One of the most powerful ways to use Chat GTP:

➡️ I want you to act as <X>, please do <Y>"

Example:

I want you to act as a User Researcher, please create an interview guide for <user persona>

Cannabis products get Jobs-to-be-Done.

They sell feelings & flavors, not strains or other technical jargon.

💤 Sleep
🍹 Relax
⚡ Energy

“You have everything but one thing: madness. A man needs a little madness or else - he never dares cut the rope and be free.”

― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

11 non-obvious ways to come up with product & feature ideas (with examples)

Including:
😈 Customer misbehavior
⚡ The 1-day design sprint
🙃 Inversion
🗳️ Note & Vote


More below 🔽

😈 Customer Misbehavior

1️⃣ Look for weird uses of the product by existing customers
2️⃣ Build for said use cases

Example 1

Play-Doh wasn't developed for kids.

It was launched as a wallpaper cleaner in the 30s.

Kay Zufall, a nursery school teacher, read an article about other teachers using it in class.

Inspired, she tested it with kids who loved molding it into all kinds of shapes.

Example 2

Users on Twitter organically came up with @s and #s to mention and categorize content.

Twitter built features to suit; now, these are common industry patterns.

Example 3

🚗 eBay noticed crazies selling cars on the platform, which lead them to create @eBayMotors

🎮 Twitch went through several pivots trying to find PM/F for live streaming until they realized their most active/engaged users were watching others playing video games 😮

🙃 Inversion

Instead of trying to create a good experience:
• Think of what makes an experience suck
• Invert the elements

@Cirque du Soleil inverts nearly every attribute of the traditional circus:

Dirt floors ➜ Fancy theaters
Free entry ➜ Tickets
Strangeness ➜ Beauty

🎙️ Customer Interviews

🚫 Don't do typical, boring interviews where you ask people directly what they want to see in the product.

✔️ Instead, use the Jobs-to-be-Done method:

https://twitter.com/Product_Foolery/status/1579139643160739849

🧪 Competitive Testing

Before building a prototype, do a round of usability testing on your future competition.

Observe what does/doesn't work and where users run into frustration. You'll understand exactly where your future competitors are falling down.

⚡ 1-Day Design Sprint

Do a 1-day version of the wonderful @jakeknapp's method.

• Spend an hour on background
• Create a map of the experience
• Do the design exercises from @thesprintbook (crazy 8s, storyboards)
• After, have your designer prototype the winning idea(s)

🗳️ Note & Vote

Don't brainstorm.

Instead:
• Gather team & present the problem/opportunity
• Working alone, each person spends 5m writing down all ideas
• Take 2m to self-edit down to the top ideas
• Share out ideas
• Each person votes for 1-3 ideas
• Review votes & decide

🗺️ Customer Journey Maps

Map your customers experience from having the first throught through purchase and use.

Identify areas that suck or opportunities to add delight.

📜 Discovery/Opportunity Backlog

If you are keeping one as the product father @cagan suggests...

Dig through your backlog of ideas to see if any of them strike as solutions for the problem you are trying to solve.

Old ideas can work great in new situations.

🥼Usability Testing

Gather some representative users and ask them to perform representative tasks in your app.

Shut up and let them do the talking.

Observe what works and where they run into frustration.

🧐 IRL Observation

Shadow users IRL (in real life) while they are going through their workflows.

Observing people clean their homes led P&G to create the Swifter.

They noticed how much mopping sucks and that people would often wet a paper towel to clean small messes.

🕶️ Digital Observation

• Use products like @msftClarity/@fullstory to watch user sessions in your product
• Come up with ideas based on findings

11 non-obvious ways to come up with product & feature ideas

If you're building a product, you need to talk to customers.

But most customer interviews are a waste of time.

Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) is a methodology that ensures you leave with insights and ideas.

A guide to getting started ⬇️

The gist of JTBD

📈 We don't as much buy products as we buy progress.
👷🏻‍♂️ The 'job' is the underlying progress the customer is trying to make in their life

Are customers buying a grill or are they buying:
⭐ The pride of enjoying a meal that you created
☺️ The feeling of relaxation that comes from cooking at home
😘 Impressing a love interest

Understanding this,we can create better products.

