Kevin Yien emphasizes the significance of design details in driving user adoption, noting that small design elements can greatly affect the user experience.
He advocates for involving real users in the testing process to identify friction points and refine interactions for better performance.
Yien highlights the importance of project managers taking responsibility for design details while maintaining high standards for the final product.
He suggests starting small to build big habits, underscoring the need for manageable tasks to establish practices like decision logging.
Kevin encourages gradually progressing in habit formation to build confidence and consistency without feeling overwhelmed. (Time 0:00:00)
Quality Requires Taste
Summary:
Becoming a great writer involves immersing oneself in quality writing and developing a refined taste.
Just as a chef learns by eating different foods, writers must consume a wide variety of written works, including those they consider subpar. This process allows them to gauge what resonates as 'good' writing, fostering the ability to create their own unique voice.
The journey includes understanding and critiquing the works of others, which enhances personal writing skills and encourages creative expression.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
Okay, so this begs the question how does one become a great writer? What helped you become a better writer? Do you consider like how do you feel about your ability to write at this point?
Speaker 1
I mean man becoming better I'll start with like a slightly cheeky comment, which is I think some of this is changing with The advent of large language models and the ability to actually Just mimic someone else's tone. But I take inspiration from the camp of Anthony Bourdain. And he has, I'm going to butcher the exact quote, but it's something like, if you want to know how to make good food, you have to eat a lot of food. And you have to be willing to have a bad meal every now and again. And so for me, like good writing comes from consuming as much good writing as possible. And sometimes you'll read something and say that was actually absolute trash, but that's okay. You have to be willing to take on some of that stuff. But the more you index towards developing your own taste for what you think is good by consuming others, then you can shift into producing your own and then comparing them and riffing It off other people. (Time 0:15:06)
Design Detail Drives Adoption
Summary:
To successfully cater to both experienced users and newcomers in a fast-paced environment, one must ensure that the user interface is equally efficient and easy to use.
Small design elements, such as the timing of animations when navigating a menu, can significantly influence user experience and adoption rates. Involving real users in the testing process helps identify friction points and refine interactions for optimal performance.
It's crucial for project managers to take responsibility for these details, maintaining high standards for the final product while remaining personally invested in the design process.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
On the other hand, you have people who are entering the workforce for the first time, they've never used the point of sale. And so we have to serve both of these equally well, how do you deal with that level of speed, but also the ease of use that anyone can learn it for the first time? And so there was this interaction that we really cared about, which was when you tap on a menu group, what's the animation to pop you into that next level? This seems like such a small thing, but it made the difference in how easy it was to adopt for a lot of the restaurants. And a designer and myself spent like literally an entire week just fine tuning how many milliseconds it would take to pop in and out so that I thought right. And we actually brought in servers and bartenders to play with the prototypes we had on iPads and be like here's an order pop it in and we would see where they would sort of like flinch or Hesitate because the animation was too slow and they thought I can't tap it yet or something related to that. And so it's easy I think for a PM to say that's not my responsibility. I define the requirements, you know, have a menu group that goes to the next level, designer engineer, figure it out. No way. Like that's fully on you and you better be involved in those details.
Speaker 2
And there's two directions I want to go. So there's the drawing the perimeter and then there's this paying attention to the final deliverable and keeping the bar really high, which I love and I totally agree with both. (Time 0:23:11)
Start Small to Build Big Habits
Summary:
Successful habit formation hinges on starting small and making incremental commitments.
To establish a daily log or decision log practice, one should simplify the process by focusing on manageable tasks, akin to preparing for a run by laying out running attire rather than committing to a long distance. Initiating this practice could involve dedicating a specific moment each week to engage with interesting content and recording decisions made.
This method encourages gradual progression, allowing individuals to build confidence and consistency over time without overwhelming themselves.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
It's an amazing story. You doing this explains why you've been so successful. I could see how this all connects now. I think for a lot of people they want, they would want to build this habit. Like clearly there's a lot of value here, but they just don't because, you know, they got a lot of other things going on. Or it's just like, you know, it's like this new thing they have to start doing. Is there anything that helped you adopt this practice of this daily log slash decision log that you think might be helpful to folks to motivate them to give this a shot?
Speaker 1
This is probably just general advice on building any habit, which is start small and just force yourself to do it. And there's like that old saying around how do you start running as a hobby? You don't do it by saying, I'm going to run a mile every day. You do it by putting your sneakers at the foot of your bed, unless you take your shoes off inside, then you put it at the front door. You have your shorts ready to go, and you're like, I commit to putting on my shorts. And if I decide after getting dressed to go run that I still don't want to go run, okay, fine. But you build up to that thing. And I think decision logs are the lightest weight thing possible. And so you can start super easy by saying, you know what, every Sunday morning, I'm gonna scroll through Twitter, I'm gonna check out Hacker News, whatever it is, I'm gonna see something Interesting and I'm gonna make a bet, I'm gonna place my decision on this thing, write it down and then set a calendar invite in, you know, X weeks, X months to see what plays out. (Time 0:40:13)
