Presenter: Tristan Harward In this fun interactive session, we'll explore using diagrams, maps, visual aids, and charts to help us make better products. Learn about mapping the user landscape, understanding the flow of value, visualizing jobs to be done, and mapping internal process flows. Most of all, let's break down the barrier to visualizing the things around us to understand them better—no drawing skills required! Tristan has worked on products in engineering, design, and product capacities for over 10 years. He brings together systems thinking, design, and leadership skills to help build the context teams need in order to make great products. He's currently leading Product Design at Appcues, and before that did the same at Localytics.

1. Visual Product
Leadership
Tristan Harward
Product Camp Boston 2017

2. Who am I?

3. Me:
● Tristan Harward (@trisweb)
● Head of Product Design at
● Engineer, UX Designer, Product Person
● Formerly:
○ Lynda.com (as an intern when they were a computer lab in Ojai, CA)
○ UC Berkeley, BA in Marching Band (and also CompSci… Go Bears!)
○ Patagonia (on internal J2EE Enterprise projects)
○ Started a company (SaaS to manage apparel product planning)
○ SocialSci (a Psychology survey platform)
○ Localytics (a great mobile marketing & analytics platform)

4. Why is this important?

5. Visual
Product
Leadership
Products are Hard
Leadership is Hard
Leading product is real hard
—
Visuals Can Help!

6. “One good analogy is
worth three hours
discussion.”
—Dudley Field Malone

7. Three good reasons:

8. 1. Products are
Complex
Complex systems are hard.
Visual analogies can help us
understand complex things.

9. 2. Visuals are
Engaging
People respond viscerally to
seeing something real.
It’s a catalyst.

10. 3. Visualizing
Helps You
Think
You use a different part of
your brain to think visually.
It helps you, the visualizer,
understand things better.

11. Examples *
* Visual examples, of course

12. Gantt Charts

13. Kanban Boards

14. Org Chart

15. A User Lifecycle (typical mobile app user)

16. A User Landscape

17. Developing the User Landscape
Startup
Growing Startup
Medium Sized
Enterprise

18. Step 1: Research

19. Step 1: Research
DISCLAIMER:
A lot of research went into these visualizations.
Use what you already know today.

20. Drawing time!
Get your pencil and paper ready.
Following along at home? I
encourage you to grab a piece
of paper and try this!

21. Exercise 1: User Lifecycle

22. User Lifecycle
All users go through a product on a path from start to success…
… or “non-success.”
A user lifecycle diagram describes all the states they go through.
We’ll map the path your users take through your product.

23. 1. Draw a Circle
(on the left)
You can do it!

24. 2. Write the
first stage
Probably “New User” or
“Acquired User” or “New
Signup” or something like
that.

25. Exercise 1: Example
New
User

26. 3. What could
happen next?
What’s a subsequent state a
user could be in?
(consider good and bad)

27. Exercise 1: Example
New
User
Completed
Signup

28. 4. Keep going!
Keep adding next steps,
branching out where users
could end up in different
situations.

29. Exercise 1: Example
New
User
Completed
Signup
Never
Signed Up
Finished
Onboarding
Weekly
User
Never
Completed
Onboarding
Monthly
User
Churned
:(

30. Use it!
Visuals are only useful in leading if you show them to people!
This is the point where I make you talk to each other.
● Find a person (who doesn’t already know your product) and
describe to them how your users go through it.
● Point to the part that’s your
biggest challenge or opportunity right now.

31. Exercise 2:
Team Connections

32. Team Connections
What’s the biggest leadership challenge? Communication!
It’s complex, human, variable, unpredictable, and hard to agree
on. A perfect candidate for a visual.
We’ll draw how your team interacts with your company.

33. 1. Draw a Circle
(middle)
See how easy this is?

34. 2. Inside the
circle, put
your team
name
Eg: “Product,” “Design,”
“Engineering,” etc.

35. Exercise 2: Example
Product

36. 3. Draw
another
circle
Inside it, write the name of
the team you interact with
most.
Connect it to your team with
a line.

37. Exercise 2: Example
Design
Product

38. 4. Keep going!
Keep adding teams you have
some connection with.
The closer the connection,
the closer to your team.

39. Exercise 2: Example
Eng
Exec
Sales
Marketing
Design
Customer
Success
Product
HR

40. Use it!
You know what comes next.
This is the the last time I will make you talk to each other.
● Find a different person (not from your company) and
describe how your team fits into your organization.
● Point to the team link that’s your
biggest challenge or opportunity right now. Talk about it!

41. 5. Now that you
have this...
Ideas:
1. Make strong team
connections darker
2. Call out things that need
attention
3. Write in the type of
communication

42. Design
Exercise 2: Example
Eng
Exec
Sales
Marketing
Customer
Success
Product

43. In Conclusion
● Visualizing is easier than you think!
● Start simple (“draw a circle”)
● Get people thinking & talking

44. Thank you!
trisweb@gmail.com
@trisweb