chris kurdziel

"Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds."

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:26:30 -0400

“Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.”

- George Santayana

Product Thursday: Wireframing for Noobs (MBAs too!)

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:00:34 -0400

One of the longstanding jokes in business school is that MBAs think in PowerPoint. In the startup world, people don’t often think in PowerPoint - they think in code. So what’s the easiest way to bridge that gap?

Don’t try and be something you’re not (unless you actually want to learn how to code). Instead, use the skills you have/are good at and put them to good use. Think you’ve got a great idea for a product but can’t build it with code? Build it with PowerPoint or Keynote.

Clickable prototypes save a ton of time in the design process and you can get your ideas in front of people quickly to test whether or not they’re valid. Keynote works on iPads too, so if you’re looking to build a mobile app, you can do it in Keynote AND test it on iPads with real users. I’ve been doing this lately and I love it.

No more excuses. JFBI, even if it is in Keynote.

House of Cards: The Content Wars Are A Game of Thrones

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:28:12 -0400

House of Cards has gotten a ton of attention lately for a few reasons:

It’s an awesome show (though I haven’t seen it yet)
All episodes were delivered at the same time (to satisfy binge viewers)
It’s another major step for Netflix in delivering unique content to keep viewers locked into their model

Why is this model smart?

Content providers can use exclusive content to be valuable & differentiate themselves from competitors. Netflix has already done this with Lilyhammer. They’ve also continued tapping into ”binge viewing” behavior in an organized way. Although it’s unclear what the biggest benefits of that behavior will be quite yet, they’re learning something valuable by being a first mover here.

People want access to content without restrictions and aside from being the only place to access it, Netflix’s distribution models is working for consumers with a “watch where you want, when you want” mindset.

What are the downsides of this model?

It’s really expensive and only works for top-quality content. Because its so expensive to do it this way (and therefore the costs of failure are high), it only works for top caliber content and therefore isn’t something that will be the only way things are done. It’s why “pilots” exist in TV - see if the audience likes it and then sink more money into it. Episodic content that follows this model also has a benefit of giving viewers a reason to come back to a service. In that sense I think we’ll see these models mix.

Piracy is still going to be a big issue. If you don’t subscribe to Netflix or the service, there’s no way to get the content except pirating it. That’s part of the reason Game of Thrones was pirated a ton (and consequently was so successful). Many of the dynamics in this post on the music industry could also apply to video content. We still haven’t seen a producer of content fully embrace the piracy engine to positive effect yet.

What does this all mean for the people playing this “game of thrones” in the content landscape?

The implications of all of this are good for startups - Americans watch over 5 hours a day of content and not all of it is that “top notch” stuff like House of Cards or Game of Thrones. Startups don’t need to unseat that “top value” content quite yet - they can let this game of thrones happen and focus more on the Torso of TV (read Suster’s post if you haven’t) and create a ton of value around providing meaningful context and discovery for the rest of the video landscape.

Just found this awesome list of data visualization tools (many...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:00:19 -0400

Just found this awesome list of data visualization tools (many of which are open source libraries) . Super neat.

"We’ve created a secure, prosperous island in an economy that is suffering under the weight of the..."

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:00:36 -0400

“We’ve created a secure, prosperous island in an economy that is suffering under the weight of the riches those on the island extract.”

- No, this isn’t referring to the banking industry, it’s referring to the healthcare industry. If you haven’t read this giant article in Time yet, it’s eye opening and equally unsurprising if you’ve had first-hand experience with the healthcare system.

Product Thursday: Killing Google Reader

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:26:00 -0400

Yesterday, Google announced they’re killing Reader, one of their most beloved (if my Twitter stream is to be believed) products in their portfolio.

