Design and Research in Product Cycles

I am having difficulty rinsing my fountain pens this week.

The situation is Gaza might have lost its media appeal, but it doesn't look like its over... Supposedly there is a truce; but both parties are acting up. IDF is bombing and bombing and bombing, Hamas is keeping hostages in exchange. I hope four days will help in aiding the innocent civilians in Gaza and give strength to the hostages from both sides.

But the kids in Gaza... they struggle to find water. It feels terrible to dip a fountain pen nib into half a glass of water. It is mesmerizing to see the ink flow into clear, crisp water, or it was. I feel bad wasting that water for my own transient pleasure.

Donate where you trust. Watch this exchange, share it if you agree. Give the kids a chance, times 10,000.

Event: The Right Depth of Research for Product Teams

Brick Institute and Userspots graciously hosted me last week in an alumni webinar about the right depth of research in product development lifecycle. The core of my presentation was based on Dave Hora's Three Waves of Research Practice article and the six steps of any successful research endeavor in Product Research Rules.

It was a great call! We had a wild Q&A that ranged from design practices to pursuing opportunities abroad. I want to thank all alumni who joined.

Sneak preview: I am working on two courses with Brick Institute to teach empirical techniques for research in product teams. They will be mostly targeted for product people, but researchers and designers are also welcome.

📝 Can you let us know if you are interested by answering two questions?

Thoughts: Design for discovery and delivery are two different things

Thank you for your responses to the survey in the previous newsletter. I'm writing about the option that got the most votes: design and research in product development cycles.

In super simple terms, product management is balancing discovery and delivery. During discovery (I didn't say discovery phase), product people work with other teams to discover the next things to focus on. During delivery (I didn't say phase here neither), product people work with other teams to build and release this next thing.

I have chosen my words very carefully in the previous paragraph, because there is a wild variation in how discovery and delivery happen in different companies:

• Some companies separate discovery and delivery completely. In these companies, discovery and delivery are phases. Teams that do discovery are completely disjoint from teams that build the product. Some of these companies are successful, some of them are already gone.

• Some companies try to overlap these two types of product work as much as possible. In these companies, discovery and delivery are activities. Often, many team members take part in both activities, sometimes even simultaneously. Again, some of the companies that work with this model are successful, some of them are gone.

• It is possible to have a successful product without discovery. It requires either luck or a huge budget. Add to that the correct startup vernacular, social circle, and a few VC who would do anything to deny their failure, and you can portray your fuck-ups as successful pivots. Forever. Like, you can be a serial entrepreneur.