alan wells

I came across this question tonight on Quora. It’s an area that I have quite a bit of experience so I thought I’d post my thoughts:

Having worked with a number of companies in a product management consulting capacity, I’ve found that the roles & responsibilities of a product manager vary widely based on company. That said, here are some common threads that I believe are generally indicative of a good product manager:

• Good product managers are extremely detail oriented throughout the product development process. You should be able to identify and resolve inconsistencies in the features/application you are defining and participate in the entire development process. Driving a quality product to release may require hundreds of minor adjustments, clarifications and decisions to get to that highly polished state of a truly great experience.
• Good product managers are pragmatic and clear communicators. The specs you write should be as simple as possible and no simpler. Knowing this line and staying on the right side of it is part of the art of product management. Your team needs to understand the intention of what should be created but you need to facilitate this understanding in the most efficient way possible. The level of communication required varies widely based on the experience of your team, whether you work together onsite or remotely, the backgrounds of individual team members, etc but as product manager you should have an instinctive understanding of what information your team needs from you right now.
• Good product managers have enough technical understanding of the product they are creating to know why some things are difficult to implement and why some things are easy to implement. Initially you will need help from your engineering team to understand the system you’re working on, but good product managers quickly internalize the basics and can have reasonably accurate guesses on time and effort required for changes. These guesses will need to be validated with your engineering team but should be directionally correct as your team is depending on you to make the calls as to whether a particular feature or change is worth the time required to implement it. Good product managers can also think about their product from an engineering perspective and understand how the thing they’re specifying fits into the existing patterns, database structures, etc that already exist in the product.
• Good product managers have great relationships with their engineering teams. Product managers typically have very few direct reports but have to work with many members of the team to get something successfully released. This means they can’t depend on authority to get things done – product managers must cultivate a strong feeling of collaboration and team work, so that when you ask someone to put in that extra effort to get the release out the door, they’re willing to do it because they know you would do the same for them.
• Good product managers maintain strong ownership and leadership of the build/release/get feedback/iterate process. In practice this means that a good product manager puts feedback systems in place (both quantitive and qualitative), actively monitors those systems and uses those signals to inform future decisions, and is adaptable and willing to quickly change thinking/approach when data indicates the reality is contrary to a hypothesis.
• Good product managers have good taste. A good product manager will strive to get the product out the door as quickly as possible, but knows when something just isn’t ready for prime time and will be the one to say so. Good product managers are keepers of a great user experience.
• Good product managers think of engineering bandwidth as the single most valuable resource on the planet. They should seek to refine the product development process so that the engineering team has everything they need to build the product as efficiently as possible. This means that required documentation is done in advance, concepts are validated with prototypes or other low-impact tests prior to investing time in full builds, the real data and assets needed are prepared prior to the dev team needing them. You won’t always achieve this level of preparedness, especially if working in an agile process, but the bar should remain high.

Finally, a less specific but important point: good product managers are prepared to do whatever is needed to release a quality product. Most of the time this means doing a great job with the above points, but at times you need to do things that may not exactly fall within your responsibilities. Do you think there’s a need for one final usability test before release? You should be willing to find the participants yourself. Is the engineering team close but not quite there on the current release? You should be willing to go buy pizza to keep them going or tell them all to go home and get some sleep if you think it’s better for the team and the product. Is the QA team having trouble tracking down a particular display bug that’s blocking release? You should be scanning the site with Firebug and trying to find the buggy CSS selector yourself. Good product managers are ready to get their hands dirty with what whatever needs to happen to move the product forward.

I’ve spent the last 6 weeks learning to build a brazed steel bike frame, starting from a tube set and building it into a custom frame. My notes and pictures of just about every step of the way are recorded on this Tumblr blog.

I have a philosophical opposition to the concept of New Years resolutions. Steadiness and consistency are important values to me, and making a bold or not so bold goal just because it happens to be January again doesn’t sit well with these values.

However, I recognize that seasonal change and the start of a new year provides an opportunity to consider one’s life and perhaps make some different choices to get back on a more desirable track. For myself, I decided that this year, I wanted to enjoy and experience the world around me more than I had in the past few years.

The context behind this desire is that 2010 was a crazy year in a professional sense. So was 2009, 2008 and 2007. Since finishing my undergrad program at UC Davis, I’ve worked at 2 startups and started one company. I’ve mostly enjoyed these experiences and don’t regret spending the time working, but it has left me wanting for a better balance. When 2011 started, I wanted make time for the things I have put on the back burner of the past few years. Writing online more wasn’t exactly on the short list, which explains why I’m writing this post on July 17th instead of January 1st.