I use a few different apps/sites to keep up with the news. Here they are:

Google Reader
Reeder (Google Reader interface for iOS)
Instapaper
Zite
News.Me Daily Email
Twitter
Techmeme
Hacker News

I use each of these services for different reasons, and though I’ve developed a pretty good flow of how they each fit into my day, I’ve been longing for a better solution. I really wish that there was a product that tied these things together in one or two apps. What would that product look like? Here’s a quick stab and what I’d love to see for my two common use cases (daily “must reads” & weekly “discovery” reading):

Must Read: My Daily Use Case

Keep/read a curated list of the stuff I absolutely want to see on a regular basis anytime there are updates. This is the stuff I want to read no matter what and it’s mostly blogs of people who I engage with on a regular basis. (It’s what Google Reader became for me.)
Give me an idea of top posts in my social network. The news.me email from the Digg team does a good job of giving me stuff that I may have missed or not seen that’s highly relevant. Generally only 3-5 of these articles are really necessary to get an idea of what’s relevant in my network.
If there isn’t enough content on a daily basis, then don’t show me more. Let me get a few minutes of my day back. This is a problem a lot of apps don’t consider because they’re looking for more engagement (which often times = shoving more content in front of you).

Discover: My Weekly/When I Have Time Use Case

Once I’m done with the daily read, open the floodgates and give me some variety. This could be seeded with content, topics and things I’ve shown an interest in (like Zite) or it could be powered by people I’m connected to socially. Ideally it’s a mix of all of the above.
If I’ve saved articles for later, show me these articles before letting me run wild exploring the ends of the internet.

The hard part here is figuring out how to combine these use cases in an app. Part of the power is in keeping them separate: the problem with apps like Zite is that I never know if I missed an article from a “must read” site and I don’t have an interest in discovering new tangental content unless I’ve finished the stuff that I know is relevant.

However, one of the big problems with these weekly apps is that I often forget to go back to them on a regular basis, and they often have content in them that I’ve already seen or seen elsewhere. There’s a strong case for a reading app that unifies these two use cases or at least is aware of what’s been consumed in the other app so that the probability of duplicates is reduced.

The closest thing I’ve found to this approach is called Fever. It combines “kindling” (your daily must-reads) with “sparks” (the rest of the content you are interested in) to give you a smart reading experience. The only problem? No iOS apps and it’s self-hosted. :/

Anyone else have other ideas out there? Seems that there are a ton of companies tackling this problem but no one has really hit the nail on the head yet (for me). I’ve tried Prismatic and while I think the content it surfaces is pretty solid, I find the UX, scrolling and lack of Instapaper support absolutely maddening. Hopefully Digg (or someone else) does it right.

Note: I also realize this problem is completely non-trivial to solve, that my usage pattern is probably pretty niche and that this is not something I can really pretend to solve in a blog post. Flame away. :)

How do users hold their mobile devices? This article over at UX...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 11:52:29 -0500

Time spent holding the phone each way (including listening to music and talking on the phone).

How do users hold their mobile devices? This article over at UX matters has some really interesting findings but still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. By the time we completely understand how people hold mobile devices, we’ll probably have moved on to devices we don’t have to hold.

The data from this study is public so you can play with it in a Google Doc or Excel. Pretty neat.

Just watched this doc on The Pirate Bay. It’s so...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 14:42:27 -0500

Just watched this doc on The Pirate Bay. It’s so interesting to see the personalities behind one of the most important sites on the net. For anyone interested in internet freedom and copyright, this is a must-watch.

Product Thursday: Thoughts on Mailbox

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:47:32 -0500

Over the past week I’ve been playing with Mailbox, so I figured it might be a good candidate for my first product review on product thursday.

The main assumption behind Mailbox is that most people tend to view their inbox as a to-do list. Though I’ve tried to shed that assumption in my own use of Gmail, it’s been hard. Mailbox is a welcome addition and really reduces the need for me to spend time on actively managing an inbox of actionable email. Every part of the app is designed to get you to inbox zero, so those who want more functionality in their email might feel a bit limited, but Mailbox is awesome for staying on top of email and following up.

