Form Follows Function

Posted: October 29, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Wisdom | Tags: | Leave a comment

As a product manager in a small team, I’ve learned to embrace simplicity. We don’t have dedicated UX researchers or product designers. But that’s okay.

The phrase “form follows function” has become our guiding principle. It’s more than just a design philosophy. It’s our survival strategy.

My journey here wasn’t straightforward. Previously, I was the typical overenthusiastic PM, trying to map out every user scenario before writing a single line of code. I’d spend weeks creating comprehensive requirement documents that attempted to address every edge case imaginable, only to find half of my assumptions were wrong.

Now, I’ve learned to start small and think bottom-up. We begin with the core problem and its simplest solution. Nothing more.

When resources are limited, you focus on what truly matters. What does the user need to accomplish? How can we make it work first, then make it beautiful?

Take our recent notification system redesign. Instead of planning for every notification type upfront, we started with just one: payment confirmations. We got it working perfectly, then gradually expanded to other types.

Each sprint teaches us something new about our users. Sometimes we get it wrong. That’s fine – we adjust and move forward.

Rather than conducting extensive user interviews, we now rely on quick feedback loops and usage data. When we launched our new dashboard, we started with just three essential metrics that users actually needed daily, rather than cramming in every possible data point.

Our software evolves like a sculpture. We start with rough shapes and basic functionality. Then we chip away at the unnecessary parts. We polish what remains.

The best solutions often emerge from constraints. Our limited resources push us to focus on essentials. Everything else is just decoration.

So we keep building, testing, and refining. Form follows function. Always.