Make Cheaper Mistakes Anna Marie Clifton Product Manager, Yammer - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Make Cheaper Mistakes

Anna Marie Clifton • Product Manager, Yammer • Clearly Product podcast • @TweetAnnaMarie

We make mistakes

Make better, faster, cheaper mistakes

An incredibly expensive Yammer mistake

A whole new Android App

A whole new Android App

A whole new Android App ● 1 year of engineering

A whole new Android App ● 1 year of engineering ● The whole Android team

A whole new Android App ● 1 year of engineering ● The whole Android team ● Multiple designers

A whole new Android App ● 1 year of engineering ● The whole Android team ● Multiple designers ● Multiple PMs

A whole new Android App ● 1 year of engineering ● The whole Android team ● Multiple designers ● Multiple PMs ● Stalled our other work

Negative impact on metrics

How can we make this cheaper?

Tricks to help you:

Tricks to help you: 1. Find the right problem

Tricks to help you: 1. Find the right problem 2. Plan the cheapest experience

Tricks to help you: 1. Find the right problem 2. Plan the cheapest experience 3. Abandon ship when needed

1. Find the right problem Write a clear problem statement

Cool Feature: Subject Lines for Threads

Cool Feature: Subject Lines for Threads “Subject lines will help users see if threads are important enough to read.”

Problem Statement: “In the feed, users have trouble determining if long threads are important enough to read.”

1. Keeps you “user-first” Clear Problem Statement

“In the feed, users have trouble determining if long threads are important enough to read.” Is this a real user problem?

1. Keeps you “user-first” Clear Problem Statement 2. Helps you evaluate impact

“ In the feed , users have trouble determining if long threads are important enough to read.” Is this a big opportunity?

Example Mistake #Topic boards from Yammer

Zero impact on metrics

“Cool Feature”

“Cool Feature” With no users.

Clear Problem Statement

2. Plan the cheapest experience Like MVP, but better!

MVP: Minimum Viable Product

MVP: Minimum Viable Product • The least features • The lowest fidelity • The fastest to build

MVE: Minimum Viable Experience

MVE: Minimum Viable Experience • The closest approximation • Based on your assumptions • To get the fastest learning

Example mistake Self-sufficient groups from Yammer

Fundamentally change behavior

Fundamentally change behavior

Fundamentally change behavior ● Priority workflow

Fundamentally change behavior ● Priority workflow ● Triage

Fundamentally change behavior ● Priority workflow ● Triage ● Re-ordering

Fundamentally change behavior ● Priority workflow ● Triage ● Re-ordering ● Bookmark

Fundamentally change behavior ● Priority workflow ● Triage ● Re-ordering ● Bookmark ● Remind me later

What if we’re wrong?

What’s the cheapest experience to invalidate these assumptions?

Let’s just highlight priority

Zero impact on metrics

Cheap experience test

Cheap experience test Saved us a costly mistake

Build your MVE

3. Abandon ship when needed It’s ok, I promise

“The best thing we can do for velocity is not build a bad feature.” — Gadi Ben Zvi

We’re bad at letting go...

We’re bad at letting go... “Loss aversion”

We always convinced we’re right...

We always convinced we’re right... “Confirmation Bias”

Two easy ways to Abandon Ship!

1. Make it “ok” from the start Two easy ways to Abandon Ship!

1. Make it “ok” from the start Two easy ways to Abandon Ship! 2. Develop your “woah” muscle

Lose 1.5 weeks or gain 1.5 months?

Mistakes are not problems.

Mistakes are not problems. … big ones are.

Make cheaper mistakes: 1. Clear Problem Statements 2. Minimum Viable Experience 3. Make it ok to walk away

Make better, faster, cheaper mistakes

So we have runway to make better, faster, stronger products

Thank you Anna Marie Clifton 
 @TweetAnnaMarie