Очень важное исследование McKinsey о ценности, которую приносит дизайн в компаниях. Консалтеры провели исследование и потрекали данные в течение пяти лет от 300 публичных компаний, и узнали, что дает фокус на дизайн (design led approach). В двух словах: существенно больше прибыли и возврата на акционера.

“We tracked the design practices of 300 publicly listed companies over a five-year period in multiple countries and industries. Their senior business and design leaders were interviewed or surveyed. Our team collected more than two million pieces of financial data and recorded more than 100,000 design actions.1 Advanced regression analysis uncovered the 12 actions showing the greatest correlation with improved financial performance and clustered these actions into four broad themes.”

“Top-quartile MDI [Design Led] scorers increased their revenues and total returns to shareholders (TRS) substantially faster than their industry counterparts did over a five-year period—32 percentage points higher revenue growth and 56 percentage points higher TRS growth for the period as a whole.”

www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-design/our-insights/the-business-value-of-design

The business value of design

How do the best performers increase their revenues and shareholder returns at nearly twice the rate of their industry counterparts? The value of design comes from top management rigor, company-wide teamwork, rapid iteration, and relentless user-centricity.

То есть такие исследования время от времени появляются, но чтобы кто-то так плотно заресечил такое количество компаний, вижу впервые

Кто-то опять топит Фейсбук, непонятно за что.

www.cnbc.com/2018/09/05/facebook-exodus-44-percent-of-americans-age-18-29-have-deleted-app.html

Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app from their phone in the last year, says study

Overall, 24 percent of U.S. users have deleted the app while 42 percent have taken a break of several weeks or more.

Одна из вещей, которые я люблю в профессии продуктового дизайнера — то, что нужно постоянно учиться чему-то новому. Не только инструментам, но и области их применения, пониманию новых рынков, запросов людей, трендов, и т.п. Учиться лучше всего там, где сейчас горячее и интересней всего, и лучше всего прямо внутри индустрии.

Крутая статья на эту тему (2016): о том, как постепенное внедрение AI поменяет рынок образования. Кстати, не знал раньше, что ко-фаундеры Udacity и Coursera, Sebastian Thrun и Andrew Ng соответственно, — профессора Стенфорда, которые вели лекции по AI.

“Education will therefore have to be interwoven with full-time work. “People will have to continuously learn new skills to stay current,” says Mr Thrun. Hence his firm’s focus on “nanodegrees” which can be completed in a few months, alongside a job. Studying for a nanodegree in, say, data science or website programming costs $200 a month, but students who complete a course within 12 months get a 50% refund. A host of websites now offer courses in all kinds of skills, from user-experience design to project management to leadership. Some, like Udacity, charge by the course; others, like Lynda.com, which is owned by LinkedIn, a business-networking site, charge a monthly fee for access to all courses. (It is not difficult to imagine LinkedIn comparing the skill sets of its users against those required to apply for a particular job—and then offering users the courses necessary to fill the gaps.) Users and their potential employers sometimes find it difficult to tell which ones offer good value. More co-operation between government, training providers and employers over certification would help.”

www.economist.com/special-report/2016/06/25/re-educating-rita

Re-educating Rita

Artificial intelligence will have implications for policymakers in education, welfare and geopolitics

Отлинчая поборка скиллов, которыми хорошо бы обладать ребятам в креативных индустриях, но про которые не пишут в job descriptions и CV. На основе блог-поста Сета Година:

uxdesign.cc/things-that-are-missing-from-your-job-description-29871d9e8d8b

Things that might be missing from your job description

Things your design manager expect from you, but won’t say out loud.

Практики discovery при создании продуктов, которые рекомендует Тереса Торрес (и ее товарищи SVPG, которые написали великолепную книжку INSPIRED) — это, пожалуй, лучшая штука с точки зрения процессов, о которой я узнал за последние три года.

Идея похожа на каздев, только он никогда не прекращается. Производство и исследование смещаются на несколько спринтов, в результате чего продуктовая команда (product manager, product designer, tech lead) постоянно находится в режиме исследования проблем пользователей и создания итераций продукта.

