Start with WHY
Why are we building this feature? Why is it more important that all the other ones in the backlog?
Why are we conducting this usability testing and what is our goal? What do we want to learn more about?
Why do we consider this product successful?
According to Simon Sinek, successful projects start with a clear WHY.
Knowing WHAT, is insightful. Figuring out HOW is important. But asking WHY is vital as WHY drives, WHY motivates, WHY nurtures a clear vision and objective. Once WHY is clear everything else will fall in place. Within product design, I always start by asking the WHY questions. WHY are we building this feature? WHY would users want to go through this flow? WHY does it matter?
WHY saves time because once you know WHY everything else will fall in place.
Human-first design
Is this a functional, reliable, usable, pleasurable product? What is missing for it to become that?
How much do we know about the person behind the screen, our user? What are we missing?
Do we need to teach the user how to use our product? Is there an altenative?
Do you ever think about the person behind the screen?
Human first design means having the human behind the screen in mind. What are their intentions while they are on their phone? How much time do they have? Are they using your product as planned? I care deeply and design experiences for the human behind the screen. I try to learn about them, their intentions, and empathise with their perspective, opinion, or point of view. Only then designing a pleasurable product is possible. This is the difference between a product that users want to use versus a product that is added in the list of products they have to use.
Devil is in the details aka attention to detail
Which part of the project is the easiest to neglect?
What could need more attention and why?
What is production ready and what isn't? When will it be?
A chain is no stronger than its weakest link.
The same goes for digital products. A digital product is only as good as its worse component. What could that be? Anything, really. It could be anything from a badly designed icon, to a colour that doesn't match the product philosophy all the way to an interaction that just doesn't feel natural or even a feature that doesn't help the product feel complete. I design digital products that feel complete and just right.