Some of my favorite details in the app (barring the obvious ones)

When you’ve cleared your inbox each day, you get a beautiful, relaxing image that is different every day. It’s a nice little touch that feels like a little “reward” each time you hit inbox zero.
Changing send-from address popup is easier to use than Apple Mail. It’s a list of email addresses to pick from that requires a simple tap instead of a swipe and a tap like Apple’s wheel selector does. I imagine Apple’s solution works better for those who have a ton of addresses, but I only have 3 I actively check so it’s a nice change.
Threading of messages is handled really elegantly. Gone are the days of tapping into a thread on Apple Mail and then choosing which message you want to see. Instead, messages all load inline and appear collapsed and greyed out if they’re already read (much like Gmail’s web interface)
Inline/focused replies. I find the design of the reply/new message box to be limiting in a really good way. Because the box doesn’t give me the entire screen to write a lengthy response, my emails are becoming shorter and more to the point.
Tasteful use of gestures. There’s a lot of debate about whether or not Clear’s UX is ideal, but I love it. Mailbox’s gestures are built around very quick/easy actions for each email: archive (short swipe right), view later (short swipe left), add to list (long swipe left), and delete (long swipe right). These have been really easy to pick up and the UI does a great job of making sure you don’t make any mistakes and accidentally delete things when you wanted to archive them.

And my least favorite parts:

Can’t change reply-from address like you can in Apple Mail (I do this a lot for mail that people send to my Cornell or Shelby addresses that I want to be directed to my Gmail account).
No easy way to find/search filters in Gmail. At this point I don’t really find myself missing this a ton, but it’d be a nice to have.
Push notifications are a bit wonky. If you have filters in Gmail which are set up to move mail out of your inbox, Mailbox may still badge the app that you have mail. This “false positive” can be a little frustrating especially if you’re compulsive about keeping notifications to a minimum on iOS, but I imagine it will get better with time. This is likely one of the reasons they’re letting people into the app on a rolling basis.
No iPad experience. Desktop Gmail works pretty well in conjunction with Mailbox, but I’ve found managing email on my iPad just isn’t fun anymore. Gimme that iPad app!

Well, that’s about it - not sure how helpful/comprehensive this review is, but hopefully it’s useful to those that are wondering whether Mailbox is worth the wait (I think it is)!

I have always believed Valve was one of the most forward...

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:22:05 -0500

I have always believed Valve was one of the most forward thinking ~~gaming~~ companies. This talk by Valve CEO Gabe Newell confirms my suspicions.

Gabe’s outlook on the future of the living room isn’t too unexpected (maybe that’s because I’ve been thinking a lot about it for my work at Shelby) but his take on the economic possibility that Steam unlocks is one of the most interesting things I’ve seen lately. I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise since Valve hired economist Yanis Varoufakis last June, but the second half of Gabe’s talk makes it clear that Valve isn’t just trying to understand their own in-game economies: they’re thinking about how these economies affect and change the real world.

For anyone interested in virtual economies, economic theory and ideas like peak employment and collaborative creation/consumption, this is required weekend viewing.

Product Thursday: Minimum Viable Design

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:00:00 -0500

Lots of startups (especially those in NYC) spend a ton of time on visual design and making sure that the look and feel of their product is close to perfect.

While my obsessive tendencies often encourage me to consider every design option presented, I’ve had to remember that too much attention to design can often get in the way of moving a product forward.

If you’re a startup trying to iterate quickly, understand your customer base and think about things as an MVP, there are times when it’s smart to eschew design for shipping product (provided it doesn’t cripple functionality). That extra bit of design/attention to detail can be helpful, for sure, but a good product person should understand when that matters and when it doesn’t.

"If you’re an introvert, find your flow by using your gifts. You have the power of persistence, the..."

