Culture Clash #293 - Product Design Gut Check
Why we need to reconsider creativity as a valuable process
Some of the best, most inspiring thoughts about product design appear as Twitter threads. This week, Alexis Lloyd, VP of Product Design at Medium and one of my favorite product thinkers, published a great thread. The thread serves as a gut check for the product and UX industry.
Alexis claims that by having to legitimize product design to business folks, we’ve over-indexed on process. We’ve been compelled to treat and justify design as more of a science than an art.
I very much agree with this thesis. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I think as design practitioners and leaders, in order to reconsider the balance of power between process and creativity, we need to first acknowledge the current situation.
Products like Snapchat and Instagram did not come out of process-based design thinking. They came out of creative minds, trying to solve a problem with technology through trial and error and experimentation. This is a valuable process that stands on its’ own merit. It should not be discounted.
At the end of the day, it’s not just about process or just about creativity. We need both. But considering how much we’ve swung to the process side of things, we need a reset. Why not let design and product practitioners have some more choice in how they approach a problem. Especially those practitioners with a depth of experience. We may be surprised by the results.
Another recent and very relevant Twitter thread came from Shaan Puri, a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming. Shaan decided to take on Clubhouse, one of the most successful consumer social products of recent history, with this bold proclamation.
From a bold proclamation, Shaan transitions into a wonderful series of story tweets painting the picture of how the Clubhouse story might unfold.
I don’t know how clubhouse plans to match you with an interesting room every time you open the app. I’m already noticing that opening the app is a different experience than it was 3 months ago. There’s a lot of junk in there. Probably 9 times out of 10 that I open the app I end up leaving before finding a room I want to engage with. How much longer will I keep coming back?
Clearly, trying to satisfy every interest in a live conversation that you can open and enjoy at any moment of the day is a tall order.
This is a brilliant insight from Twitch, the “game stores the context.” As a user, you can join at any time and know exactly what’s going on. It means the experience has incredible flexibility. What can Clubhouse learn from this?
Finally, Shaan shows why offering recording, the one feature that fixes some of the underlying issues of Clubhouse experience, is also very likely to suck the oxygen out of the experience.
Surveying the responses to this tweet, you see some of the best of Twitter. Thoughtful replies from major tech personalities and some regular folks that extend the conversation.
Here’s Ben Thompson, the influential writer, and podcaster, chiming in with a good point about the boost Clubhouse has gotten from the pandemic.
Dave Winer, the father of blogging and RSS, adding his point of view on the time suck that Clubhouse can be.
Steven Bartlett pointing on how audio rooms may end up being more of a feature than a holistic product. It will be interesting to see how Clubhouse is impacted by Twitter Spaces once it launches in April.
Anamitra, a former Twitter PM, relating to the thread with a similar moment in Twitter’s product history.
Finally, the master product thinker and builder, Josh Elman, putting everything in context.
5 Links
✍🏻 The totalitarians of the attention economy
An important piece from DHH on how far the attention economy is going. The references of how the CEOs of Spotify and Netflix refer to a user’s time is frankly frightening. Be aware!
From the mind of Dan Romero, formerly of Coinbase, a pretty amazing list of startup ideas.
✍🏻 Write Simply by Paul Graham and Write Sentences, Not Too Many, Mostly Active by K.Q. Dreger
Writing an important part of designing products. It’s often the starting point of our work. These are two fantastic pieces about writing.
📱 Upstream
From Alex Taub, this is the professional community/networking app to watch. It’s well designed, engaging, and simple. Upstream is a new professional groups product. Join communities, give and get help, host office hours, and attend digital networking events.
An excellent new spin on the traditional scanning app. Scan anything: objects, people, animals, plants, books, documents, text, and art. Scan Thing is the quickest and easiest way to capture and save anything around you.