Zen of PM - Iterating to a Great Design

Iterating to a Great Design

Embrace iteration,but keep it under control. Getting your initial ideas into the open increasesthe amount of brainpower working on the design, which is a very good thing. Itcan also increase the amount of noise and confusion, so be the person whodrives the process forward through discrete iterative cycles. Gather feedbackfrom the previous cycle, hold onto the good ideas and let go of the bad ones,publish a new version of the proposed design, and then drive your team ofcollaborators to focus on the places in the design that still need attention.As you grow as a program manager, you will encounter lots of fun and usefuldesign techniques (storyboarding, contextual inquiry, etc.), but managing anddriving effective iteration is the most important skill of all.

With eachiteration, check again that the feature delivers a value proposition that linesup with the original framing of the problem.

Expect dissent anddisagreement as part of the process, and always remember that it’s notpersonal. When you are driving a feature team of smart people towards a design,you can be sure that lots of great ideas will emerge through debate andargument. But you will also be expected to make judgment calls. You won’talways have everybody agreeing with your judgments, but if a decision has to bemade in order to keep the iterative design process moving forward, then youneed to take a risk and make the call.

Getting good atexploiting iteration also means that you’ll get good at knowing which parts ofthe design need to be nailed down early, and which can be finalized later.

As you and yourfeature team iterate on the design, validate the emerging solution bysoliciting feedback from stakeholders, and by pulling in specialists from otherdisciplines for their input. Usability engineers can determine whether theproposed interface is easy to use, including use by people with disabilities.Early customer feedback on a working prototype can provide invaluableconfirmation whether your solution will work. Security specialists can spotpotential vulnerabilities, even at early design stages. Other program managers– either peers or managers – can be a treasure trove of great ideas, orwarnings of paths to avoid.