A look at why product design is still so poor, even after 22 years of digital design work. Why do these problems exist and how can we remove them from the way we build products? Lean corporate and startup growth models are explored in the solutions to this horrendous problem!
9. Stuff I expected to be HERE:
• Artificial Intelligence instead of Forms
• Instant Customer Service
• Seamless Web and Call Tracking
• Microwave dinners that open properly
• Flying Cars
• Jetpacks
• Free Energy
• Space Tourism
• Learning from past Design Mistakes!
• More Usable Products!
@OptimiseOrDie
14. Quick Calculation:
• £4.5Bn Sales @ £3.5 average price
• Assume 60% are failures
• Costs 90 seconds of wasted time
• 72514285714 seconds wasted
• 1208571428 minutes
• 20142857 hours
• 839,285 days of life - wasted on friction!
• What about injuries?
@OptimiseOrDie
16. A Packaging Manifesto:
1. Packaging should never require a sharp implement to
open.
2. Packaging should not require finger control or strength
which discriminates against population groups
3. Any packaging must be capable of being returned to its
original state to preserve any unused contents
@OptimiseOrDie
17. Why?
“If it comes off in one, it's gonna be
banging! If you’re picking plastic
out of your dinner for ten minutes,
it's probably gonna taste like shit.”
@OptimiseOrDie
20. Edwardian Hygiene
“It was only in the early 1900s that British doctors
realised that the housefly could carry disease on its
bristly legs. Flies were a major transmitter of both
typhoid and summer-sickness, causing thousands of
deaths each year.
After the hot summer of 1911, there was rising
public panic about the high levels of infant mortality
from diarrhoea. Medical officers decided that they
needed to change the way the British public felt
about flies.”
@OptimiseOrDie
bit.ly/OODfly
21. @OptimiseOrDie
“The creation of disgust
around flies was a
major achievement of
the early 20th Century…
The Death rate from
diarrhoea fell steadily
from 1913…”
bit.ly/OODfly
@OptimiseOrDie
22. @OptimiseOrDie
“A 2010 Study found
that when swabbed,
28% of London
Commuters had
faecal bacteria on
their hands!”
bit.ly/OODfly
@OptimiseOrDie
23. Quick Calculation:
• Less than 20% of people in the world wash hands
• Mainly because they don’t have soap and running water
• London is well served for these!
• A huge part of UK ‘Food Poisoning’ is actually faecal bacteria
• This part costs the economy up to £1.5Bn a year
• British travellers get ill on holiday more often than Americans,
Australians or Europeans!
@OptimiseOrDie
27. @OptimiseOrDie
Car Manufacturing Timeline
1893 The Daimler Motor Syndicate formed in Britain
1908 The first Model T rolls off the production line
1930s New innovations in body types – bumpers, closed bodies, boots!
1945 Car Manufacturing takes off in Europe
1959 The Mini comes onto the market!
1961 The first Robot used by General Motors
1960s Japan becomes a major force in manufacturing
1973 Oil Crisis Hits, US market stagnates, Toyota, Nissan, BMW thrive!
1980 Japan becomes 1st in worldwide car production
1980s Use of robots prevalent at virtually all manufacturers
28. @OptimiseOrDie
Car Manufacturing Timeline
1983 Chrysler opens new ‘just in sequence’ assembly line
1990 Japanese carmakers nab 28% of the US market
1991 GM and Ford post record losses whilst Japan booms
1997 Toyota launches the Prius Hybrid car
2005 Four of the 10 largest companies are oil, four are car companies!
2006 Chrysler and GM post huge losses and are rescued
2008 Tesla debuts the Roadster
2010 Toyota, GM, VW and Hyundai the biggest companies
2010 GM sells more cars in China than the USA
2015 First mass market hydrogen car
29. @OptimiseOrDie
Car Manufacturing Timeline
Toyota Production System (1960s ->)
Lean Manufacturing (1960s ->)
Kanban (1960s ->)
Continuous Improvement (1970s ->)
Six Sigma (1986 ->)
Agile Manufacturing (1990s ->)
30. @OptimiseOrDie
1. Change Growth TrajectoryWhat are these for?
• Maintain or Improve Quality
• Remove Defects & Waste
• Increase Production Capacity
• Agility, Flexibility, Rapid Delivery
• Continuous and Rapid Change
• Roboticisation & Automation
• Market, Demand, Resource Planning
• Get it very right or death results!
