Luca Ferrari

How many of us have joined a new company and proposed a promising solution to a problem only to have it rejected with “we tried that n years ago and it didn’t work”? Or conversely, had a new executive join your company and repeat “here’s how we did things at my last company” ad nauseum? These are telltale signs of a surface level understanding. In my latest blog post, I share some personal experiences highlighting the importance of understanding from first principles - whether it's physics or product management. #productmanagement #pm #leadership #fractional #fcpo #firstprinciples

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Having a chat with Simon Bristow the other day, we discussed the idea of Design Debt. It inspired me to write a full article :) What exactly is Design Debt? It’s the buildup of nasty assumptions and misfires that happens when you spend too much time in the lab and not enough time on the street. It’s what happens when your team falls in love with their own ideas, research artefacts and designs, instead of listening to what real users actually want and need in real life. What do you think? https://lnkd.in/gpKiNj9x #Design EverestEngineering

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Here is a market research for your next product idea. Verticals at which VCs want to throw their wallets. https://lnkd.in/d_EhqYcU It’s not a secret yet for some reason YC doesn’t get enough submissions in these domains. There’a at least 1 good idea I’ve got from reading this - Programming Language (or framework or fork) for New Space domain. There are some lessons to take from SpaceX approach to development and how they handle system recovery. Having this baked into language with set of testing tools to stress test the system is something that is needed to make programming for New Space more approachable. You could license tools on top of that. Do you have any other ideas? #vc #money #ycombinator #programming #spacex #newspace #startup

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The problem with unchecked and unintentional complexity is that it gradually narrows the 'solution space' — the range of future improvements, adjustments, or innovations that can be realistically pursued. Picture the solution space as a playground where designers and developers have room to explore new ideas and tackle emerging challenges. As complexity accumulates without careful management, walls begin to form in this playground, limiting the freedom to experiment and improve. Changes become riskier, and small tweaks can lead to a cascade of unintended consequences. The more convoluted the system, the fewer opportunities there are to introduce meaningful, impactful updates without further complicating the product or alienating users. Read more in my latest blog post linked below. #ProductManagement #Complexity #Innovation #TechLeadership #DigitalTransformation #Scalability #TechDebt #IntentionalComplexity

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SUMMER PRODUCT HACK 🌅 Post 10: How to validate your design with clients/stakeholders Here we go! A vital step in application development is designing the app before it's live. We use various tools to create mockups and collaborate. These days, as many teams do, we primarily use Figma. In the past, we also used Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, and InVision (RIP). My tips for a smooth design sign-off 1️⃣ Firstly, it's rarely smooth! Stakeholders usually all have a say in the aesthetics and interaction of the app. Be prepared for long discussions 2️⃣ Get one person on the client side responsible for gathering feedback, sharing comments and being in a close loop with your design lead 3️⃣ Back your design decisions with user insights and data! It's the best way to get it across to the stakeholders 4️⃣ Have two to five UI variants available to review and test. I recommend to limit the choices to avoid complexity 5️⃣ Send a clickable proto or short video of your design before a call/review with the client. So you can dive in straight to it To my designer friends, I want to hear your thoughts on this topic! How do you manage your client's expectations during the process? 👇 #uxui #process #stakeholders #product #tips -------------- Do you need UXUI for a specific project or to augment your team? Talk to me, and I can sort it out immediately!

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We're testing something over here at The Gnar and want your feedback. So while we “do” software development, we primarily offer three things: Design & Discovery - A robust 1-2 day discovery workshop where we define requirements, then we complete detailed wireframes and a full visual design to accompany it all (in total, it typically takes 4-6 weeks and costs ~25k) App Development - Custom mobile or web app development and integrations. Support & Maintenance - We help keep products functional and bug-free out in the wild. Here’s what we’re testing: Doing just the discovery/requirements definition in 1 week (for ~$10k). You get full project requirements and a roadmap to build the thing in the best way. Give it to your internal team, hire somebody else, or hire us. It’s just an experiment and we haven’t promoted it at all, but we’ve done similar things before and they’ve gone very well. Curious if anyone has thoughts if this is attractive? Viable? What needs to be included (and what shouldn’t)?

