I’ll admit it. I love rounded corners. They’ve gone out of style somewhat, but I still love ’em. When we were building Standout Jobs, we made the decision to have rounded corners on all the widgets that appeared on a career site. Actually, I probably made the decision. I certainly pushed hard for it. Rounded […]
Design Web Apps With a Scalpel Not a Hammer
Design works when it solves problems. And there aren’t many problems on the Web that you can solve using a hammer. Slamming someone upside the head is generally not the best way of getting them to do what you want. Brute force has its place, but if you’ve pummelled someone into submission, they’re not likely […]
And You Thought Building Product Features Was Easy?
Laura Klein really blew my mind with her post: 6 Questions to Ask Before Launching a New Feature. I don’t think I’ve ever put that much thought into adding a feature before. From now on, I’m going to make damn sure I do (or at least try!) The only addition I can really make is […]
Product Managers in Startups: What’s their Role?
Product managers are the unsung heroes in startups. The Wikipedia definition of product management states: Product management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle. Product management (inbound focused) and product marketing (outbound focused) are different yet […]
Get Obsessed with Viral Loops
I’m obsessed with viral loops. Andrew Chen writes a great post: 5 crucial stages in designing your viral loop. Go read it. Good viral loops won’t guarantee success, but they can make a huge difference in attracting prospects and converting them into customers. By virtue of the fact that viral loops spread your product / […]
The False Promise of One More Feature
How often have you said (or heard someone say), “If we just add that one new feature, we’re going to hit a home run with this thing!” I’ve heard it a lot. I’ve even said it a lot (more times than I’d care to admit.) It’s easy to get lured into the feature creep trap […]
Web Apps Don’t Motivate New Users Enough
Building a successful web application is not easy. And one of the areas I find particularly lacking in many new web apps is the experience immediately after signing up. Thankfully, signing up for web applications has gotten a lot simpler and faster with authentication through Twitter or Facebook, but it’s not even the standard sign-up […]
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