Why do you keep checking your phone, even when you’re trying not to? It's because the apps on your phone use the Hook Model. described by Nir Eyal in his book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products.
To learn how apps like Instagram, LinkedIn and Vivino keep us coming back to our screens, listen to this episode.
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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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Design is often at the core for why products go viral or flop. But, how can you tell good design from bad right at the start? How do you hire the right people and avoid costly mistakes?
That’s what you’ll learn on this episode.
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Resources mentioned in this episode:
”Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it's this veneer — that the designers are told, 'Make it look good! ' That's not what design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works,” - Steve Jobs
In this episode, you''ll hear from Sarah Doody, a UX designer who has worked for the likes of Vice Media and Dow Jones. Today Sarah runs Career Strategy Lab, a school for UX designers.
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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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“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action” - Peter Drucker.
As 2021 comes to a close, it's useful to reflect on what worked, what didn't and how your industry evolved.
In this episode, you'll hear from Sang Valte, Senior UX Director at international design agency Jellyfish, and Design Standards Board Member at General Assembly, about how he reviews his year and how the UX changed in 2021.
Questions to ask yourself for your end of year review:
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...
Making a prototype is a key step in your journey in bringing your tech idea to life. Begin with UX research, which we covered in last week’s episode.
With your research done, it’s time to move on to making a “fake product," which you will test with real users to see if there is enough demand to invest in creating the real thing.
To do this, Sophia takes you through the Sprint method developed by Google Ventures. Using this method, you can have a tested prototype in just 5 days.
Learning notes from this episode:
The prototyping process is the first step in the product development journey. To go from idea to live app, site or algorithm, you need to test it with target users.
A good prototype can get you funding, but more importantly, it can show you whether the concept is worth pursuing in the first place.
One of the biggest mistakes non-technical founders make is hiring developers before they have a tested prototype. Listen to this episode and avoid this costly mistake.
Learning notes from this episode:
The hemlines for skirts are not the only thing to be dictated by fashion. So is the experience of tech executives.
The fashion for developers turned CEOs like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg is giving way to designers at the helm. The founders of Airbnb and Snap were designers not developers.
Good design is always focused on the user. The human not the code is what matters.
This is an opportunity for non-techies to shine in tech, as founders, innovators and investors.
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