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My Favorite Books Read in 2014

I’ve read 60 books (so far) this year. These were my favorites. If you like these reviews, I’ll be launching a blog after the new year about the books that I’m reading. I’ll share details in an upcoming newsletter. If you don’t get my newsletter,

Don't Rely On Confidence Alone

You find yourself in a conference room with your product team. The white board is covered with sketches. You have an idea that everyone is excited about. You mapped it out. You have a plan. Your engineering team is anxious to get started. This is what makes building products fun

How to Estimate the Expected Impact of a Product Change

How to Estimate the Expected Impact of a Product Change

Your design team is excited about a new signup process. They are convinced it will increase registrations. Your sales team keeps asking for the same feature over and over again. They think it’s responsible for lost sales since your biggest competitor features it prominently. Your product manager wants to

The Power of Gratitude

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Good food? Gratitude? Friends and family? Yes, please. A few years ago I decided I didn’t want gratitude to be a once-a-year holiday. Instead I wanted to develop a daily habit. So I read about gratitude journals and tried to keep one. But it

What to Do When You Don't Have Enough Traffic To A/B Test

You’ve read the Lean Startup. You’ve drank the Kool-Aid. You’re ready to start experimenting. There’s only one problem. You don’t have any web traffic. If the only tool in your toolbox is A/B testing, then this might be a problem. Fortunately, there are dozens

The 5 Components of a Good Hypothesis

Update: I've since revised this hypothesis format. You can find the most current version in this article: * How to Improve Your Experiment Design (And Build Trust in Your Product Experiments) “My hypothesis is …” These words are becoming more common everyday. Product teams are starting to talk like scientists.

Putting the 4 Levels of Product Analysis Into Practice: A Halloween-Themed Example

Putting the 4 Levels of Product Analysis Into Practice: A Halloween-Themed Example

It’s Halloween week! The pumpkins are carved, the candy bowl is full, and the neighborhood is about to be crawling with princesses, ninja turtles, and pirates. You’ve only got one last thing to do before the fun begins. You promised your neighbors hot apple cider - with rum,