Ключевые моменты подхода:

+ Смещение от фиксированного роадмэпа к итеративному

+ Более автономные продуктовые команды (PM, PD, TL)

+ Ключевые активности: интервью, прототипирование, тесты

+ Постоянный co-creation

+ Регулярное (еженедельное) взаимодействие с пользователями/клиентами

Почитать Терезу можно тут: www.producttalk.org/2018/10/continuous-discovery-mindsets/

The Best Continuous Discovery Teams Cultivate These Mindsets - Product Talk

Have you heard? My new book Continuous Discovery Habits is now available. Get the product trio's guide to a structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery. Last week, I was in Cleveland for the Industry Product Conference. I spoke about the three mindsets that help a team find success as a continuous discovery team. You […]

“The firm's research stated that these services are often associated with “Pump and Dump” scams, schemes that aggressively promote penny stocks to inflate their prices before the inevitable crash and burn. Scammers buy low, hope that their promotions let the sell high, then flee with their loot and little regard for other investors.

A cryptocurrency variant of the same schemes has evolved and involves gradually purchasing major shares in altcoin (cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin) and drumming up interest in the coin through posts on social media. The tool then trades these coins between multiple accounts, driving the price up, before selling to unsuspecting traders on currency exchanges looking to buy while prices are still rising.”

www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/17/fake_news_as_a_service/

Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

Fake sites spread fake stories to fuel pump and dump or other foul ends

II. Какие навыки самые важные для продуктовых дизайнеров сейчас (2018)?

1. Коммуникационные навыки: эмпатия, умение слушать, получать фидбек, продавать решения. Очень важно как для взаимодействия внутри компании, так и во взаимодействии с пользователями, каздеве, исследованиях.

2. Умение проводить интервью, от customer development до usability testing. Врубаться в корень проблемы (JTBD/use cases/etc). Качественные интервью с теми, кто будет пользоваться или приобретать ваш продукт — одно из самых главных средств получения обратной связи для дизайнеров, а значит, средство ускорения дизайна.

3. Стратегия. Понимание того, как формируются роадмэпы, как делать продукт по кусочкам/итеративно, как считать возможную прибыльность/значимость фич. Это помогает разобраться, как принимаются решения по продукту, и как можно всего отстаивать решения по дизайну.

4. Понимание интерфейсов в широком смысле. Тут не только про разные устройства, но и про концептуальные различия между conversational и graphic ui, скажем, или как создавать взамоедйствие между человеком, продуктом и AI, который играет большую роль в этом продукте. То же самое про платформы с two-sided marketplaces, где успех продукта напрямую зависит от качества взаимодействия между разными типами пользователей.

5. Понимание AI/ML. Прикладное машинное обучение подисраптит в ближайшие 4-5 лет все индустрии, вопрос только насколько. Зарубиться в понимание всех особенностей data science не требуется, но очень важно понимать, например, как работает AI training, как это все будет подключаться к традиционным интерфейсам. Также помогает понять, где сама профессия продакт дизайна скоро будет автоматизирована.

6. Генеративность. Умение создавать много разных опций, спокойно относиться к тому, что куча работы идет в стол, не важно где работаете. Серьезно улучшает качество конечного продукта.

7. Навыки построения отношений. В том числе с продактом и тек-лидом. Важный баланс: челенджить и предлагать, искать/исследовать и реализовывать.

Ссылка по теме:

medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/junior-designers-vs-senior-designers-fbe483d3b51e

Junior Designers vs. Senior Designers

I like words a lot. But sometimes a few sketches communicate a point more simply and memorably.

Поделюсь несколькими наблюдениями за жизнью продуктовых дизайнеров здесь в СФ.

I. Что приносить на интервью в продуктовые компании?

Активно собеседую продуктовых дизайнеров к нам в Directly. Очень часто вижу такую картинку: приходит неплохой кандидат, прошу его рассказать про какой-нибудь кейс, и он начинает показывать одну из двух историй:

1) Длинный рассказ о том, как и что происходило в проекте, с кучей деталей и не очень конкретными выводами.

2) Короткий рассказ о проекте, где есть картинки и даже иногда анимации, но совсем нет деталей.

Обе ситуации не оч классно работают для тех, кто собеседует.

1) Если рассказ длиннющий, то как правило, дизайнер пробует сообщить слишком многое, упуская основные выводы, метрики, результаты. Самые большие вопросы: как оно вообще зашло? что выяснилось по ходу пьесы? как оно начало работать, какие метрики? что можно сделать иначе? – остаются без внимания, либо теряются в гуще подробностей.

2) Если рассказ короткий, то как правило, не затрагиваются те моменты, по которым можно узнать, как человек думает, какие предпочитает процессы, как взаимодействует в команде, как строит общение с разработчиками, продактами и всеми-всеми, какие у него сильные и слабые стороны. Это все оч важно, особенно если хочется сделать сильный продукт — то есть с тонной итераций, проб и ошибок.

Как поступать? Несколько идей:

1) Пропустить процесс собеседования через призму дизайн-/продакт-мышления.