31. @OptimiseOrDie
What Can Retail Teach Us?
Let’s take some random stuff from online:
• The toilets must be clean
• All the lights must work
• Rails must not be stuffed with clothes
• Disturbed clothing must be tidied
• All tills must be adequately staffed
• Window displays must be changed daily
• All doors and lifts must work
• Floor surfaces must be spotlessly clean
• The air has to smell right!
Thousands of little, tiny and very important details!
32. @OptimiseOrDie
What Can Retail Teach Us?
Let’s try some online stuff:
• Checkout fails on Chrome browsers
• Contact Us page doesn’t render on iPads
• Mobile payment page fails on PayPal
• Navigation was built by a Sadist
• Search is so poor nobody uses it
• Performance unusable on 3G data
• Errors on checkout are never noticed
• Your basket disappears after 15 minutes
• The password reset takes 45 minutes to arrive
• Nobody changes the homepage for a bloody year!
34. @OptimiseOrDie
Arrogance and Basic Standards
• Hiring call with developers
• Candidate told me “People are f***ing stupid if
they use browsers like Internet Explorer”
• I explained using a buggy!
37. @OptimiseOrDie
• Clothing 1M per month, 2 bugs
• Travel 2M per month, 13 bugs
• Telecoms 1.4M per month, 3 bugs
• Travel 0.6M per month, 5 bugs
• Event Site 2.5M per month, 11 bugs
– These were only the first bugs we found
– < 5 days time to fix – an ROI of 91,150%
– Larger than the annual IT budget for some!
How Much do Bugs Cost?
39. 6: Here is our £84 Million testing rig!
@OptimiseOrDie
We Are All Going to Die!
• Made by PetNet
• “The World’s first Intelligent Pet Feeder”
• Links to your smartphone app
• Schedule feeding times remotely
• Ooops! Server outage!
“We are experiencing difficulties
with one of our third party
servers. You may experience a
loss of scheduled feeds and
failed remote feedings”
WTF! The Pet experiences the loss!
40. 6: Here is our £84 Million testing rig!
@OptimiseOrDie
Holiday Diet Feature!
Before After
41. 6: Here is our £84 Million testing rig!
@OptimiseOrDie
It’s only just starting!
• Cheap devices coming!
• Some very good
• Some designed by idiots
• Most designed by idiots
• Never built a digital product
• Never designed one
• Now we make one
• What’s wrong with that?
• Access to your Wi-Fi network!
42. 6: Here is our £84 Million testing rig!
@OptimiseOrDie
Already Hacked!
• Cars
• Watches
• Lightbulbs
• Home Security
• Phones
• Alarms
• Music Systems
• Baby Monitors
• Video surveillance
• Power & Utility
• Printers
• Kettles
codecurmudgeon.com/wp/iot-hall-shame/
43. 6: Here is our £84 Million testing rig!
@OptimiseOrDie
Already Hacked!
• No ‘Best Practice’ security for design
• No infrastructure for updating or patching product
• Needs unfettered access to Wi-Fi network
• Allows untrusted computers to connect
• No ‘two factor’ authentication
“Samsung Toaster Hack Paralyzes Bay Area”
“Hungarian Mercedes Hack shuts Uber in Budapest”
“Thermostat Worm costs $4Bn and counting”
“Search engine available for Hacked Baby Monitors”
44. 6: Here is our £84 Million testing rig!
@OptimiseOrDie
Read More!
bit.ly/iotdeath
45.
