What questions to ask when designing a product
2024-11-18 · 2 min read#design
Here’s a quick reference list of questions to ask when designing a product, when you want to get to the core of your product, trim the fat, sort out the signal from the noise, etc.
VISCERAL IMPACT & DESTINY
- “What would make someone’s eyes light up when they first see this?”
- “How does this change people’s relationship with [the domain]?”
- “What limitation are people accepting as ‘just how it is’ that we could eliminate?”
- “If this succeeds wildly, what industry becomes obsolete?”
EXPERIENCE PERFECTIONISM
- “What moment in using this feels even slightly awkward or inelegant?”
- “Where are we making the user do something the computer should know?”
- “What detail would seem obsessive to include but users would love once they discover it?”
- “Which part of this experience isn’t bringing joy yet?”
PRODUCT TRUTH
- “What’s the ‘one thing’ this product is about that everything else serves?”
- “Which feature are we keeping because we’re afraid to remove it?”
- “What would this look like if we had to remove half the features?”
- “Where are we compromising on excellence to accommodate edge cases?”
REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL
- “How could this be 10x better, not just 2x better?”
- “What crazy idea for this product would be dismissed as impossible but would be magical if it worked?”
- “What would make the mainstream mock this at first but later seem obvious?”
- “How does this contribute to making technology more human?”