If our tone seems too know-it-allish, bear with us. We think it’s better to present ideas in bold strokes than to be wishy-washy about it. If that comes off as cocky or arrogant, so be it. We’d rather be provocative than water everything down with „it depends…“
Just ship it! Let the user tell you if it’s the right thing and if it’s not, hey you can fix it and ship it to the web the same day if you want! There is no word stronger than the customer’s — resist the urge to engage in long-winded meetings and arguments. Just ship it and prove a point.
One bonus you get from having an enemy is a very clear marketing message. People are stoked by conflict. And they also understand a product by comparing it to others.
The best designers and the best programmers aren’t the ones with the best skills, or the nimblest fingers, or the ones who can rock and roll with Photoshop or their environment of choice, they are the ones that can determine what just doesn’t matter. That’s where the real gains are made.
Every new feature request that comes to us — or from us — meets a no. We listen but don’t act. The initial response is „not now.“ If a request for a feature keeps coming back, that’s when we know it’s time to take a deeper look.
You don’t need to aim for perfection on the first try if you know it’s just going to be done again later anyway. Knowing that you’re going to revisit issues is a great motivator to just get ideas out there to see if they’ll fly.
During this whole process remember to stay flexible and expect multiple iterations. You should feel free to throw away the deliverable of any particular step and start again if it turns out crappy.
Too many companies separate design, development, copywriting, support, and marketing into different silos. While specialization has its advantages, it also creates a situation where staffers see just their own little world instead of the entire context of the web app.
If you take a 1 minute interruption by a coworker asking you a question, and this knocks out your concentration enough that it takes you half an hour to get productive again, your overall productivity is in serious trouble.
Find someone who’s enthusiastic. Someone you can trust to get things done when left alone. Someone who’s suffered at a bigger, slower company and longs for a new environment. Someone who’s excited to build what you’re building. Someone who hates the same things you hate.
It’s ok to be inconsistent if your design makes more sense that way.
Great interfaces are written. If you think every pixel, every icon, every typeface matters, then you also need to believe every letter matters.
Don’t take action on an idea for a week and see if it still seems like a great idea after the initial buzz wears off.
Also, don’t create a culture of fear surrounding bugs. Bugs happen. Don’t constantly seek someone to blame. The last thing you want is an environment where bugs are shoved under the rug instead of openly discussed.
Autor: 37signals aka Basecamp; kniha je zdarma, neofiko i pro čtečky