Keynote address for Product Development Insights conference - NYC 10/1/2010.

1. I Don’t Know
(And That’s OK.)
Cindy Alvarez
The Experience is the Product - http://www.cindyalvarez.com
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

2. I’m here today to
promote ignorance.
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

3. Product Development Maturity
Copyright 2009 Cindy Alvarez

4. Product Development Effectiveness
Copyright 2009 Cindy Alvarez

5. How does “knowing”
kill great product
development?
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

6. Knowing is static but the world
changes
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

7. Knowing is apples but the
situation may be oranges
Crowdsourced localization of KISSinsights - 100+ questions in 14 languages
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

8. You know but you don’t know
enough
ONLINE BILL
PAY
average bills paid/
month
average $/payment
most likely to pay
these types of bills
log in X times/month
pay X bills per session
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

9. You know but you don’t know
enough
BEFORE: ONLINE BILL AFTER:
put incoming bills in PAY cross it off the
the bill pile calendar
average bills paid/
circle due dates on month check if I can pay more
calendar towards my credit
average $/payment card bill
set up reminders on
my cell phone most likely to pay transfer extra into
these types of bills savings
pen and paper
calculations log in X times/month
check when payday is pay X bills per session
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

10. Knowing makes you lazy and
you’ll forget to provide data
“Users need this...
The market demands this...
Trust me and just build it.”
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

11. which breeds HiPPOs.
“As the CEO, I just know this’ll
work...”
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

12. If you were right, you denied your
team the opportunity to learn
and feel awesome
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

13. And if you were wrong, you lose
credibility
“This is all your fault! We built exactly what you asked for.”
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

14. For great product
development to thrive,
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

15. Foster a culture of
not knowing
but learning
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

16. “WAIT!
What do you mean,
you don’t know?!”
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

17. (This approach isn’t easy on
enterprise customers, CEOs, or
project managers.)
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

18. “I don’t know, but --
• here’s how we’re going to find out..”
• my hypothesis is...”
• here’s what I do know...”
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

19. More rigor
+ More work
+ More uncertainty
= Better odds*
* come on, you know there are no guarantees in product development!
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

20. OK, so how do we
foster a culture of
not knowing
but learning?
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

21. Start with ground rules:
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

22. It’s always OK to ask
“what is the goal of doing this?”
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

23. All brains are good brains.
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

24. Limit “heads down” time.
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

25. “Ugly data” trumps no data.
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

26. Develop your own
learning funnel:
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

27. interviews A/B testing
competitive research
surveys user testing best practices
bug reports market research analytics
summarize
(most companies skip this
--> fail)
“what’s important”
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

28. Teach your team to fish:
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

29. Don’t expect people to “just know”
how to contribute
How can we ask the customer?
How can we ask the data?
How can we compare ourselves to alternatives?
How can we try “doing the opposite thing?”
How can we gain a new perspective?
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

30. Show off:
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

31. We learned ____________,
so we didn’t build _____________,
which saved us ________!
We learned ____________,
so we quickly did _____________,
which earned us ________!
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

32. Oh, and --
don’t try to do this
all at once:
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

33. idea this was great
idea this sucked
idea this needs work
idea this was great
(It won’t be this neat, but you get the idea.)
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez

34. Go out there
and “I don’t know”
your way to your next
great product!
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez