Steven Walker, Lead Design at Groupon speech at LessConf 2011 - I Saw The Sign In Design, Design Products at Scale

1. I saw the sign....in design2011
LessConf
Designing Products at Scale
Steven Walker
Lead Designer
@to_morrow

2. I saw the sign....in design
Designing Products at Scale
Steven Walker
Lead Designer
@to_morrow

3. Do you want to design a
product at this scale?

4. You do?! Awesome!

5. It’s fucking nuts and you better be too.

6. Designing and
Building at Scale

7. 1 Move At Uncomfortable Speeds

8. Slow = Smooth and Smooth = Fast

9. Hypothetical Syllogism
P = Q and Q = R, therefore P = R

10. Only logical fallacy I believe in...
cause it works

11. Know your shit so you can implement on
the fly

12. because quick deployment is important

13. Time will always be a luxury

14. 2 Always Be Thinking Frameworks

15. Do you have a documented style guide?

16. Building a UI framework is a designers job!

17. You shouldn’t have time to build one

18. If you do, your business isn’t
growing fast enough

19. 3 Provide Coverage

20. Might be the most difficult thing to manage

21. Know everything about your product

22. Design process around getting people

23. People are the design. Design is a process.
Therefore people must be part of your
process.

24. 4 Don’t Build, Build With...

25. Find great people that will do the work just
as good as you would

26. “In order to do things well, that can’t be
done by one person, you must find
extraordinary people.” - Steve Jobs

27. Angle decisions together

28. Can you build?

29. Designers should develop and
developers should design.

30. Move quicker by making half
as many decisions

31. 5 Predict Outcomes

32. Lazy designers show work that they know
won’t get approved

33. Did the iPod shipped after
one iteration?

34. The majority of iteration should be
done in the privacy of your own head

35. Don’t waste time by showing work that
won’t get approved

36. And be right about how
your work will perform

37. 6 Design For Everybody Else

38. Don’t waste time by being preferential

39. When are you EVER designing
for you?

40. Be a company man/woman. You are
designing for your company and its users

41. Think about you last...if at all

42. 7 Design For Cranes

43. We design for growth, extensibility

44. If you’re not designing something that can
build upon itself you should restart

45. You’ll limit your growth by not designing
FOR growth, so important

46. What will this look like in 6
months, one year...

47. 8 Shipping is all about Do Do

48. Ship of get off the pot. Start with do, do

49. I love making poop references, especially
when people are paying to hear them

50. If you can’t ship, you’re stupid and I hate you

51. Being able to build facilitates shipping

52. Knowing your product facilitates shipping

53. The best product people can
build the product

54. Tomorrow

55. Don’t be completely useless

56. 9 Search For “The Goose Bump
Effect”

57. If you aren’t getting goose bumps in your
work you aren’t doing it right...

58. or your just some weird person that doesn’t
get goose bumps

59. in which case you should go see the doctor

60. Goose bumps tell me when we are on to
something

61. No goose bumps, no product

62. Don’t Be Shallow
10

63. Think and go deep

64. The larger the product the larger the impact

65. No Visual Vertigo
11

66. Preserve momentum

67. Use blinders and capitalize on intent

68. Real world metaphors work

69. Risk Being Fired
12

70. Don’t listen to this one

71. This is just me trying to justify
the shit I do

72. I can’t believe I still have a job

73. Go big or go home. That can
get you fired.

74. It can be an incredible motivator

75. Thanks and
We’re Hiring!
Designers &
Developers
in Chicago & Palo
Alto
Email me!
steven@groupon.com