7. Knowing is apples but the
situation may be oranges
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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
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
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
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