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:27:45 -0500

“

If you’re an introvert, find your flow by using your gifts. You have the power of persistence, the tenacity to solve complex problems, and the clear-sightedness to avoid pitfalls that trip others up. You enjoy relative freedom from the temptations of superficial prizes like money and status. Indeed, your biggest challenge may be to fully harness your strengths…

…You may be so busy trying to appear like a zestful, reward-sensitive extrovert that you undervalue your own talents, or feel underestimated by those around you. But when you’re focused on a project that you care about, you probably find that your energy is boundless.

”

- A few weeks ago, I finished reading Quiet by Susan Cain. The book delves into the personality of the introvert (turns out there are many different forms of introversion can take). For anyone interested in managing people (especially engineers) this is a thought-provoking read.

As someone who is often mistaken for an extrovert (I’m not one), the passage above particularly resonated with me. It’s difficult being an introvert in a city like New York where you’re overstimulated, bombarded with images of status and success and often caught up in the “rat race” that so many New Yorkers affectionately talk about. I love it here, but it’s good to have a reminder of what really makes me tick.

Product Thursday: "WTF is UX?"

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:38:42 -0500

There’s a great post about UX on Fast.co Design today and it includes the infographic above. The overall point is the following:

To think any designer could be an expert in each of these circles is sheer absurdity, but to recognize that every end user is an expert in each of these circles is highly important.

Though I’d worked alongside product teams before entering the New York startup community, I’m not ashamed to admit that I never really heard the term “UX” used much. I could probably crack a joke about how that’s unexpected for people who work in big companies that develop enterprise healthcare IT applications, but I’ll refrain.

Being a bit of a n00b on the design front, it took me a while to appreciate the subtleties of these different areas of design. Depending on what you’re building, each area has a different level of importance, but together they all form something that’s the cornerstone of your product.

While there are many days when I wish I had more formal education on the tenets of good user experience or interaction design, I think it’s good to remember that no matter how much formal education we have, user experience comes down to putting yourself in the shoes of others and asking “does this work for me?”

This empathetic approach can be helpful in UX decision-making, but it’s also a characteristic that increases chances of success in the customer support experience and in service industries.

I’m not saying that one has to be empathetic with the customer/user because they’re always right. On the contrary, the customer may be wrong (and angry!), but their perspective is valid and should be used to gain insight and understanding around the experience. Ultimately, it’s up to the “UX” person to translate that perspective into something that is actionable/productive for all parties involved.

Product Thursday: Designing with Emotion

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:34:00 -0500

I just finished reading Designing for Emotion, which contains a number of interesting examples about how design can be used to evoke emotion. There are a few cool examples in the book, but the one that stood out to me most was Apple’s implementation of their blinking sleep status indicator. This has been documented before (and patented back in 2002), but if anyone has wondered why their Macbook’s sleep indicator was strangely comforting it’s because the pulsating rhythm is based on the respiratory rate of a human (12-20 cycles per minute).

At Shelby, one of our core values is “be human” - this applies in the way we carry ourselves in the larger startup community, internally with our team and also in the way we approach building product. This is a product philosophy that I’m increasingly taking to heart and one that I think has to be at the center of transformative technology products in slower-moving, low-tech industries.

Take healthcare, for example. There are a ton of technology companies building solutions for the healthcare enterprise (I used to work at one), but most are just focused on performing a specific task and not providing enjoyable UX. As Aaron Walter says in Designing for Emotion, “certainly we all want to eat edible foods with nutritional value, but we also crave flavor.” Based on my experience, design of healthcare IT systems has been focused on making products that are “edible” - they get the job done but they’re pretty crappy in terms of creating an experience that physicians feel they can’t live without. It’s no surprise to see that adoption of healthcare tech is slow. I believe there’s a huge opportunity for better, more human design to help speed the adoption of healthcare tech among a physician population that is short on time and patience.

Anyone else have other examples of industries waiting to be transformed by designing with emotion?

