Convopage
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1/ “Lite” product variants. Everyone says they want lite, but they so rarely get built. Product mgrs, what’s up?
Facebook brings data plan-saving Messenger Lite to U.S. Androids |…
Facebook’s data-conserving version of Messenger is no longer just for developing nations with slow networks: the Messenger Lite Android app is expanding to the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and…
techcrunch.com
43 replies and sub-replies as of Oct 03 2017
2/ First, all software expands to fill available UI surface area. The only thing to do with software is add features. Don’t think otherwise.
3/ That’s ok. Everyone using a product always says “I love it but could you just add this one thing” or let me customize (also a feature!)
4/ People start to say product is bloated when it gets hard to do what they always did. Redesigns or new features altering flow do that.
5/ Also features that seem increasingly arcane cause a bloatware feeling. Trick is for PM to understand dimensions of bloat.
6/ Know use curves. Is your product A/one where most features not used very much OR B/where smaller set of features used by most people?
7/ Adding features when most aren’t used—design will bump into itself. Small number used then big impact w/small changes (eg OS X finder).
8/ BUT this depends on how networked your product is. Need to consider this dimension. Networked products handle bloat—counterintuitive.
9/ Why? Because then it isn’t what one user does, but what n users consume together as a group—that defines how bloated. Like this >
10/ Networked products have more features b/c a group can use more. Plus viral usage (emojis) can increase utilization w/o learning curve.
11/ Something isn’t as bloated if your network can contribute to your increasing usage of a product through tribal knowledge.
12/ eg, Eng doesn’t use Word revision marks but 100% lawyers do. First time Eng reviews contract they learn the feature, use it forever.
13/ Also, enterprise products bloat more quickly than consumer b/c S&M need features by segment/audience/competition on qtr/yr basis.
14/ By nature, consumer these days does much less feature marketing and relies much more on viral use cases.
15/ But real challenge faced is when features are not picked up and yet PM machinery keeps adding more. You end up in a negative spiral…
16/ You add more features, change UX flow to try to encourage more usage leads inadvertently to stronger feeling of bloat…
17/ …growth hacking your user experience to drive more feature usage ultimately drives people away from your product. That is why above all…
18/ If you really care for “users” then you’re designing an experience they would want to be using not one that benefits your metrics. //END
Protect user investment in muscle memory. Use "rules" like <= 2 clicks to perform a tier-1 actions, 2-3 for tier-2 etc.
Yes but that also makes the product faster and more focused for any user :-)
It's also a good way to see if folks are being over served by product. Which is a sign you are ripe for disruption.
Hear hear!!
It made me think that the best way to build a product is to make a simple UX core w/ switchable list of extensions as additional features.
I guess Chrome did it right w/ extensions--every user gets exactly features he wants and fine tune it for personal UX.
No one uses extensions or customizes a product. Only techie enthusiasts which in mobile is literally no one (percentage).
Do you mean nobody goes to Facebook mobile app settings to switch on/off some features? Do people mostly use the default UX?
I think these 18 tweets might constitute bloat ;-)
They would only be 9 if I was in the #280characters club :-)
Can you site an example of a real world product where the PMs/Product Owners were trying to optimize metrics and didn't care about improving the experience for users?
They always care. But they don’t always own the design of metrics. The internet is awash with engagement and vanity metric driven products.
if you focus on vanity you'll have a short career as a product manager and management will eventually call your bluff
THANK YOU STEVEN!
This is the most important lesson I learned in tech.
Oh he did. Bye bye start button. That went well.
I would do many things differently. Not sure Start menu is one of them. Nearly all apps today are launched by scrolling grids of icons :-)
You were wrong then, wrong now (in desktop.)
I read and think of #Skype 😱
Interesting. So, software is "space filling"?