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Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet introduced the new idea of "Artifacts". On their own, it's super useful UX – allows you to see what you're working on side-by-side with your AI conversation. What's more interesting, though, is how Anthropic talks about this feature – per Anthropic, "this preview feature marks Claude’s evolution from a conversational AI to a collaborative work environment". 👨‍🏫 As AI is becoming more powerful, it is becoming an indispensable tool for many types of work – design, coding, and writing are all increasingly practice areas that should be leveraging AI. If you're not using AI here, you're not doing your best work. 🤔 With Anthropic's shift in usage patterns for Claude, we see this in real time. Use AI to collaborate on creation – not just to answer questions and chat. 🗣 This is also how we think about AI at Hummingbird – we're building AI agents that help you do your compliance work better and more efficiently. We're building safe solutions on top of frontier models like Claude 3.5. #AI #Creativity #Compliance #FinTech #Automation

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There are countless good books about effective practices in business, but there is a small set of excellent ones focused specifically on Product Management, Discovery, and Growth. The list below, highlighted by Marty Cagan books Inspired, Empowered, and Transformed, are highly recommended. As well as Teresa Torres book Continuous Discovery Habits. To all fellow colleagues working on product teams and focused on building any customer focused products, enjoy the list below and pick up a new book to learn and enhance your skillsets and knowledge. #productmanagement #learning #productbooks #productdesign #consintuouslearning #continuousdiscovery

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👨‍💻👨‍💻👨‍💻 This was a great article from Lenny's Newsletter that I just had to share. The ARIA framework introduces a clear and structured approach to leverage "hidden gems💎", or hidden features you have within your product / app / website. ========== When you study customer behaviour, you would have encountered the following: ⚙️ A particular feature used only by a small group of customers ⚡ These customers are "power users" or "high value" 🗣️ You try to convince other users to use the same feature 😞 You don't see much success 🤷 You conclude that you can't force people to use it You want to get the most out of your existing features, and maximise their potential🚀! The ARIA framework introduces a methodological approach to do this in an iterative way. I love its elegance and how it encapsulates different ways to support customer discovery. In short: A - analyse features / usage R - reduce friction / steps / effort needed I - introduce to customers and raise awareness / motivation to use it A - assist in making it easy to adopt ========== So get started: 📚 - Start studying your customer's journey, their intent, micro-moments 🏃 - Discover new actions with high correlation to your success metrics 💪- Use the ARIA framework to help you engage more customers with your product ⚠️But remember: Correlation =/= Causation So if it doesn't seem to work, dig deeper. #marketing #crm #customerengagement

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What I read last weekend ** 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗔**𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 ** Turns out, good and horrible founders have the same characteristics, but very different characters. How do you tell them apart up front? (It’s super easy after a few days of working together though) --> https://lnkd.in/dsU9wD6J ** 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗿 ** You are Volkswagen, it’s 1949. You want to sell the car Hitler commissioned. To Americans. The car is about half the size of an American car, but gas is still cheap. Ah, the car also looks a bit odd.  Your ad agency has a secret weapon though: humor. These ads have everything I miss from this region: a sense of humor, the clever, self-deprecating kind. Copywriting that sounds like a human had written it. --> https://lnkd.in/dUwv4T3T ** 𝗥𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘀 ** Robo-advisors for investments were statistically better than humans. Nevertheless, they did not succeed. Why? We will soon all talk to AI agents (and those are probably way better than the lets-not-even-mention-them-anymore chatbots of yesteryear) but here’s why they still won’t replace many human ones.  --> https://lnkd.in/dHYV7gqx

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If you're used to monitoring backend systems, you're probably discovering that monitoring mobile apps is a totally different beast. Come learn from Virna Sekuj and Christine Hermawan how you can monitor your mobile apps better!

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Stop creating poor visual hierarchy in your products. Founder's and product people care about the UX but they might have trouble providing a good visual hierarchy to allow users to scan the page and find the information they are looking for. Creating great hierarchy in your digital products and tools will help users get tasks done and keep them coming back. Watch the short video below to learn more. #uiux #uidesign #productdesign #startups #founders #figma #saas

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👩‍💻 Hick’s Law – a crucial principle for product managers! It states that the time it takes for users to make a decision increases with the number of choices available. This highlights the importance of simplicity in UX design. By reducing options and keeping interfaces straightforward, we can enhance user experience and drive engagement. In my role at consumer core experience group at Yelp, I've found that applying Hick's Law helps users connect with local businesses more efficiently, improving overall satisfaction. Simply saying, the law works. Here's a nice article on Hick’s Law and its application in product design: https://lnkd.in/gVWXj8F4 #ProductManagement #UXDesign #HicksLaw #Simplicity #UserExperience #Yelp

