“They should use the latest version.” “The engineers should read the spec.” “The designers should look at the numbers.” “Our clients should embrace Agile.” “The execs should invest in branding.” “He should read his emails.” “People should speak up in this meeting.” “Everyone should put down their phones for a sec.” “Someone should tell him.”… Continue reading Buried treasure
Author: chris
Product management articles
Most articles about product management and startup strategy just rehash content that originated elsewhere or are about winning the lottery. Here’s some that I go back to often: Startup Metrics for Pirates by Dave McClure of 500 Startups is a classic because it quantifies successful product design (Another, medium format; a longer format. The One… Continue reading Product management articles
Getting things done isn’t enough
People who Get Things Done but are not Smart will do stupid things, seemingly without thinking about them, and somebody else will have to come clean up their mess later. This makes them net liabilities to the company because not only do they fail to contribute, but they soak up good people’s time. They are the kind of people who decide… Continue reading Getting things done isn’t enough
Naked love, fearless words – remembering Mom
Mom passed away a year ago, on June 18, 2013. While no testament to her life and heart ever seems adequate, I gave my best effort with this eulogy. Mom would’ve been proud; she was unconditional in that regard. Thanks Thank you all for joining us today, to celebrate the life of Mary Beth… Continue reading Naked love, fearless words – remembering Mom
A/A/B/B split tests for improved certainty
When split testing with a web tool like Optimizely or MixPanel, you may sometimes see inconsistent results, even with relatively large result sets. At OpenSky, we sometimes see test cases’ performance converge and then swap places over time. This is arguably the most likely outcome of a test: inconclusive results. (See Evan Miller’s “How not… Continue reading A/A/B/B split tests for improved certainty
Ecommerce photography – 15 ways to take photos that sell
I just revived this old article for OpenSky merchants learning to take better product photography. Cross-posting here in all its glory. Great photos are your best attention grabber, whether in shoppers’ feeds, in emails, or on your product pages. You don’t need a fancy camera to take product photos that convey your brand and your… Continue reading Ecommerce photography – 15 ways to take photos that sell
Developer team structures, and growth
Working with a dev team? Check out Scott Porad’s The Best Developer Team Structure blog post. Notes that I’ve also found to be true: Let people work on their passion WIP is deadly (I’ve begun to recognize it as a likely indicator of problems with the goals, design, or passion) 1 PM to 3-5 devs… Continue reading Developer team structures, and growth
The 3×3 Rules
From one of my heroes, @umairh. For the past year I’ve been grappling with some version of his #7 rule, which I phrase as “epitaph, not resume.” Time will go by (a lot) faster than you think, want, or need. Most of the stuff you think will make you happy won’t. You’re capable not just… Continue reading The 3×3 Rules
How to compose link text
When linking part of a sentence, what words belong inside the link? This seems to be a lesson that every new UI designer stumbles on. Bad Click here to see the next page. Because readers scan text, the link is read as standalone (“here”) text and is unintelligible. Still bad Click here to see the… Continue reading How to compose link text
Models for defining a social network user experiences
As we’re making OpenSky more social I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at social networks and recently realized that social interactions on social networking sites can be reduced to verb-noun-verb definitions that: Outline a share-object-consume chain Have simple, well-defined verbs Here are some examples of those definitions: Twitter Tweet links to click Facebook… Continue reading Models for defining a social network user experiences