Introducing Product Thursdays

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:59:45 -0500

Ever since I was a kid, I spent hours clicking around on computers, obsessed with learning the ins and outs of whatever OS, application, or web product I discovered at the time. I remember when I got my first Windows laptop after years of using a Mac, I explored every little system setting and tweaked ini files so I could get an experience that was exactly what I wanted. Over time, this obsession with technology guided me to study CS in college and subsequently work in tech.

Though I have experience interacting with consumers (at Shelby) and businesses (at McKesson) using vastly different kinds of tech products, I have relatively modest training (other than my hands-on experience) on the fundamentals that inform great product design and the process required to effectively manage larger product teams. In my effort to become more well-versed in the history and community of the product, I thought I’d start a weekly post on product to share my findings with the Internet.

Thus begins Product Thursdays. If there’s stuff you’d love to see, drop me an email with a suggestion! Otherwise, here’s a list of where I’ll probably head with this:

Product Resources - What are some great sources for learning/self-study about product design?
Product Process - What companies are known for building awesome products and how do they do it?
Product Examples - What are the best examples of products that I’m currently enjoying and why do I think they’re awesome?

Found these two shells buried side by side on the beach during...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 17:38:04 -0500

Found these two shells buried side by side on the beach during my New Year’s Eve walk with @jqwilde. A fitting end to 2012. (at Kiawah Island)

"When robots and automation do our most basic work, making it relatively easy for us to be fed,..."

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 08:36:16 -0500

“When robots and automation do our most basic work, making it relatively easy for us to be fed, clothed, and sheltered, then we are free to ask, “What are humans for?””

- Great Wired article on the future of robots, artificial intelligence, automation and their impact on human workforces. It’s really fun (and necessary) to think about this stuff and how it will change not just our economy but our sense of purpose as a species. We live in some interesting times.

"To perform the treatment, doctors remove millions of the patient’s T-cells — a type of white blood..."

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:34:19 -0500

“To perform the treatment, doctors remove millions of the patient’s T-cells — a type of white blood cell — and insert new genes that enable the T-cells to kill cancer cells. The technique employs a disabled form of H.I.V. because it is very good at carrying genetic material into T-cells. The new genes program the T-cells to attack B-cells, a normal part of the immune system that turn malignant in leukemia.”

- This article in the NY Times mind-boggling stuff. It’s incredible to me that we can repurpose a virus that has the dire consequences that H.I.V. does and turn it into something that has such a profoundly positive effect on a patient. It sounds like we’re still a bit away from seeing this as a more mainstream treatment or “cure,” but I’m encouraged by this progress and the promise this shows.

Science FTW.

"The advent of electronic medical records has been a boon to patient safety and physician efficiency..."

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:18:46 -0500

“The advent of electronic medical records has been a boon to patient safety and physician efficiency in many ways. But it has also brought with it a slew of “timesaving” tricks that have had some unintended consequences. These tricks make it so easy for doctors to document the results of standard exams and conversations with patients that it appears more and more of them are being documented without ever having happened in the first place.”

- Leora Horowitz hits the nail on the head in this op-ed in the NY Times.

When I worked in healthcare, our app had a setting to automatically and electronically sign patients’ charts. To make sure the docs actually looked through each chart, the app forced them to view each page of the chart (rather than just automatically signing the pages without viewing them). At most hospitals, physicians found it cumbersome and frustrating that we were “slowing them down” (they could still complete charts faster than in the paper world). Not one stopped to realize or appreciate why this was necessary.

Technology can enable some incredible things in healthcare, but without a fundamental shift in incentives and culture there will be even more challenges to overcome. I’m hopeful that a generation of net-native doctors will be better positioned to responsibly use technology than our current generation.

Listening to Radiohead always feels like going home to visit...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:53:29 -0500

Listening to Radiohead always feels like going home to visit family. I don’t do it enough, but when I do, it’s like a big warm blanket.