shmula » featuritis

Maintain Forward Tension

psabilla — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:36:10 +0000

One principle in Wing Chun is the maintaining of forward tension. To explain, I’ll draw the distinction between Tension and Energy and show how this principle in Wing Chun can be applied to Change Management.

Tension is a type of Energy

A Wing Chun maxim goes as follows:

soft and relaxed strength will put your opponent in jeopardy

That maxim means that forward tension is not necessarily using force, or forcing through a barrier or “pushing through”. But, there is soft force, or tension, such that when a gap presents itself, then the hand or arm shoots forward like a spring. The “shooting forward” is not done with force, but is an unleashing of potential energy.

Using that definition, then, Forward Tension is much different than the overly-used business term “Breakthrough.” In the context of Forward Tension, the notion of “breakthrough” is ridiculous, because it connotes a forcing of oneself or of one’s ideas. Forcing anything only invites resistance and rebellion, not conversion.

So, in sum, tension is really potential energy and when a gap presents itself, that potential energy becomes kinetic energy. Forward Tension works with the current context in such a way that does not invite rebellion or resistance or eventual back-biting. It is open, but straightforward.

Application to Change Management

Don’t force things on people. The most humane approach to change management is to treat those involved in the change as human beings; this means having a dialogue — listen, speak, listen some more, argue a little, and steadily deposit goodwill.

As much as I like love data, I also fully understand that data does not soften hearts or change people’s minds: true change happens when people feel heard, have given their opinion, are willing to try something new, and are part of the change. The challenge in change management is largely an emotional one; a psychological one; a relational one.

Hold The Tension

Without forcing or pushing of people, maintaining the tension encourages discussion, debate, and invites people to inquire and become curious about the topic of change. That is the key: behave in such a way that it invites people to learn, argue, debate, and eventually try it out.

Tension in Wing Chun

The video below shows Sifu Grados in Chi Sao (Sticky Hands). This sensitivity exercise demonstrates the principle of holding the tension and visually explains the principle of transformation of potential energy to kinetic energy very well.

NOTE: none of the movements are rehearsed. What is taught and practiced are the principles and how those principles are applied during Chi Sao depends on the situation.

Articles on Ethnography and Design:

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Articles on Queueing Theory:

Articles on Operations, lean and six sigma:

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On Customer Obsession

psabilla — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:53:34 +0000

I’d venture to say that most products and services are bloated with features that customers most likely don’t care for; I’ve been part of product development teams where the focus is on features, with an implicit goal to stuffing as many features as possible — in consumer packaged goods and in software. This is the wrong approach to developing memorable and sticky products.

The above statement might be best described by Kathy Sierra’s Featuritis Curve:

In my own personal venture in product and package design (a side project), I employ ethnography — the science of watching people do stuff; of learning about unarticulated customer needs, which is otherwise known as ethnography; Toyota calls it Genchi Genbutsu.

A.G. Lafley, the CEO of Procter and Gamble, understands this well:

JANUARY 28, 2005, Business Week

I wanted to get after what we call unarticulated consumer needs. What she wants that she can’t tell us about. And there are lots of techniques we have developed or are developing to do that. And two, I wanted to focus more on the consumer experiences as much as on the product and technology.

People remember experiences. They don’t remember attributes or benefits or features. We talk a lot about how you create a delightful experience. Now, when you’re dealing with underarm deodorants and cleaning dirty floors, you have to work real hard to try and deliver a less unpleasant experience.

The key phrase here is this:

People remember experiences. They don’t remember attributes or benefits or features.

What a simple, yet profound statement that still many, many companies fail to understand.

