits that the product will bring customers, not its features.
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If you have an idea for a new product in a traditional business, you will probably have to work on an extensive plan before you do anything else.
This is not how it works in tech companies. When the likes of Airbnb and Slack bring new apps or features to market, they use the Sprint Method. It is a methodology developed by Google Ventures to bring new ideas to life and test them quickly and cheaply.
Learn how this works in this podcast.
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Agile is now a ubiquitous management term, but few people understand what it means in practice.
For some products, agile is THE BEST system, for others, it is THE WORST.
Listen to this week’s episode to find out what it is, how it works in practice, when to use it and when to avoid it.
You’ll hear how WhatsApp used this methodology to release its first product, and learn how to use it yourself.
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Money isn’t enough to hire the best product teams. If you want to hire great people to build your product, you need to convince them that your vision has potential. To do this, techies and non-techies alike need to come prepared.
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The number of technology oriented jobs is predicted to rise to 190 million in 2025, according to Microsoft. But, if you're a non-techie, how do you get in on that?
In this episode, you'll hear how three people transitioned into successful careers and tech, and learn how to apply their tactics to your career transformation.
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95% of new products fail, according to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. But, usually this isn't because they are badly made, but because they don't solve the right problem.
Before you delve into product development, define the problem you are solving. In this episode, you'll learn from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg, author of What's Your Problem and Innovation As Usual, about how to reframe problem solving in business and in life.
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To learn key technology...
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, and Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of VC fund A16Z, both started their careers as Product Managers (PMs).
PMs rise to leadership positions in the tech sector, because the job combines user perspectives, business needs and technological capabilities. Whatever you want to do in the tech sector, learning how product managers think will help you succeed.
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