The goal of this experiment is whether we can be smarter about building product because we pay more attention to how we do it.

Everyone I know out in the Valley is quite process averse. Folks write against it, preach against it, and fight against it as much as possible. We’re not big enough to need it or there’s nothing broken with our product development cycles are the main excuses I’ve heard though there are others.

I’ve been trying to figure out why this is a ruse.

I’ve seen where the small team fails without a process. I’ve seen where the perception of success is simply a lack of visibility into what’s possible.

And so I’m putting my money where my mouth is.

We’ve talked about this a lot amongst the product team. Betsy started it off by putting a more visible design process on the table. The design team has picked it up by putting a work board onto a wall in the office. On the product management side, we’re creating a one page spec sheet. In one page, we want to define business requirements, use cases, core functional requirements, and a success criteria. It involves being brief, being straight forward, and properly building a living document.

The outcome should not be a cumbersome set of hurdles to get things out the door. It should be a common language for product development that helps us become great at it.