I would like to record some of the things I’ve been doing this year, mostly so I can look back at this year and remind myself that every year should be like this. I’ve tried to do one major new thing every month this year, and so far that’s been working well. I have photos from most of these things and plan to document each one in a post. So far, the year of adventure has brought:

• January: Snowshoeing in Tulomne, 8K trail run at Angel Island, re-starting triathlon training for Wildflower
• February: Trip to Vail, Colorado. I got back out onto the slopes for the first time since my ACL replacement and spent 3 days re-learning to snowboard. Trip to Roatan, Honduras for a week of scuba diving and beach time.
• March: Wildflower triathlon training camp
• April: Marin County Half Marathon, Wildflower Half Ironman Triathlon
• May 2011: Alcatraz Challenge open water swim
• June/July 2011: Bike frame building class at CCA

I was recently invited to be the alumni speaker at the UC Davis Design department graduation reception, and honor that I quite enjoyed. I had been thinking about what to to say for the last few months, and I settled on telling a few stories about what I’ve been working on since I graduated three years ago, and trying to explain some lessons through those stories. I believe that now is an incredible time to be a designer, and I hope my optimism provided an encouraging counterpoint to the ominous economic situation we’re all struggling with. Here’s what I said to the new graduates:

UC Davis Design Department Graduation Reception
June 12th, 2010
by Alan Wells

I have to admit that I find it a little strange to be standing before you today. Three years ago today I was sitting where you are now, happy to be finished with school but anxious about heading into a future that held all sorts of uncertainty. I’m still trying to figure out how this crazy place called the real world works, so I thought I’d share a little bit about what I’ve been doing and a few things I’ve learned along the way.

During my time at UC Davis, I studied both design and ecology. I started with an ecology major but became interested in design and how it could be applied to solving the problems in the world around us. Shortly before graduation, I was quoted in UC Davis magazine as saying that I wouldn’t take a full time job until untilI found a position related to sustainability. I thought that I could continue the freelance work I had started in school and find a job. Optimistic about my chances, I moved to San Francisco, signed a lease, and tried to get started – but the freelance work I had in school had slowed down, and I wasn’t making enough money to support myself. I needed a job – fast!

I applied for several positions at design studios but didn’t get anywhere. I also applied for a job as a web producer at a small startup called Affinity Labs. The word “design” wasn’t even in the job description, much less anything about sustainability, but it looked like something I was qualified for and I needed the work. I was offered the job and happily accepted it, acknowledging that my interests in sustainability would have to be put on the back burner for a while.

When I started at Affinity Labs, I spent most of my time sourcing content, writing emails, and engaging with the users on the social networking sites the company ran. Despite the fact that design was not in my job description, I found that I was able to bring my design skills into the position – first by designing emails and helping other producers with HTML. I was able to find ways to show my design skills, and was quickly moved into a position where I led the user interface design and software development process for the company’s social networking software platform – a job I would have NEVER been considered for had I applied for it originally.

Here’s the funny thing about the work I did at Affinity Labs – due to class scheduling constraints, I only took one web design class at Davis, and I definitely didn’t consider myself an “interaction designer”. But this is the first lesson about design that I’d like to pass on today: the design skills you’ve learned here can be applied to a wide range of problems. There is a trend in design to segment the field into an increasing number of very specific titles – “graphic designer”, “interaction designer”, “user experience designer” is particularly hot right now. But in my experience, these distinctions are fuzzy at best. The design process you’re now well-versed in is a framework that you can use to solve many different types of problems. Sure, different mediums have different tools and jargon, but those are the easy things to learn. The ability to develop an appropriate solution to a problem while working within constraints is the hard part, and you’ve been well prepared by your teachers here to use that process. So my advice to you is to broaden your design horizons as much as possible, and to open your mind to all the ways that you can use what you’ve learned here.

The willingness to work on a wide variety of projects was key to the next stage in my career. I was offered a position as a product manager at a growing gaming startup called Zynga. For those of you who don’t know Zynga or their flagship game Farmville, the company has turned into one of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups. At Zynga, I was hired to design and manage iPhone games – another area I had never worked in before, but again, I found that the design process that I already knew transferred easily. Zynga should have been a dream job for me – I was designing at the hottest gaming company around, working on Apple’s then-new iPhone platform, and being well compensated all at the same time. But that quote about sustainability kept coming back to haunt me – I couldn’t get much further from sustainability than making an iPhone poker game.

I desperately wanted to work on a project at the intersection of technology and sustainability, so I decided to build an iPhone application that would help San Francisco residents recycle. I needed data the City had collected to make the application work, so I pitched the project to them and asked for the data. I think they were skeptical that the project would actually happen (I was proposing to create the app with no financial support from them), but they gave me the data I needed. I spent the next three months working nights and weekends so I could release the app to coincide with a recycling campaign they were starting last June. Along the way, several incredible things happened that made the app a reality. I found a programming team to build the app, and when I told them I was volunteering my time to design the application, they offered to develop the app at no cost. Shortly after we started development, Mayor Gavin Newsom got wind of the project and decided he liked it enough to issue a press release about the app. Later in the summer, we were invited to participate in the Mayor’s press conference about Government 2.0 technology in San Francisco. Because of the support from the Mayor, our app was covered in Fast Company, Fortune Magazine, CNN.com, and several other major publications.

