Search the site...

  phil mora
  • The Global Nomad
  • About
  • Portfolio
  • Contact and Book
  • The Training Log
  • The Global Nomad
  • About
  • Portfolio
  • Contact and Book
  • The Training Log


​The Global Nomad
(JAN-MAR 23 = PHILADELPHIA)

about

Design inspiration April 2019

4/28/2019

0 Comments

 
This weekend I went a little bit overboard with photoshop and smart objects (for play), I thought I would share a little ... Enjoy!
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Let me know what you think! DM me @philippemora
​My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love: fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. 
​

Head of Product and VP Engineering.
thinker, doer, designer, coder, leader
0 Comments

A few key product principles gathered along the way

4/22/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
It’s Easter Sunday and I feel like I am turning a major page and as such I thought I would gather my thoughts around products creation and dev. Of course I am always in continuous learning mode, so I may change my mind down the line, but as the way we interact with products is being radically changed by software, data and machine learning, right now, I think it’s a good time to pause and reflect on the progress we’ve made in the past 20 years. 
The first thing I have encountered along the way are all the flavors and even in-between of engineering-driven, design-driven and product-driven product and user experiences. Not that any of it is bad per-se, times have changed and we have evolved from a hardware-driven world very much so into software and data-driven in tech over the past decade (yes software is still eating the world @withfries2). And as a result, I have come to the conclusion that today it’s all about being absolutely and fiercely product-driven when it comes to user experience. I’d like to thank Allen Zhang (CEO of WeChat) is at the forefront of this philosophy and his drive to make it front and center in product teams today. Thanks!
​

#1 We view our users front and center.
This means we have the honesty of building products with the most sincere best intentions for our users: this genuine empathy in treating our users will result in our products to be used for a longer time. This also means that processes aren’t really the way we design products today, rather, we optimize continuously using the data we gather from usage and other sources. Process optimization will never solve for the unpredictable and the most mischievous users. 

#2 Technology is for efficiency.
Every day I am dealing with clients who are not immersed in the Silicon Valley tech groupthink and most definitely don’t need or want to place technology at the center of their lives. In fact I think technology is only of value when it’s absolutely not interfering with anything or anyone’s life, it just makes things better and more efficient. I remember my motorola razor’s 300 page user manual … As I said before, today we don’t use products, we train them …. 
In other words, the mission of technology is only to improve a user’s efficiency and delight. To that extent, the vanity usage metrics we’re using today to measure success are very flawed. Instead we should care about the question “Are we the most fast and most efficient” with our product, and do we enhance our user’s lives without interfering with them. Small nudges are humble and this is precisely where we should be. 
​

#3 KPIs are indicators, not drivers.
​
I am seeing many senior managers, including board members, being absolutely obsessed with key metrics - this is in fact counterproductive. It’s of course very important to track metrics however we need to always put them in context, and most importantly they should support the product strategy instead of driving it. As a result, we can put user needs more front and center, instead of traffic acquisition and retention for example, because our job is to create the best products, not the best traffic - organic and natural growth is the most important vector of adoption. In short, KPIs are secondary only; intuitive, user-friendly product is paramount and at the core of every decision.

Conclusion
Of course this approach can be taken with a grain of salt, and some will immediately say that a challenging aspect of a strictly product-driven philosophy is that it’s more long-term driven and may not be very compatible with the short terms requirements of company survival, investor patience or even team harmony: how can an opinionated product creator not become an issue for their team, when “design by committee” will necessarily contain a lot of different opinions and fragment the product’s character? But just the act of considering such product-led principled thinking can push us to new ideas, frameworks and innovations, such as — in what ways can these principles be adapted for different business models?

Let me know what you think! DM me @philippemora
​My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love: fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. 
​
Head of Product and VP Engineering.
thinker, doer, designer, coder, leader.
0 Comments

    head of product in colorado. travel 🚀 work 🌵 food 🍔 rocky mountains, tech and dogs 🐾

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Change Agents
    Experiences
    Fitness
    Hacking Work
    Technology

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010

    RSS Feed

Phil Mora
​San Francisco .Rennes .Fort Collins .Philadelphia
Phone: (415) 315-9787 . Twitter
@philippemora .  braintrust | polywork | behance

Copyright © 1999-2023 Marshall Tucker by Bold (MT2B) All Rights Reserved