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Please find originally-written articles on Queueing Theory below:

For a few articles on Operations, lean and six sigma, please visit the links below:

Managing Constraints Under Peak Volumes

Order Pipeline of Events

On Game Theory

Series on Queueing Theory

Applied Regression Analysis

Click-to-Ship Processes

Kanban Sizing and “Pull”

Lean at Krispy Kreme

Theory of Constraints and Camping

Lean for Software Development

Don’t Waste the Customer’s Time

Featuritis and the Focus on the Customer

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Featuritis and the Customer Experience

psabilla — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 06:54:59 +0000

The more I learn and practice ethnography and design-thinking, the more I notice subtle but incredibly frustrating experiences. For example, I had a frustrating experience with a faucet that was in the hospital room where our adopted baby girl, Mylie, was born. This faucet is an automated one — with a sensor. So, whenever an object passes the sensor, the faucet would turn on even if the intention of the human was not to use the faucet.

A few facts about this faucet: this faucet was in the corner of the room, against the wall. It is a faucet that has a sensor, whereby an object would cross the sensor and then a signal would be sent for the faucet to expel water. I imagine the designers of this faucet designed this hospital faucet this way to encourage bacteria-free habits — that is, the sensor eliminated the need for a knob that both turns-on and turns-off the water. That is a good and charitable thought — but totally wrong. Here is a picture of the hospital faucet:

And another picture of the faucet:

Notice the faucet head with the sensor at the base. To the right of the base, notice the knob? What does the knob do, you ask. Answer: nothing. Whenever the faucet turned on, my first reaction was to turn the only-available knob, only to find out that the knob does nothing. Very frustrating.

Root Cause Analysis on "Why did the Faucet Turn on Unintentionally?"

Following Taiichi Ohno’s 5-Why’s, it is important to understand why the faucet turned-on when that was not the intention:

Why did the faucet turn on unintentionally?
Because whenever an arm or hand passed across the sensor photo-eye, the faucet would turn on.
Why would an arm or hand pass the sensor photo-eye?
Because we need to put or get our camera, jackets, or other belongings.
Why did we need to put or get our camera, jackets, or other belongings?
Because the only available counter in the room to place anything was beside the faucet.

So, we see from this quick and effective excercise that the root cause of unintentionally-turning-on-of-the faucet was that the only available counter-space was next to the faucet. Hence, whenever we needed to put or get our stuff, our hand or arm would cross the sensor and then the faucet would turn-on.

Practical Solutions

There are several practical solutions to the verified root cause. One simple and very practical one is to create more counter space, preferably away from the faucet and simultaneously eliminating the available counter-space to the right and left the faucet. Another practical solution is to revert back to the good ‘ol faucet with a knob that actually works. One variant of this "knob" is that it could be a foot pedal, thereby encouraging sanitized hands.

There are several that, I’m sure, you can think of. These are just a few that I came up with.

The True Tragedy of Featuritis

The real tragedy of poor usability of devices and products is that the user feels stupid. For a discussion, below is Kathy Sierra’s Featuritis Curve

As one walks the curve to the right, the user hits an inflection point where there is an equilibrium between the number of features and the user’s happiness. As the user continues that walk to the right, the user eventually gets to the point of what I call "user resignation" — where the user gives up, calls it quits, and blames self.

To some degree, I felt this way about the hospital faucet. Although the faucet didn’t have the complexity of features, it still behaved that way and I felt dumb that the "knob" wasn’t working like I expected it to work. Moreover, I felt dumb everytime the faucet turned on when I didn’t mean for it to turn on. The real tragedy of featuritis is that the user is burdened with feelings of self-loathing and self-blame. From a businesses perspective, this means that users are unhappy and will abandon the product or service.

Who’s Fault is it Really and The Customer Experience

Here’s what my good friend and fellow University of Chicago Alum, Aza Raskin, son of Jef Raskin (inventor of the Macintosh) says regarding Humane Design:

The main thing you have to remember—and please remember this, because it could be vital to your sanity—is that any problems you have with an interface are not your fault. If you have trouble using your microwave, it’s not because you’re "not good with technology", it’s because the people in charge of designing the interface for that microwave didn’t do their job right. User interface design is incredibly hard, and carries with it a great deal of responsibility; this is something that’s taken quite seriously when it comes life-critical systems such as flight control software. But in today’s consumer culture, what should be blamed on bad interface design is instead blamed on the "incompetence" of users. Just remember that it’s not your fault.

