We have time.
People from almost all walks of the society (except those in the healthcare and related disciplines, and in police forces or in governance) have time.
In the beginning, there was a pause. A panic too.
Pets or kids around. Folks alone.
We were at home. Most of us are still home.
Queues for groceries. Plants. Sanitizer. Energy.
We accepted it and soon we could reset our files, reorganize the desks at home, try new dishes, spent more time in the shower, and we hoped for the best. Not to mention that we showed tremendous solidarity.
At the same time, I notice on Product Hunt, on the Jason Calacanis’s Slack, and on Twitter that the new products continue to be launched and validated (or the other way around), and a part of the normal is still normal.
This normal is—the broken onboarding, poorly designed forms, a cousin content of lorem ipsum, guesswork-based pricing, and almost-zero time spent on the strategic product positioning.
We have time. It does not necessarily mean that we should build something. And if we have the right skills and motivation, we have time also means that we can gain and follow some of the best practices to do meaningful work.
Who cares what we are building, and why they should?
How will you sell another product roadmap tool, a text-to-podcast service, or a customer feedback survey design tool? And for how long?
We have time
Hundreds of hours’ work go into the drain, with long threads of Slack discussions, hours of Zoom calls, and dragged Trello boards.
Just to drag it because we have time?
Templates are purchased, DevOps person is paid on late nights, and the hero’s journey starts on a minor arc. The hero image says:
- The best customer feedback tool around
- Create AI-driven smart surveys
- Work faster in remote teams
And if by chance the people stop to pay attention and decide to sign up, they get this.
Is it an issue in their clarity, or an issue in saying a ‘Yes’ to incoming clarity? It is unfortunately in either case.
They have absolutely no clue of what they are designing, and why, and how it should be designed, priced, marketed, and sold. I found it in my free thirty-minutes calls as well.
But we have time
- Me: “I can fix your broken sign up form (I share a make-the-difference example.)”
- They: “Well, I know it. We will get it fixed soon.”
They don’t have time?
- Me: “Your messaging is broken, I can have a quick call to help you work towards fixing it (here is an example of how I can get it done.)”
- They: “We are stuck in the Ops now as we are pitching it next week.”
They don’t have time?
- Me: “When I see the dashboard, I have no clue how to get started. The interface does not guide me for…”
- They: “You are right, we will add content to the design as soon as we get a few more sign-ups.”
They don’t have time?
Are we designing something because we have time, OR we are designing something more workable and meaningful because we have time now?
We will not have time again. And we will not have a choice either.
Time.
Since April, I am hosting one-hour sessions on all things products. I had two sessions on product design—onboarding and design utility in context. In May, I am doing it for product positioning and narrative, for messaging and storytelling. If you have time, join me on 07 May at 08:30 PM IST.
You can pitch to raise funds for your business. Can you pitch it to raise time for your product?
