Product Decluttering
For our session in September, Katherine Barrett shared her personal & professional journey of getting rid of stuff aka decluttering.
we have pizza. and nice red wine. #prodanon pic.twitter.com/EzYaoQvex4
— product anonymous (@product_anon) September 15, 2016
Katherine temporarily packed her life into a storage space and a couple months later when she returned to her boxes – she realised maybe she didn’t really need the items inside. This led her on a path of discovery, exploring areas of ‘decluttering’ research, with a particularly pivotal book from Marie Kondo.
She found having choice isn’t always the best thing. We desire choice but having too much paralyses us which got her thinking about the product she manages.
She was making decisions on the buttons & the features for her users but not considering how many decisions they had to make each time they used her product.
One of the items that resonated with her – especially for product management – was the idea of utility. Does this particular item do the job you & your users want it to do?
Katherine gave some examples of how she’s using this at work including retiring a website which was very similar to another product they had. After doing their research, they decided the users wouldn’t lose any utility by killing one site (& saving time on dev, maintenance & more).
She’s also using the idea of ‘Simplicity’ for making a single choice at a time. Think about your conversion funnel because each step in that funnel is a choice the consumer has to make. How do you provide them with ways to make a choice but not overwhelm. Filters (as in search filters) are choices your customer has to make! That’s a mind boggling idea when it comes to minimialising!
She also recommends:
- Watch out for those sentimental products – or aspects of your product. Do they exist? Are they still doing their job?
- Think about if this feature helps you get to your goal. If your overall goal is to increase engagement, does this feature do that?
- Don’t be afraid to say no after something has been built
Product debt so often creates technical/support/service debt. Reviewing where your team spends time can show you what to #productdeclutter
— Katherine Barrett (@Misscommunikat) August 13, 2016
Decluttering Resources:
Marie Kondo – author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
Another good resource to watch from Sheena Iyengar, how to make choosing easier:
