Focus on the customer and everything else will follow

-  Jeff Bezos

Unveiling the User's Hidden Truth: Build Products at Thougth-Speed

Struggling to bridge the gap between user feedback and product success? Traditional methods might be missing the mark. This article explores a revolutionary approach: data-driven ethnography.

Go beyond what users say they want and delve into their actual needs and behaviors. Discover how rapid iteration cycles fueled by real-world insights can propel your product to lightspeed development.

Ready to build products users truly love? Click to unlock the secrets!

Perfect App Development Process in 3 Steps

(preferably done in one very long day)  

This is our version of Design Thinking / Design Sprints but much faster and more intense inspired by Tom Chi.

1. Setup @ Starbucks (any cafe´ or mall) and buy a stack of $5 gift cards

🔄 Cycle 🔄

2. Code Android (Kotlin / ComposeUI / KFlow) & iOS ( Swift / SwiftUI / Structured Concurrency) with CI /CD for rapid development

3. Give people gift card to get feedback 🗣️ for the next version of your mobile app

Cycle through steps 2-3 every 40min until everyone wants to buy it! 

Unleash App Innovation at Warp Speed! ⚡️

Forget glacial dev cycles - embrace a blazing future where user feedback fuels rapid iterations and apps evolve like lightning. 

Here's the code to crack:

Instant UI Alchemy

• SwiftUI & Jetpack Compose: Sculpt blazing-fast, pixel-perfect UIs that reflect changes seamlessly across platforms. It's like magic, but better.

• Clean Architecture: Maintain order and clarity with neatly separated data, logic, and presentation. Think modularity, not mayhem.

Feedback Loop on Overdrive

• CI/CD Pipeline: Push code, test automatically, deploy instantly. Updates flow like a well-oiled machine.

• Live Updates: Ditch the app store bottleneck. Users get the latest features directly, keeping the feedback loop scorching hot.

Data-Driven Insights, Unlocked

• Real-time Analytics: User interactions and performance metrics dance before your eyes, guiding the next iteration like a crystal ball.

• Observations & Analytics: Watch user behavior unfold right on the screen, revealing pain points and patterns like a heat-seeking missile.

Human Connection Makes it Meisterwerk

• Diverse Teams: Mirror your target audience with teams that reflect their needs and challenges. Think empathetic echo chambers, not ivory towers.

• Open Collaboration: Foster feedback flows like rivers at a brainstorming retreat. The best ideas rise to the top, every time.

This isn't just building apps - it's co-creating with users at the helm. So the next time you marvel at an app that knows your every move, remember: it might just be the product of blazing speed and unwavering collaboration.

Ready to join the revolution? Dive deeper and unleash your app-building superpower!

Remember, great software thrives on shared passion, not solo endeavors. Let's build something remarkable, together.

PDF Download: http://tinyurl.com/32nhjc6m

Design Is [Swift]

Summary

Section One: Why do you “Build @ Speed of Thought”?

• Key Point: We know fast iterations lead to superior products as opposed to long design cycles.

Section Two: How do you “Build @ Speed of Thought”?

• Key Point: As development tools get better the design process can be accelerated.

Section 3: What guides “Building @ Speed of Thought”?

• Key Point: Designers of the future are going to work with data more than users.

Details

Project Management Building @ Speed of Thought

How do you “Build @ Speed of Thought”?

Breaking away from the traditional steps of a design sprint (http://www.gv.com/sprint) we blur them together to further reduce the development cycle in what we call “Building @ Speed of Thought".  Over the years my group has been perfecting how to build world-class Android Apps at the speed of thought first for hackathons, then clients and now for Product Sprints. In this session, we will detail the “Speed of Thought” methodology, steps, tools and components involved. We start by utilizing a hyper design sprint to explore the power of mobile and how it fits into the market/problem we are trying to solve.  Then focusing on the crucial step in a Product Sprint we skip building high fidelity prototypes but build the finished product in rapid time. Utilizing Google JetPack Android software components (UI, Behavior, Foundation, Architecture) we take full advantage of the power of the Android platform. We do this by leveraging the design features of Android Studio (material components/theme editor, constraint library, motion editor) along with open source/industry resources to build an intuitive and beautiful UI.  Once the UI framework is done we write the Kotlin application logic utilizing the Android Architecture Components with data binding connected to Firebase for the synchronized backend. With our application finished we execute our strategy for marketing, distribution, and monetization utilizing Data-Driven Ethnography (DDE) guided by Google Analytics. At the end of the session, the audience will have a good idea of how in rapid secession all these tools and components come together to produce magic.

This can also be applied to physical devices.  With massively parallel 3D printers we can build products at the speed of thought and use Data-Driven Ethnography to drive design (i.e. set up in a mall, print the product and keep iterating in real time until people start buying it).

Key Point: The design process is changing at the speed of thought.

Why do you “Build @ Speed of Thought”?

This idea originated from a saying:  

A master painter was asked how long did this masterpiece take?  

His answer: “43 years and 25 min”

We keyed in on the 25 min as the 43 years is not about time but about the effort to learn.

We use that same logic when building mobile apps.  The tools give us 45 years of experience and allow us to build a fully functioning app in 25 min.  This is not a prototype. It is an industrial strength, globally synchronized, intuitive themed UI, native mobile app that is published on the Play Store and produces user feedback.  The user feedback is used to rapidly iterate and evolve the product.

This story from the book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland:

~~~ Throwing Clay ~~~

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

Key Point: We know fast iterations lead to superior products as opposed to long design cycles.  

What guides “Building @ Speed of Thought”?

Using Data-Driven Ethnography in Design Thinking.  The user journey is in the data.

Small decisions can have colossal effects on the growth or death of a mobile app and stimulate or threaten the entire business.  As one game house discovered when for Valentine's Day they changed the App Icon to pink and installs dropped by 20%. In this session, we will review Google (thinkwithgoogle), Adobe (ADI) and Apple’s extensive user research and what the data has taught us about designing the best mobile experience to drive distribution and monetization in the context of micro-moments. We will see how to use an iterative method of Data-Driven Ethnography (sentiment analysis, user data science with A/B testing) to build empathy and solve major pain points, ensuring we are building the correct product.

Your users are lying to you.  Don't listen to them.

This comes from: Think with Google.

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/data-measurement/

The amount of data we collect in real time about user behavior is changing how we learn from our users.  No longer do we have to ask if the change is beneficial but we can do the change and measure the user response utilizing Google Analytics.  The user experience is in the data not surveys.

5 Reasons When Respondents are Knowingly Dishonest:

https://www.infosurv.com/5-reasons-why-survey-respondents-dont-tell-the-truth/

Key Point: Designers of the future are going to work with data more than users.

Build Apps as Fast as You Think 

Unveiling the Tech Stack of "Speed of Thought" Design

Forget slow, iterative cycles 

think hot-reload UIs, lightning-fast builds, and real-time user feedback flowing like nitro cold brew. 

Welcome to the "speed of thought" app development, where tools like:

• SwiftUI & Jetpack Compose: These frameworks sculpt responsive UIs in an instant, reflecting changes on both iOS and Android devices – faster than you can finish your venti Pike.

• Clean Architecture: Think layers – data, domain logic, and presentation neatly separated, keeping things maintainable and testable, like separating foam from your latte.

• Dependency Injection: Mocking and testing code becomes a breeze, letting you iterate at warp speed, no barista skills required.

But it's not just about tools. This system thrives on a tight feedback loop fueled by:

• CI/CD Pipeline: Push code, trigger automated tests, and deploy updates seamlessly – imagine new app versions brewing as quickly as your espresso shot.

• Live Updates: No app store delays; updates reach users directly on their devices, keeping the feedback loop hotter than a chai latte.

And then there's the data:

• Analytics Integration: User interactions and performance data are captured and analyzed in real-time, like baristas reading coffee grounds, informing the next iteration.

• Observations & Analytics: Visualize user behavior directly on the app screen, revealing friction points and usage patterns like tracing latte art.

But it's not just tech – it's human:

• Starbucks as a Testing Lab: Forget sterile environments; imagine open communication and honest feedback flowing amidst the friendly chatter of a bustling Starbucks. Think of it as user research infused with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

• Diverse Development Teams: Teams mirror the target audience, bringing a deeper understanding of needs and challenges – like a barista knowing your usual order.

This isn't just about building apps; it's about co-creating them with users at the heart. So, the next time you're sipping your latte and scrolling through an app that seems to know you, remember – it might just be the product of "speed of thought" development, brewing innovation one iteration at a time.