46. 16. Ignorance Example
“As your Circle of
Knowledge grows, as
the diameter
increases, so does the
circumference that’s in
contact with all that
darkness outside the
circle of light.”
47. The Solution to Stupidity?
“You Need to Get a
Better Quality of
Ignorance!”
@OptimiseOrDie
48. Rehab for Companies
@OptimiseOrDie
1. What are the signs?
2. Burn Down the Silos
3. Startup Growth Team Models
4. Lean Corporate & Optimisation
5. Product Themes / Decoupling
6. Culture of Failure & Velocity
49. 1. “We have analytics – we just don’t use it (properly)”
2. “We have testing – we just don’t learn anything useful”
3. “We have Customer Insight – we just don’t listen or act upon
what they tell us”
4. “We do ‘Agile’, but we’re not really agile at all”
5. “We have a Growth Hacker, but they work in a silo”
6. “We apply optimisation but don’t change the organisational
structure or management at all”
7. “We have all these tools – but nothing happens”
@OptimiseOrDie
1. Signs you need Rehab
50. @OptimiseOrDie
• Enough Project Managers and Business Analysts to host your own IT
conference.
• Silos work on product separately
• No ‘One Team’ per product/theme
• Non agile, non iterative design
• Product is ‘passed around’
• Large teams, unwieldy coordination
• Endless meddling and signoff
• AB testing usually crippled too!
2. Burn Down the Silos!
55. @OptimiseOrDie
4. FT.COM – Example
• Small teams (6-15) with direct access to publish
• Ability to set and get metrics data directly
• Tools, Autonomy, Lack of interference
• No Project Managers or Business Analysts
• Business defines ‘outcomes’ – teams deliver
• No long signoff chain
• No pesky meddling fools during execution!
56. @OptimiseOrDie
4. FT.COM – Labs, Beta, Split Testing
• 100s of releases a day!
• MVP approach
• Launch as alpha, beta, pilot,
phased rollout
• This approach includes split
testing to tune, optimize or
decide!
• Like getting in a shower
• Read more at labs.ft.com
57. @OptimiseOrDie
1. Change Growth Trajectory4. Increased Productivity
• Most product changes we make are a waste of time!
• The Financial Times – 50-70% of product developer time wasted
in a siloed organisational structure
• Minimum project time was “At least 18 months” for anything
• Projects were always late, underperformed, didn’t shift metrics
as expected
• Post changes, every IT project was under time & budget
• Products were iterated to hack their way to success
• xxM per annum additional profit after three years
59. @OptimiseOrDie
1. Change Growth Trajectory4. A Holistic Approach
“Product changes and AB tests are just the same
thing to us. Where we’re moving to is measuring
and testing everything we do.
This approach tells us what works, what doesn’t,
what to keep, what to remove and what we need
to iterate.”
Financial Times – NextFT project
61. @OptimiseOrDie
1. Invest more in Analytics
Build your own data layer with tools, people, training, self sufficiency
and continual improvement . Invest MORE!
2. Remove wastage and defects
By building products more efficiently, cheaply, successfully. Remove
experience defects at all stages of the lifecycle.
3. Reform the organisation
Set teams free to find the right outcomes and self optimise
SUMMARY
62. @OptimiseOrDie
4. AB and MVT Testing
Don’t just test stuff. Winners have a process and methodology around
discovering, prioritising and running their tests
5. Stop Reading Best Practice Bullshit
Their customers, website, data, market are not yours. Stop reading what other
people do and start listening to and measuring your customers!
6. Qual AND Quant
If you are not measuring customer behaviour (and reaction to experiments)
with both, then you’re hosed. Use data and insight to replace Ego, Opinion,
Assumption, Cherished Notion or Bullshit
SUMMARY
63. • Leicester & Orchestra side
63
Orchestration!
You can still be beaten by people
without your budget, tech or tools!