The best customers to interview are those that just purchased your product.

The guide below is  ⬇️

1/ Intro Speil

• There are no right or wrong answers. I am only trying to hear your story in your own words.
• I ask that you be candid. You won’t hurt my feelings; the negative often helps more than the positive.
• Sometimes, I'll ask super detailed questions.

2/ Finding the First Thought

• When did you first think about <product>?
• What triggered you to think about this?
• What else do you remember from that day? Were you with someone? What did they say?
• When you discovered <product>, what first made you want to try it?

3/ Desired Progress

• What about the <product> stood out to you the most?
• What kind of progress or change were you hoping for when you purchased <product>?
• Why is this important?
• What do you hope it will help you achieve?

4/ Consideration Set

• Tell me how you looked for a product to solve your problem.
• Before purchasing <product>, what other options did you consider?
• Why did you choose our <product> vs. the alternatives?


5/ Emotional Factors

• Did you ask anyone else what they thought about the purchase you were about to make?
• What was that convo like?
• Was there any information you wish you had known earlier in the process?
• What were your initial concerns? How'd you overcome them?

6/ Current Satisfaction

• How does using <product> compare to your initial expectations?
• What can you do now that you couldn't before? What does it unlock for you?
• If you could wave a magic wand and improve three things about the product, what would they be?

7/ Customer Language

• How would you describe the experience of <product> to a friend?
• Who would you say the <product> is for?
• If you had to convince a friend to try <product>, what would you say?

8/ Wrap Up

Many customers worry that they have not been helpful enough, so reassure them:

"Thank you, while answers to these questions may seem straightforward at times, I can assure you I've learned a tremendous amount, and you've given me a lot of ideas."

Jobs-To-Be-Done Interview Guide

When building - Intuition comes before Analysis.

We need to come up with ideas first, then go into testing/validation mode.

How do we come up with new ideas?

One of my favorite techniques is the JTBD interview. Here's a guide to get you started:

https://world.hey.com/justin.williams/jobs-to-be-done-jtbd-interview-guide-dd246331

Contrarian advice: design for one person

Humans are more alike than we care to admit

Interesting + opinionated beats boring + average

🥪 The most popular product in the world was designed for one minister of state who wouldn't leave the gambling table; the Earl of Sandwich.

7 Principles for Creativity

1. Stop losing ideas; write everything down
2. Turn work into play
3. Hold decisions until the last moment
4. Maker's schedule > Manager's schedule
5. Intuition comes before analysis
6. Work outside
7. Read about human nature

Product Discovery in a tweet

✨ Define problem/opportunity
💭 Identify potential solutions
🥽 Pick solution(s) to test
🧪 Run tests

Decision point

🛠️ Build: It worked
🔁 Iterate: update + retest
🔪 Kill: It was terrible
🗄️ Shelve: might have legs, but not now

Rinse & repeat

10 Behavioral Science concepts & examples for better creative problem-solving 🧵

1/ ☕ Goal Gradient Effect

The closer we see ourselves to a goal, the more motivated we are to complete it.

This is why, when designing onboarding experiences, you should start the user in a slightly progressed state.

Example:

An experiment with a coffee shop found that:

Option A:
10-stamp card with no stamps filled.

Option B:
12-stamp card with two stamps already filled in.

🏆 B was the clear winner; participants purchased more coffee, and at a higher rate.

2/ 📉 Goal Dilution Effect

The more claims a product makes, the less impactful each becomes.

Example:

Presenting multiple health benefits of a workout routine reduced the believability of the claim. 

✔️ Weight lifting will help build muscle.

❌ Weight lifting will help build muscle and lose weight

3/ ➗ Chunking

Splitting up a task into smaller parts makes it easier to complete. 

Example:

@Lemonade_Inc's process of getting a quote has incredible UX. Part of the magic is only asking for one piece of information per screen.