Just before we released the app, when I heard that Mayor Newsom was going to put his weight behind the project, I came up with a company name to brand the app with. That turned out to be a good decision – the app put Haku Wale on the map, before we even existed as a company!

The lesson that I’d like to convey here is about the power of working on things that matter to you. When you put your heart and soul into a project, you’ll be surprised by the support the world sends your way. I know this may be hard to believe, but it’s true. W. H. Murray, the Scottish mountaineer, once described this phenomenon: “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back – Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”

The danger in not doing work that is meaningful to you is that you will find it hard to fully commit yourself to the work. And if you don’t fully commit yourself, you’re missing out on all that Providence has to offer. And you don’t need someone to hire you or give you permission to do work that matters – find a way to do it own your own, you’ll be surprised by what comes from it. When you do work that matters to you, magic things can happen.

Shortly after the success of the EcoFinder app, I joined forces with a high school friend of mine to officially start Haku Wale New Media Studio. We didn’t want to lose the momentum we had gained during the EcoFinder launch, so we quit our jobs, said goodbye to our full time salaries, and tried to make a go of it. While our studio is less than a year old, we’ve been fortunate enough to work on some interesting projects with great clients, most of which have strong connections to sustainability and social impact.

The final thought I’d like to leave you with today is that I believe that now is the best time in recent history to be a designer. I know the economic context that we live in today doesn’t paint a rosy picture, but I believe the graduates in this room are better positioned for success than just about anyone else graduating today. In recent years, the value of good design is finally starting to be acknowledged as a key component to commercial success. In many fields, technology is no longer the limiting factor or primary challenge – the challenge is in creating things that are desirable, understandable, delightful. At its core, I believe design is a process for creating something that didn’t previously exist. So the question for those of you graduating today is: how will you use that process? What will you choose to create?

I’d like to close with a thought from Daniel Burnham, the Chicago architect who built the first skyscraper: “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work… Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.”

Think big.

Thank you and congratulations to you all.

“Building a new technology company is really, really hard. In order to do it successfully, you have to sweat the details, worry about all the things that might go wrong, and suffer more than a few sleepless nights (either from working through the night or just worrying through the night). All of those things that you go through—a boiling stomach, lack of sleep, waves of paranoia, and vivid visions of your own demise—turn out to be good things.” – Ben Horowitz

It’s hard to do, but if you get it right, the payoff can be huge. If I were on the team at Apple that designed the iPad, I would consider this post from Fred Wilson to be one of the highest compliments I could receive. Fred’s initial reaction to the iPad was lukewarm at best. After spending some time with it and seeing how the device fit into his home, he said this:

“I like how I feel when I am using the thing.”

Those of us who are early adopters, technology-savvy, or otherwise ahead of the curve often forget that it’s not about the walled garden but still abundant app ecosystem, the conflict between Apple and Adobe, or the presence or lack of multitasking. It’s about how it makes you feel. And in that respect, it seems as though the iPad is a resounding success. Or at least 2 million people seem to think so.

Fred’s post reminded me of Simon Sinek’s TEDTalk, where he talks about great companies (like Apple) that build brands around meaning:

Saw this on Fred Wilson’s blog yesterday, and woke up thinking about it this morning. This is one of those things I’ll file away in the back of my head for those dark nights when I question the path I’m walking:

“Courage is a funny thing. It is continuing to function calmly and purposefully when the environment suggests otherwise and discourages continuing… There are people who can simply ignore the fray sufficiently to continue to operate. They seem to have ice water in their veins but in reality they simply have a high tolerance for chaos and can continue to focus on the issues at hand.

In the business world, I think this virtue or characteristic is a critical element in being an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur has the courage to continue to operate when lesser (?) folks would be disuaded from acting. Founders had the original courage to start the company and continue to have a reservoir of courage which they can call upon at difficult times.”

-JLM, via a comment on Fred Wilson’s blog

Last night I attended a Designer’s Accord Town Hall meeting at Lunar Design. I gave a quick five minute presentation about some ideas I’ve thinking about lately from my work at Zynga. Zynga is the largest social game company on the web, with 10 million daily active users across eight social networks plus the iPhone platform.

The point that I tried to make in my talk last night was that social games are exceptionally strong drivers of consumer behavior. Zynga and other game companies have shown that huge numbers of people will come back every day to play games. The success of these games is no accident – these experiences are designed to influence behavior and drive very strong engagement. In a world where sustainable living often costs more (or at least appears to cost more given current market structures), I think there are lessons from social games that can be applied to influencing consumer behavior beyond depending on altruism.