65. Hacking
efficiency/time/
delight/productivity/fun
Tell your friends good
Lovable Empathetic Delightful
Self actualisation Life changing Rewiring
FUNCTIONAL
ACCESSIBLE
USABLE
USEFUL
PERSUASIVE
COMPELLING
TRANSFORMATIONAL
Device Browser Mobile Audience
Performance Accessibility Platforms
Comprehension Affordance Simplicity Relevance Clarity Context
Utility Tasks Goals Steps Completion Progression
Resonant Authentic Compelling Consistent
Benefits Value Trust
Social Integration and Proof
Habits Nudges Addictions Lifecycle
Promotions Personalisation Brand
Belonging Trusted Emotive
66. TIME
ROI
Your Dendritic Future
“If we are to survive, we
have to stop wasting
money on things that don’t
work, cause more harm
than good or aren’t actually
needed.”
71. Thank You!
Email me sullivac@gmail.com
Slides Will be tweeted!
LinkedIn linkd.in/pvrg14
Notas do Editor
So – a boring intro bit about me – don’t worry – it’ll be over quickly.
You can have a look at your phones for a couple of minutes or just watch David Lynch’s finger instead.
This is how I really feel about this stuff – and I’m angry – because it’s all completely human, stupid and avoidable.
So my talk today is about not congratulating ourselves on how advanced we are – it’s realising truly how stupid we are and how badly we design for humans.
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
I’ve been working on this presentation and thinking about it for over two months now. And this is one of the first graphs I wanted to include, because it represents the hype cycle in AB testing.
This is what a lot of companies go through with new technology adoption, so I wanted to show you what the AB testing hype cycle would look like [CLICK]
I’ve been working on this presentation and thinking about it for over two months now. And this is one of the first graphs I wanted to include, because it represents the hype cycle in AB testing.
This is what a lot of companies go through with new technology adoption, so I wanted to show you what the AB testing hype cycle would look like [CLICK]
I’ve been working on this presentation and thinking about it for over two months now. And this is one of the first graphs I wanted to include, because it represents the hype cycle in AB testing.
This is what a lot of companies go through with new technology adoption, so I wanted to show you what the AB testing hype cycle would look like [CLICK]
And this was the state of my head in 2004. The inability to understand what you can and can’t be confident about – but nobody wants to admit they’re fucking guessing a lot of the time.
And it took me a long time to figure out I didn’t know anything really – it was all assumptions and cherished notions. It was pretty crushing to test my way to this realisation but MUCH I’m happier now.
So, this is the title of my talk today, but actually, I prefer this one:
And here are the top 10 reasons – there are about 70 odd ways people manage to break their AB testing but these are the most common mistakes, particularly for companies just starting or scaling up.
Let’s run through each one – I’ve included a summary slide of each one, so you’ve got a nice handy checklist to take back to the office.
You need to inhabit the contextual and emotional landscape of the consumer to really shape product or service experience. The only way to do this is have teams and cultures that create a direct and meaningful connection between teams and the customer, in the impact that every change has on the outcome.
Every atom of every piece of copy, design, error message, email, website, support, help content, absolutely bloody everything you do - has to be framed within knowledge and empathy with the consumer fears, worries, barriers, pain but also the real problems we solve by designing products not as features but as life enhancing. And this is the best marketing of all, like the IBM ad.
Business Model Optimisation requires a watchmakers eye – a complete understanding of the watch from macro to micro - the flow of delight and money that can be shaped inside every customer experience, website, and interaction - at a component and a service design level.
Most people have 1 or 2 legs at most. The best companies I've worked with are doing all of these.
And here are the top 10 reasons – there are about 70 odd ways people manage to break their AB testing but these are the most common mistakes, particularly for companies just starting or scaling up.
Let’s run through each one – I’ve included a summary slide of each one, so you’ve got a nice handy checklist to take back to the office.
And now a bit about something I call Rumsfeldian Space – exploring the unknowns. This is vital if you want to make your testing bold enough to get great results.
I hope you enjoyed my talk as much I did writing it.
All my details are here including the slides, for you to download.
Go forth and Optimise!