A Crappy Faucet and A Cute Baby

The hospital is still there, probably with the same crappy faucet. But, I take with me a few things:

Mylie is healthy and is home. Mylie’s birth parents are also home now. I am thankful to them for choosing us to be Mylie’s parents.
The way interfaces, products, and services are designed have a profound impact on all of our lives.
Simple is best — Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) — this is a true principle.
There is still a lot of opportunity to do good in the world of products and services.
There is still a lot of opportunity to do good in the world.

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Articles on Ethnography and Design:

Please find originally-written articles on Queueing Theory below:

For a few articles on Operations, lean and six sigma, please visit the links below:

The Gemba is the Dojo

Order Pipeline of Events

On Game Theory

Series on Queueing Theory

Applied Regression Analysis

Click-to-Ship Processes

Kanban Sizing and "Pull"

Lean at Krispy Kreme

Theory of Constraints and Camping

Lean for Software Development

Don’t Waste the Customer’s Time

Featuritis and the Focus on the Customer

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Ask Mary Poppendieck Anything!

psabilla — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:03:01 +0000

In August 2006, Mary Poppendieck was nice enough to entertain questions from my readers on the topic of Lean for Software. Some great questions were submitted and Mary answered them.

Well, she’s willing to do that again, so please submit your questions for Mary and she will answer some of those questions. I will then post her responses on future posts. Here’s the process:

Submit your questions on Lean for Software or Agile in the comments below.
I will close comments on November 25.
I will begin posting Mary’s answers after November 25, 2007.

Here is Mary’s Biography:

Mary Poppendieck has been in the Information Technology industry for thirty years. She has managed solutions in software development, supply chain management, manufacturing operations, and new product development.

A popular writer and speaker, Mary’s classes apply lean principles to Software Development problems and offer a fresh perspective on software development processes. She is the author of Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Managers (Paperback) and Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash (Paperback).

Please ask your tough questions — Mary will most likely have something to teach us all.

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Please find originally-written articles on Queueing Theory below:

For a few articles on Operations, lean and six sigma, please visit the links below:

The Gemba is the Dojo

Managing Constraints Under Peak Volumes

Order Pipeline of Events

On Game Theory

Series on Queueing Theory

Applied Regression Analysis

Click-to-Ship Processes

Kanban Sizing and "Pull"

Lean at Krispy Kreme

Theory of Constraints and Camping

Lean for Software Development

Don’t Waste the Customer’s Time

Featuritis and the Focus on the Customer

Share This Post:

Aza Raskin on Google Search Results

psabilla — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 03:55:43 +0000

In a previous post on Ethnography, I invited Aza Raskin, founder of Humanized and son of Jef Raskin, the inventor of the Macintosh and author of The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems — to possibly answer reader’s questions about design, visual management, ethnography, genchi genbutsu, man-machine interactions, or anything related. Several readers responded with interesting questions for Aza. In today’s post, Aza Raskin responds to a reader’s question about Google Search Results page and how messy it is.

The Google search box is simple, clean, and intuitive. BUT, the search results, from what customers tell us is confusing and messy as hell. How do you suggest we clean up the natural search and the paid search results? Is there a more intuitive way of doing it? Thanks — A Googler

Ironically, one of the fundamental goal of interaction designers is to reduce interaction. When we do our jobs perfectly, few people ever notice (except when comparing your solution to other products).

In this light, I would make one suggestion: remove the pagination from the Google search results. At best, its somewhat annoying to click through the pages, and at worst its aggravating trying to remember which page had the result you are looking for. One of Google’s magics is the extremely fast loading times, and I understand that loading long pages takes a long time. The solution is a good implementation of an non-intrusive infinite scroll.

As a side note, playful touches make a great interface into home-run products (as long as playful doesn’t become annoying). I like the elongation of "Goooooooogle". That’s a great playful touch. That should be kept in some form.

Other articles in the "Ask Aza Raskin" Series: