Why does it even matter?
Because we, as people building software, usually forget that the piece of software we're building is not the end goal. The profits, public awareness, social growth is. And the tool is not the driver of the business. You can cook delicious pastries in an ancient oven or in a high-end one. It's not going to make it better if you have screwed up with the recipe.
The recipe.
Figure out what is important. What are the most relevant flows for the customer. Which ones give you the highest conversion. Get metrics for the operation. How often do you need to click 10 times to get a report of one variable? How often does a human have to check tire pressure? What is the time waste? What is the effort to fix it? Count both in hours and dollars spent. Can we automate the process? Where does deficiency come from? Can we just remove the inefficiency? Can we make it semi-automated?
Improve if the ROI is high. Act on it! Do one thing at a time.
Validate what the result metrics are. Did you actually improve the process? Did you eliminate the waste? Does it work better now? Did customers appreciate the experience?
Apply the same approach to new products. Come up with the idea. Try it out. Make the implementation as simple as possible. Google search page still has only one input field and two buttons. But it's probably the most visited web site in the world. See if people buy into the idea. Get metrics around it. Groom it based on the metrics you have. Don't make the customer wait too long.
Measure what you do and what is the outcome of every feature you deliver. Save your time by not doing low-value frictions. Do high-value things. Now!
Because we, as people building software, usually forget that the piece of software we're building is not the end goal. The profits, public awareness, social growth is. And the tool is not the driver of the business. You can cook delicious pastries in an ancient oven or in a high-end one. It's not going to make it better if you have screwed up with the recipe.
The recipe.
Figure out what is important. What are the most relevant flows for the customer. Which ones give you the highest conversion. Get metrics for the operation. How often do you need to click 10 times to get a report of one variable? How often does a human have to check tire pressure? What is the time waste? What is the effort to fix it? Count both in hours and dollars spent. Can we automate the process? Where does deficiency come from? Can we just remove the inefficiency? Can we make it semi-automated?
Improve if the ROI is high. Act on it! Do one thing at a time.
Validate what the result metrics are. Did you actually improve the process? Did you eliminate the waste? Does it work better now? Did customers appreciate the experience?
Apply the same approach to new products. Come up with the idea. Try it out. Make the implementation as simple as possible. Google search page still has only one input field and two buttons. But it's probably the most visited web site in the world. See if people buy into the idea. Get metrics around it. Groom it based on the metrics you have. Don't make the customer wait too long.
Measure what you do and what is the outcome of every feature you deliver. Save your time by not doing low-value frictions. Do high-value things. Now!