+ представить, что ищут нанимающие и как они принимают решения (тут можно погворить с коллегами по цеху или рекрутерами);

+ сделать гипотезу в виде кейса, походить с ней по собеседованиям,

+ попутно улучшать каждый раз.

+ просить обратную связь

2) Начать интервью с вопросов: какого человека ищет компания? Какие проблемы пробует решить? Что можно предложить? Подходите ли вы на эту роль (ответить честно, для себя и для других)?

3) Адаптивно реагировать на вопросы интервьеров – показать пару коротких, но емких кейсов; рассказать, что можете привнести в компанию, культуру, процесс, помимо очевидных побед в области дизайна. То, что ищет компания побольше, как правило, оч сильно отличается от того, что нужно стартапу на первых 2-3 раундах финансирования.

4) Бонус: если очень нравится компания или продукт, взять какую-нибудь часть продукта и сделать ее редизайн, превратить это все в прототип, и рассазать, почему решили сделать так, а не иначе.

Ссылочка на тему:

firstround.com/review/An-Inside-Look-at-Facebooks-Method-for-Hiring-Designers/

An Inside Look at Facebook's Method for Hiring Designers

Julie Zhuo, Director of Product Design, shares Facebook's in-depth process for hiring talented designers step by step.

Скоро можно будет тактично покашлять при Алексе, и она тут же выпишет аспирин.

www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/10/09/amazon-patents-new-alexa-feature-knows-offers-medicine/

Amazon patents new Alexa feature that knows when you're ill and offers you medicine

Amazon has patented a new version of its virtual assistant Alexa which can automatically detect when you’re ill and offer to sell you medicine.

Много об этом думаю в последнее время — www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/opinion/sunday/in-praise-of-mediocrity.html

Opinion | In Praise of Mediocrity (Published 2018)

The pursuit of excellence has infiltrated and corrupted the world of leisure.

US MBA applications decline:

“In the application year ended this spring, U.S. business schools received 140,860 applications for programs including the traditional two-year M.B.A., down 7% from the previous year, GMAC data shows.

Until recently, international students had been a bright spot for U.S. business schools. Now, foreign students face steeper hurdles to getting work visas after graduation, leading fewer to apply to U.S. schools, university administrators say.

Overall applications fell more sharply this year than in 2017 as international students submitted 11% fewer applications this year. Applications from U.S. candidates fell 2%.”

finance.yahoo.com/news/m-b-applications-keep-falling-040100855.html

M.B.A. Applications Keep Falling in U.S., This Year Hitting Even Elite Schools

Applications to American M.B.A. programs dropped for a fourth straight year, with even elite universities starting to show signs of struggling to lure young professionals out of the strong job market. For the first time in nearly a decade, waning interest in the traditional master of business administration

Любопытное рассуждение зачем Эпплу (и Гуглу) создавать инструменты для более осознанного использования своих девайсов.

“Where does this leave us? Apple (and Google) will push its own feature sets to enable users to suppress annoying and harmful apps. This is a display of might but also puts user needs into the center of their value proposition. Users are already more likely to trust Apple, who they pay high amounts of money for their premium product –rather than the advertising based models that have gotten Facebook into so much trouble as they strive to keep our attention.”

www.web-strategist.com/blog/2018/09/24/what-it-means-apple-wants-to-reduce-addiction-to-its-own-iphone/

Ben Thompson про уход фаундеров Instagram из фейсбука:

“the implication is that, title notwithstanding, Systrom was never the CEO of Instagram; to be a CEO is to have a company that can stand on its own.

The difference from Zuckerberg — Instagram’s real CEO — is stark. Facebook launched in February, 2004, and sold its first ad two months later. True, “Facebook Flyers” bear little resemblance to the News Feed ads that power the company today, but Zuckerberg’s immediate instinct to build not just a product but a company is notable. Indeed, it casts a new light on the brash CEO’s (in)famous business cards: I’m a CEO, bitch”

stratechery.com/2018/instagrams-ceo/

Instagram’s CEO

The surprising resignation of Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger should not, in fact, be surprising: this became inevitable the moment they sold Instagram to Facebook.

Интересное про то, зачем амазону понадобилось релизить аж 70 девайсов с поддержкой Алексы:

“Amazon is using another tried and true industry strategy employed by Intel, Microsoft and other ODM’s that has been used for decades. These folks have a core technology that they want to get into the hands of more people. In Intel’s case, it was their CPU’s. In Microsoft’s case, it was their OS and specific software apps. For both, they needed to broaden the types of devices that could use their products and thus began creating what we in the industry call reference designs.