For years, single player games have shown strong engagement. Basic mechanics like achievements, unlocking, and leveling up have proven to be strong drivers of engagement. There seems to be something in these very clear reward structures (you know what you have to do, and you receive some reward when you do it) that appeals to human nature. These mechanics are part of social games as well. See the screenshot below of my Poker Profile on Zynga’s Texas HoldEm game. The visual representation of Achievements brings visibility to the things I can achieve in the game, which compels me to play more to hit those milestones.

With the help of internet-based communication platforms, such as Facebook, MySpace and the iPhone, social games have added another level of mechanics onto the traditional single player games. These mechanics deal with interactions between people – and more importantly, interactions between friends. The mechanics of this space – competition, comparison and cooperation – have driven aboslutely explosive growth in the social games industry. Again, these mechanics seem to appeal to something fundamental to human nature, and that appeal stretches across geographic and cultural barriers (social games are growing just about everywhere there is a platform to enable them).

A few examples:

Competition: YoVille is a virtual world, where you create a digital representation of yourself and customize your space in that world. You can then interact with others in the virtual world – having conversations, visiting their apartments, dancing, and giving gifts. The YoVille friend ladder, a persistent element at the bottom of the game, shows how highly your room is rated relative to your friends. By seeing how you rank against your friends, you are motivated to invest more in the game to rank higher in your social circle.

Comparison: Everyone in YoVille has an apartment to customize. You can visit your friends apartment and check out all the cool stuff they have. Really well done apartments get more visitors, and make you want to go back and improve your own.

Cooperation: In Mafia Wars, a game where you become leader of your own Mafia, growing your mafia is key. You can improve your odds for fighting, gain money, and increase your power faster by adding more people to your Mafia. When adding Mafia members that fill certain roles, there’s a synergistic effect – together, you can do more in the game than you would be able to on your own.

I think that there is huge potential for designers to learn lessons from the mechanics used in these games. By using these mechanics in our products, we might be able to spark widespread change in ways that wouldn’t depend on guilt or altruism. One idea that I’ve been thinking about lately that might serve as a useful example: “What if my local power company were a social gaming company? What would my energy bill look like?” A few thoughts:

• My bill wouldn’t be a monthly piece of paper, it would be a rich interface where I could receive up to the minute information about my energy usage and performance
• Every day, I would see my energy usage relative to those of my friends. By framing energy efficiency as a competition between my friends, I would be motivated to try to beat my friends every day.
• I might see how my city block ranked against others in my neighborhood. If my block was lagging, my neighbors would pester me to be more efficient so our block could win and get our efficiency bonus.
• Even if I couldn’t manage to change my lifestyle enough, I might have a way to trump my friends by spending more to buy wind or solar power.
• There would be a clear path to improvement, incentives to level up, and rewards along the way – from day one, I could see how to be an energy rockstar, and the competition would engage me to invest in this.

Zynga Games (just a few – see more at zynga.com):

• Texas HoldEm
• MafiaWars
• YoVille
• Live Poker for iPhone

Useful Resources:

• Lost Garden: What Are Game Mechanics?
• Wikipedia: Game Mechanics
• Game Developers Conference: Lessons from Social Games

Ever since I created the Green Design Wiki, I’ve been interested in exploring the convergence of sustainability and technology. My work at Zynga has given me the knowledge required to orchestrate the production of an iPhone app, and I’ve been on the lookout for interesting ways to use the iPhone platform for environmental benefit. Last year, I did some work with Tim McNeil to help redesign the visitor center for SF Environment, a department of the City of San Francisco. A recent conversation with Tim sparked my memory of SF Environment’s Ecofinder web service. The Ecofinder is a search engine that provides information about where to recycle hard to dispose of goods in the Bay Area. This service seemed like it would be even more valuable – and widely used – if it were accessible from the palm of your hand, anytime, anywhere.

After thinking through idea a bit more, I approached the team at SF Environment about creating an iPhone version of their Ecofinder web service. They agreed to support the project and graciously provided their dataset for use in the app. Since then, I’ve been putting together mockups, designing the application flows and, most importantly, trying to figure out a way to get the application built with a budget of zero dollars. Last week, Andrew and Hernan from Nextive Solutions came through in the clutch and volunteered their time and expertise to create the app. I’m happy to say we started deveopment today, and are hoping have something live in the app store within 6 weeks. More details coming soon.

For the past few months, I’ve been doing some volunteer work with IDSA San Francisco. I’ve had a long standing interest in industrial design, and when I heard they needed some help with their email communications, I jumped at the chance to get involved with the organization. One of the projects I’m helping them with is a new take on the idea of a studio tour. We’ve been working on the pitch and branding for the event, and we’ve finally come to this graphic, which all involved seem to be happy with. Stay tuned for more news about the event!