Facebook: You Are The Product
By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: September 5 2017
Here’s a long read about something most techies know: At Facebook, you are the product.
product
If you just don’t like selling
By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: August 1 2017
“When the soul becomes the warrior, all fear melts,
as the snowflake that falls upon your hand.”
How to design products you’ll love (inspired by Jonathan Ive)
By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: August 5 2017
Introduction: Recently I was talking with some people recently about “design”, and as an effort to show how the design process works, I used the process of designing a coffee mug as a way of explaining the process. This article walks you through this process, though the actual designs are up to you.
Balancing development desire with product goals
By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: July 17 2016
This oreilly.com article about balancing quality and product features (from the perspective of a CTO/CIO) is a good read. The editor’s note states, “This is part of a series exploring the trials and tribulations of first-time managers. Camille Fournier, former CTO at Rent the Runway, is often asked for advice on how to make the transition from an individual contributor to a manager.”
Lesson learned from Apple: Keep innovating, or die
By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: October 2 2016
One lesson learned from Apple recently is that if your products stagnate, people will start to look around, and may spend their money elsewhere. As just one small example of this, iOS got boring for me, so I started looking around and bought an Android tablet instead of a new iPad. These days the Mac and macOS feel stagnant — or worse than that, moving in the wrong direction by removing features like Spaces — so I’m looking at desktop alternatives as well.
The tyranny of the final product
By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: July 17 2016
The words “The tyranny of the final product” remind me of every software project I’ve ever been involved with, and the few books I’ve written.
This image comes from the table of contents of the book On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction.
Software project failure rates are still high
alvin
June 18, 2015 - 8:03am
I thought “agile” processes would have had a big impact on software project failure rates, but according to Gartner, as of 2012 the failure rates for reasonably large projects is still very high. Image from this Twitter page.
Lean Startup for Agile Product Management
alvin
May 2, 2015 - 2:30pm
At the moment I don’t know if this talk is any good, but I do like the pictures/slides, and I want to come back and re-visit it at some point. The title of the presentation is, “Lean Startup for Agile Product Management.”
Jonathan Ive on focusing on product design
By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: July 15 2016
A great quote from Jonathan Ive about focusing on product, and how when you focus on product (design), everything else just falls into place. (Personally I think this is true when someone is clearly in charge, like when Steve Jobs was in charge, or now that Mr. Ive seems to be in charge of design and software.)
Four parts of a Minimum Viable Product
By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: June 3 2016