This document discusses creating an environment that supports great product design. It advocates for an environment with autonomy, collaboration, and meaningful work. Specifically, it recommends that product design teams have choice in what they work on and how problems are solved. It also stresses the importance of cross-functional collaboration to surface the best ideas. Finally, it argues that work should focus on problems that really matter to create great products and user experiences.

1. An environment for great products
Michael Jones, CTO / CPO uSwitch

2. It’s obvious when you are
using a great product

3. “That’s not real
lego”
Isaac Jones

4. “The quality of an experience
cannot be defined as it
empirically precedes any
intellectual construction of it”
Robert Pirsig

5. It isn’t obvious how to create great products
and experiences

6. Samsung suggested
the iPhone was
obvious

7. Apple showed the effort it takes to create the “obvious”

8. Creating a great product requires the right
environment

9. uSwitch wants to create an environment
that supports great products

10. An environment of choice and autonomy

11. Our business is
changing fast

12. Complexity, speed and scale often force
people to think in reductive ways and
control solutions

13. Product design needs to be able to choose
what to work on and how things get done

14. Arranging teams around problems allows
autonomy to create user focused solutions

15. Financial and objective measures create a
contract for autonomy

16. This requires
#1 the business to provide context
#2 products engaging with business needs

17. The best situation
is one where there is no distinction between
product and business decisions

18. example
uSwitch mobile app

19. problem
build a new channel of incremental
customer acquisition through a
mobile application

20. Acquisition Market leader
New Product Challenger
context
outcomes based on
our product
maturity model
Product Maturity
Marketpenetration

21. Integrate Innovate
Validate Differentiate
Design thinking
needed to be
pragmatic and
evolve with the
product
Product Maturity
Marketpenetration

23. An environment of collaboration

24. When teams are collaborating
the best ideas surface

25. Cross functional teams
collaborate to generate the best ideas
and implement them

26. Product design plays a key role in
facilitating collaboration between
specialism in the product teams

27. The emotional intelligence and empathy
required in responding to user needs is
also essential when collaborating in teams

28. Open ended problems
and autonomy over decisions
requires process

29. “[the role of UX] is to be across the board…
to flex between wide strategic thinking and
laser-focussed product specifics. To be
comfortable in discovery and delivery.”
Richard Allalouf, Head of UX @ Zoopla

30. By connecting strategic intent to agile delivery
it ensures we are moving towards a better experience.
Not away from it.

31. example
Market Snapshot

32. problem
an influx of small suppliers
gaming the system and
confusing users

33. solution
Use behavioural economic research
around tradeoff contrast and
extremeness aversion to help
customers choose

35. Through a collaborative process the product design
team delivered an innovative solution:
● works within the regulatory framework
● helps customers in a confusing market
● delivered more revenue for the business

36. An environment of meaningful work

37. Choice and collaboration
will get you to just good

38. To get to great means working on
something that matters

39. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi thinks you should ask
“Am I making a difference?”

40. “If you want people to do a good job, give
them a good job to do”
Frederick Herzberg

41. Meaning can come from
social impact, mastery of skill
or scale of a problem

42. We want to try and change a user’s
relationship with price comparison, how they
think of it, and how it fits into their life.

43. example
Self organising teams

44. problem
It’s hard to create a consistent
experience with decentralised
autonomous teams

45. uStyle.guide
Helping improve the
experience of uSwitch

46. Design mondays
Solving bigger
product design
problems and helping
establish direction for
uSwitch

47. People care about the experience
of uSwitch and have the autonomy
and ability to self organise to
address bigger issues

48. It’s not obvious how to create a great product

49. We are creating an environment that is
putting product design at the center of the
business

50. Doing this has:
Helped build an award winning app
Addressed complex market issues in a user
focused way
Allowed to the team to care and organise to
improve the experience

51. We have a long way to go but with each
change made, hopefully, we are getting a bit
closer to a great product

52. Thank you :-)