BNET talks to project heads from GM, Nokia, Mehtod and Facebook to find out what they consider "lessons learned" from working on high-stakes projects.
What I loved about each response was that the "user" was an influential factor in each take-away.
The perfect enemy is the enemy of the deadline.
"When you’re late, nothing happens ...and you’re not learning anything [from your customers]."
— Bill Wallace, engineering group manager for GM’s Volt battery
Always know whose problem you’re solving.
"Never forget who your customer is. Make that person real — it’s the key to getting the best product and keeping the team motivated... Bring in actual users so they can tell you early on, “I don’t know what this button does.”
— Lisa Waits, Nokia’s director of corporate business development
Make sure you’re talking to the right people.
"The right people weren’t talking together enough [to look at a customer / product challenge holistically]. People often get into silos in their heads..."
— Josh Handy, head of industrial design at Method
Ask yourself, “Is this necessary?”
"We have ideas on how we can help users communicate better, but we’re not always sure how well they will work. We do tons of testing for every little change to the page. One thing I know now, which I wish I had learned earlier in my career, is how to prevent “feature creep.” You have to be able to recognize when you’re inventing a feature that duplicates another or only adds unnecessary complexity."
— Peter Deng, product manager at Facebook
View full article: Lessons from the Worlds Best Project Managers >>