So CHUNKY, so EASY ;) 

4/ 🍸 Cocktail Party Effect:

Humans get satisfaction from receiving focus and attention in a noisy environment.

Think of the charming person at a lively party who is entirely concentrated on you. 

In the digital world, we know this as personalization.

Example 1:

Starbucks writes your name on your cup; we've even come to celebrate the fails 


5/ 🧑‍🏭 Labor Illusion

We value things more when we believe extra effort has been exerted on our behalf.

Example:

The SMS ad:

"A flu shot is waiting for you at Walmart." increased adoption by 32.3% vs. alternatives.

The copy implies someone took the time to prepare a shot just for you; how could you not come to claim it?

🙏🏻 Thanks to @nudgestock for that one.

6/ 🛋️ IKEA Effect

We value things more if we make/assemble them ourselves. 

When we put together furniture or bake a cake, it strengthens our sense of self-efficacy, fulfilling a core psychological need.

🤩 It makes us feel amazing!

Example:

🍰 While called the IKEA Effect, Betty Crocker discovered this in the 50s when they made their Cake Mix too easy.

💧 Sales plummeted when they launched a new "just add water" version.

❓ Why did customers reject the easier version?

Enabling the cake maker to take pride in their creation is a large part of the value of the product. 

Making it "too easy" robbed customers of this positive emotion.

7/ ⛰️ Peak-End Rule

We form our opinion of an experience based on:

1️⃣ The Peaks: intense positive/negative moments
2️⃣ The End: the final moment of an experience

Peak Example:

The world is full of crazy people, but none as unreasonable as those huddled together at amusement parks, waiting in lines for hours to ride for minutes.

We recall the peaks from the rides, not the tedium of waiting in line.


End Example:

Pirate Ship is software for shipping.

The "end" of the experience of shipping your first box is super fun 😆 

The master of onboarding @UserOnboard calls this a 'Success State'

To leverage the Peak-End Rule, ask yourself:

What are the emotional highs of our product, and how do we make them better?

Where does our experience end? How can we end awesomely?

8/ 🖥️ Defaults

We almost always go with the pre-selected option. 

Example 1:

The average tip went from 10% -> 22% when NYC cabs first installed card readers that suggested defaults. 


Example 2:

Opting people into being an Organ Donor by default yields higher donor rates:

Opted-In by default
█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ 82%

Opted-out by default
█ █ █ █ █ █ 42%

From The Elements of Choice by @ProfEricJohnson

9/ 🔥 Friction

Friction is all the steps, decisions, and actions between a beginning and a desired end state.

Most think about removing friction to improve an experience.

But *adding* friction can be powerful. 

When @barnicolio and I designed an easy way to buy Workers' Comp online at @CakeInsure, some of our first customers thought it was a scam because it was "too easy." ❓❗

We added an arbitrary "Building-Your-Quote" screen, and users found the experience more believable. 

Example 1:

"Build-your-quote" screens are typically arbitrary but effective. 

The added friction may also play into the Labor Illusion.

Maya from Lemonade is working hard on my quote for life insurance, it would be lame not to buy. 


Example 2:

Coin Star are machines that turn coins into cash

When introed, it was able to count coins nearly instantly

🤨 Customers thought it couldn’t possibly calculate the correct amounts so quickly. 

😌 Adding an animation that slowly displayed the results improved the UX

Example 3:

The experience of a slot machine would be super boring without the friction of spinning animations and each slot being revealed one by one.  

Sometimes you've got to ADD friction 🖤

10/ 🖼️ Framing Effect

The same information can be perceived as positive or negative depending on how it is offered. 

Example 1:

🐟 You've likely never heard of the Patagonian Toothfish, which didn't sell very well.

🐠 When renamed the Chilean Sea Bass, the product didn't change, but sales soared. 

Example 2:

☠️ Death Insurance 

Vs.

😇 Life Insurance

Example 3:

A team had created an incredible cold medicine...

They were mortified that it had one critical flaw; it made people drowsy 💤 

What to do?

😎 Use the proper frame