The 48th Edition - On Writing Memos, Culture/Market Fit, Using Shape Up in Fintech & Good User Interview Questions

Did you know the story behind the Helvetica font?

Oct 08, 2022

Did you know that in 1957, Swiss designers set out to make a "meaningless," neutral font? They came up with Helvetica. Helvetica, a compact and stylish font, is one of the most widely used and well-known typefaces in the world. This is the pinnacle of contemporary typefaces. More on fonts.

Read: Skip The Slides. Write a Memo.

Memos that can be read in one sitting help you articulate your thoughts, capture the attention of the reader, and steer the discussion toward a defined goal. They have gone in and out of style over the years, but they gained widespread acceptance after Jeff Bezos required all Amazon employees to submit a four-page memo to company executives in 2004.

Even if your culture is slides-first, it helps to write a memo anyway - and convert it into slides.

Read now + grab a memo template

Watch: Stop Going in Circles & Ship Work That Matters

If you've ever thought, "We're not shipping as fast as before" or "We're missing deadlines and having quality issues," this talk is for you.

Basecamp's Ryan and Jobs-to-be-done practitioner Chris present new ways to organize product and engineering teams and shape projects to increase team success and satisfaction.

It’s about how they collaborated on the first version of ShapeUp, how they used it at Autobooks, their successes and failures, and how they tweaked it for fintech in 2022.

Remember

“The world is split between those who don't know how to start making money and those who don't know when to stop.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Try many ways to recruit interview participants. When you find one that works, automate it."

Teresa Torres

Consider

Do You Have Culture/Market Fit? Product people are obsessed with “fit”, and there are a lot of things that we create to fit either the market or the problem. CMF is when a market opportunity meets a culture that can execute on it. The organization's culture enables the right strategies and processes to seize the opportunity. Sometimes that means giving employees lots of freedom (Google), and sometimes it means micromanaging (Amazon), but it's important that the culture addresses the market opportunity. (It reminded me of the Doctrines in Wardley Mapping.)

Cunningham's Law: "The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." This also works in product. Try restating the user’s problem incorrectly on purpose, and they will correct you.

Good User Interview Questions:

“Can you show me how you're currently solving this?”
"Tell me about what you're using this for?"
“What else have you tried?”
"How have you tried to solve this in the past?"
"What was the situation you found yourself in when you needed to do this?"
"Tell me about the last time…"
“What is one thing we didn’t ask you today that you think we should’ve asked?”
“How did you use it last [Tuesday]?”
"Can you walk me through your day/hour/situation with...?"
"What happens if this solution stops working tomorrow?"
"How often does it (situation, problem) happen & what leads into it?"
"How does it (solution/problem) fit into your day-to-day?"
“How does <competitor> solve that for you?”
“How would you simplify <workflow>?”
“What is the most important thing you’d like to see on this <page/table/screen>?”
"How does this make you feel?"
"What are your biggest problems?"
"What is reminder / diagram you have hung on your wall and why?"
“How does this impact your ability to successfully do your job?”
"When did you find yourself disappointed because the product promise turns out not to be delivered?"
"Why do want this solved?"

BONUS: My favorite question/test to see when someone’s really used something they say they did, I ask them to (1) go to their browser history, (2) type the URL, (3) show me the first and the last date in their history + the number of rows.