Although Amazon does believe they can sell all of the new products they have created and earn some revenue from them, their real goal is to push third-party hardware vendors to develop similar products and broaden the base of devices that support Alexa and in turn accelerate the number of products that feed into their overall services model.”

techpinions.com/why-amazon-released-so-many-new-alexa-connected-devices/53715

^ По соседству воооот такое происходит

Персоналити гики, смотрите:

“Researchers led by Northwestern Engineering’s Luis Amaral sifted through data from more than 1.5 million questionnaire respondents to find at least four distinct clusters of personality types exist — average, reserved, self-centered, and role model — challenging existing paradigms in psychology.

“People have tried to classify personality types since Hippocrates’s time, but previous scientific literature has found that to be nonsense,”said co-author William Revelle, professor of psychology at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. ”

news.northwestern.edu/stories/2018/september/are-you-average-reserved-self-centered-or-a-role-model/

Are you average, reserved, self-centered or a role model?

Researchers led by Northwestern Engineering’s Luis Amaral sifted through data from more than 1.5 million questionnaire respondents to find at least four distinct clusters of personality types exist — average, reserved, self-centered, and role model — challenging existing paradigms in psychology.

Стратечери о том, что Европейское регулирование интернетом делает с индустрией (не то, чтобы что-то очень хорошее), и как это может помочь придумать более качественные законы.

“Much like the Copyright Directive, the GDPR is targeted at Google and Facebook, but as is always the case when you fundamentally misunderstand what you are fighting, the net effect is to in fact strengthen their moats. After all, who is better equipped to navigate complex regulation than the biggest companies of all, and who needs less outside data than those that collect the most?”

stratechery.com/2018/the-european-union-versus-the-internet/

The European Union Versus the Internet

The EU is back to regulating tech companies, and getting the Internet wrong in the process. That, though, helps illuminate an approach that could work.

“[…] although leaders might say they treasure inquisitive minds, in fact most stifle curiosity, fearing it will increase risk and inefficiency. In a survey I conducted of more than 3,000 employees from a wide range of firms and industries, only about 24% reported feeling curious in their jobs on a regular basis, and about 70% said they face barriers to asking more questions at work.”

hbr.org/2018/09/curiosity

The Business Case for Curiosity

Research shows that it leads to higher-performing, more-adaptable firms.

Decompression…

“It’s hard to run companies, especially car companies,” he replied. “It’s very difficult to keep a car company alive.” He has told the NYT that the task can be “excruciating.” Stunts like this may not ease the pressure.

www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/business/dealbook/elon-musk-marijuana.html

DealBook Briefing: Elon Musk Smoked Weed On Air

Investors who worry about the Tesla C.E.O.’s erratic behavior and drug use are not having their concerns allayed.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: “No, no, no. We’re not gonna go vertical. Just like Amazon sells third-party goods, we are going to also offer third-party transportation services. So, we wanna kinda be the Amazon for transportation, and we want to offer the BART as an alternative. There’s a company called Masabi that is connecting Metro, etc., into a payment system. So we want you to be able to say, “Should I take the BART? Should I take a bike? Should I take an Uber?” All of it to be real-time information, all of it to be optimized for you, and all of it to be done with the push of a button.”

stratechery.com/2018/ubers-bundles/

Uber’s Bundles

Uber had a good strategy, but its crisis meant Lyft had new life and the strategy was no longer workable. Now the company is pursuing something new, even though it is more complicated.

“All of the critical ways we define ourselves are being changed by our relationship to technology. To suggest that technology must be designed strictly around what people want is missing the central theme of our time: We crave experiences that are driven by technology. And from this, technology has become inseparable from who we are, and from any notion of what we want.”

www.fastcompany.com/90208681/the-myth-of-human-centered-design

The myth of human-centered design

The conventional interpretation of human-centered design wildly oversimplifies the relationship between people and technology. It’s time for a more nuanced approach, writes argodesign’s Mark Rolston.

В последнее время много движа / исков / законов / турбулентности в области gig economy. То, что изначально маркетировалось как “свобода выбирать свое время”, “удобный график” и “работай когда и где хочешь”, постепенно стало гонкой на выживаение. Компании делают гиг-экономику максимально эффективной, но без ожидаемых социальных благ и гарантий. Financial Time сделало игру, в которой можно попробовать выжить в современном мире будучи водитлем Лифта или Убера. У вас получится?

ig.ft.com/uber-game/

The Uber Game

Can you make it in the gig economy?