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🌟 Introducing ArchLabs' Innovative Team Model: Hero + Small Devs Concept! 🌟 At ArchLabs, we're committed to nurturing talent and delivering quality. We've developed an innovative approach to maximize both—the Hero + Small Devs concept. This model leverages the expertise of senior engineers (the "Hero") alongside our talented trainee engineers, offering clients exceptional service at a fraction of the cost. 💡 Why This Model? Cost-Effective Solutions: By involving trainee engineers, we provide top-tier development services at an unbeatable rate of just $200 per month per intern—less than $1 per hour! Quality Assurance: Our senior engineers guide and mentor the junior developers, ensuring high-quality output while giving our trainees invaluable real-world experience. Scalability with AI: We're harnessing the power of AI to further enhance the capabilities and efficiency of our team, aiming for seamless scalability. We're thrilled to share that our latest client, EtiqWise, has reaped the benefits of this approach. Here's what they had to say: "The team was highly professional and extremely attentive to all matters pertaining to developing our website." 🎉 Congratulations to EtiqWise for choosing ArchLabs! Your trust in our innovative model underscores its potential, and we’re excited about the future possibilities. Do you have an idea and want to see it come to life? Let's collaborate for a mutually beneficial cause. At ArchLabs, we're not just developing solutions; we're shaping the future of the tech industry, one intern at a time. #Innovation #TechDevelopment #TeamModel #HeroAndDevs #ArchLabs #ClientSuccess #EtiqWise #FutureOfTech #AI #QualityService #CostEffectiveSolutions

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“Why did the app adopt this design pattern? Does it perform better?” These are questions many of us, myself included, ask when browsing for references on Mobbin. Introducing https://abtest.design, a curated collection of A/B test results from best-in-class apps. It is our first step toward answering the above questions, providing the WHY behind popular design patterns used by industry-leading apps. We’ve built a growing library of over 50 test results from apps like Headspace, Uber, Blinkist, and Duolingo. Our goal with abtest.design is to help designers and product teams make informed design decisions that positively impact growth metrics, such as trial signups, checkout conversions, and user engagement. Give it a try and let us know what you think! If you'd like to contribute and help grow the library, we're accepting submissions here 👉 https://tally.so/r/mOLJPk

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Are you using a developer portal or service catalog like Backstage? I've heard a lot of difficulty around low developer adoption and keeping it up to date with service changes. We're working on something cool in this area and would love to learn more about your experiences. Share with us what works, what doesn't, and any pains you've encountered. #DeveloperPortal #ServiceCatalog #Backstage

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How to add a new feature to your app in 5 days. Admittedly we do have a lean, agile and very awesome team who are able to work quickly and smartly. We did this on purpose. Because feedback from users shapes how good our App is. The core functions are there, but it’s users who tell us what they want and we have to quickly adapt to that. The other day I posted about how a simple conversation with my 13 year old son in between his go-karting races inspired two new features for Fitain. 1. Make it easier to connect with your friends and people you meet - use a QR code. 2. On the home screen show stories of what my friends have been doing, like instagram does. WIthin 5 days of this conversation both these features were live in FITAIN, on both app stores. How did we do this? 1. Validated the ideas. Quick team meeting first thing the next day. 2. Design what it will look like, we have a great design system so this part was easy. 3. Build a quick MVP to test how it “feels” 4. Test 5. Refine 6. Test with a wider audience 7. Refine 8. Final sign off 9. Release We have a lean team, we talk a lot either in person or video call. We have one simple project and issue management tool (Monday.com) and we keep it light. We love to get sh * t done, fast and validate as we go. Want to connect with a friend, do some exercises and challenge each other? Download FITAIN now - it’s free and available in the App Store and on Google play. And if you’re a gym owner reading this and want to offer your members a better way to connect and challenge each other when it comes to exercise please DM me as you can have your ‘own’ FITAIN for your gym. #innovation #leanstartups #gettingthingsdone #gettingthingsdone #mobileapplications #health #fitness #gym #workout #exercise #personaltrainer

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🚀 Excited to share a sneak peek from my latest book "Hitchhiker's Guide to Startups"! 📘 🎯 SCOPE: The Art of Defining an MVP "YOU WILL BUILD SOMETHING FIRST, TEST THE OBJECTIVE YOU SET FOR IT, AND ITERATE AGAIN WITH THE NEXT ITEM ON THE LIST" 🔍 Defining the scope for an MVP is a pivotal moment for any startup. It's about setting clear boundaries and objectives for your initial product release. But it's more than that – it's about embracing a focused development process, saving precious resources, and opening the door to early user feedback. 👉 In my book, I dive deep into the process of scoping your product's MVP. It's a journey of prioritization, validation, and sometimes, tough love for the features you've passionately crafted. 📊 I introduce a simple yet powerful tool – the Functionalities vs Needs Matrix. It's a reality check for your product features, aligning them with your audience's unmet needs and your business objectives. 💡 Discover how to: Prioritize essential features Validate your unique selling proposition Align functionalities with business goals Assess the effort and cost effectively 🏆 Selecting your MVP is just the beginning. It's about building, testing, learning, and iterating – a cycle that propels you towards product-market fit. 📘 Want to learn more about the journey from MVP to market success? Grab your copy of "Hitchhiker's Guide to Startups" and let's embark on this adventure together! #StartupJourney #MVP #ProductManagement #HitchhikersGuideToStartups #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #BookLaunch #DigitalMarketing 🔗 https://lnkd.in/d_MyBBv7

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