🇷🇺 минутка анонсов. G8 - международный фестиваль креативных индустрий, где работы участников оценивают профессионалы международного рынка. Самое классное в этой затее - подать работу на конкурс стоить не сотни долларов, а всего лишь $1. Дедлайн по подаче - 1 сентября. В этом году буду в жюри конкурса.

2018.ggggggggfest.com/ru/nominations

G8

Международный фестиваль digital. Самые известные профессионалы зарубежного рынка оценивают ваши идеи. Стоимость участия – $1.

Have you noticed you don’t get as many likes on your news feeds when you post something? It has a very tangible reason:

“That’s the thing about Stories, though: while more people may use Instagram because of Stories, some significant number of people view Stories instead of the Instagram News Feed, or both in place of the Facebook News Feed. In the long run that is fine by Facebook — better to have users on your properties than not — but the very same user not viewing the News Feed, particularly the Facebook News Feed, may simply not be as valuable, at least for now.”

stratechery.com/2018/facebooks-story-problem-and-opportunity/

Facebook’s Story Problem — and Opportunity

Snapchat is losing users, and it seems clear the biggest reason is Instagram Stories: that is a win for Facebook, but the pain in advertising may be substantial.

“Can entire societies succumb to infantilization? Frankfurt School scholars such as Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm and other critical theorists suggest that – like individuals – a society can also suffer from arrested development. In their view, adults’ failure to reach emotional, social or cognitive maturity is not due to individual shortcomings.”

theconversation.com/the-infantilization-of-western-culture-99556

The infantilization of Western culture

Our social institutions and politics suffer from a collective arrested development – and our relationship to technology has only exacerbated this trend.

“If I had to single out a particular bias as the most pervasive and damaging, it would probably be confirmation bias. That’s the effect that leads us to look for evidence confirming what we already think or suspect, to view facts and ideas we encounter as further confirmation, and to discount or ignore any piece of evidence that seems to support an alternate view. Confirmation bias shows up most blatantly in our current political divide, where each side seems unable to allow that the other side is right about anything.”

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/cognitive-bias/565775/

The Cognitive Biases Tricking Your Brain

Science suggests we’re hardwired to delude ourselves. Can we do anything about it?

“Today, Daskalakis’ contributions have been recognized with the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, which is awarded every four years and is considered one of the highest honors in theoretical computer science. The award cites his “powerful body of results” that explicate core questions in economics about how rational players behave in games and markets, as well as his more recent work in machine learning.

“I really can’t think of anyone else who has been a leader and influencer in so many areas,” said Éva Tardos, a computer scientist at Cornell University. “It’s amazing and it’s impressive.””

www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientist-constantinos-daskalakis-wins-nevanlinna-prize-20180801/

A Poet of Computation Who Uncovers Distant Truths

The theoretical computer scientist Constantinos Daskalakis has won the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize for explicating core questions in game theory and machine learning.

↑ On poetic computation

That one time explaining a joke is actually more awesome than a joke itself pudding.cool/2018/02/stand-up/

The Structure of Stand-Up Comedy

The genius of Ali Wong’s Netflix special.

“Apple’s $1 trillion cap is equal to about 5 percent of the total gross domestic product of the United States in 2018,” said David Kass, professor of finance at the University of Maryland. “That puts this company in perspective.”

www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/apple-is-the-first-1-trillion-company-in-history/2018/08/02/ea3e7a02-9599-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html

“Whereas previous generations were allowed to simply play after school and form close social bonds, many kids today are raised by fearful and overworked parents who insist their kids either attend a regimented afterschool program or stay behind lock and key at home.

We shouldn’t be surprised when the confinement kids find themselves in today often yields behaviors we don’t understand and don’t like. Games satisfy psychological needs other areas of life are not satiating.”

www.nirandfar.com/2018/07/kids-video-game-obsession.html

Kids’ Video Game Obsession Isn’t Really About Video Games. It’s About Unmet Psychological Needs.

Fortnite has created concern about technology addiction. However, when people say they are addicted to chocolate, they are generally not addicted.

“for all of the company’s travails and controversies over the past few years, [Facebook’s] moats are deeper than ever, its money-making potential not only huge but growing both internally and secularly; to that end, what is perhaps most distressing of all to would-be competitors are in fact this quarter’s results: at the end of the day Facebook took a massive hit by choice; the company is not maximizing the short-term, it is spending the money and suppressing its revenue potential in favor of becoming more impenetrable than ever.“

stratechery.com/2018/facebook-lenses/

Facebook Lenses

Facebook was down dramatically after its last earnings; to decide if it is justified it is worth looking at the company through many different lenses, both financial and strategic.