From the lens of a product manager

Once upon a time, I used to get criticized for nitpicking; back then, little did I understand that I was not really as polite as I could have been and also it was little over-do sometimes. I am grateful to my friends and colleagues for their patience and for teaching me a lot over last few years in this front. I used to notice tiny details and how they could have been improved for greater user experience. Examples include but not limited to things related to grammar, graphs or tables and layout of websites, restaurants, rooms, houses, offices or parks. Also, I could not stand untidy desktops or Start menus or home screens in the borrowed laptop or phones from the office or colleagues/friends when my systems went down. Psst. Initially, I used to clean them up and give them structure and I stopped when I realized some people just like it that way and it made sense too. Often, when I am waiting, I noticed processes and their bottlenecks or efficiency no matter where I went or whichever app or websites I visited. Most of the time they were more frustrating than awe inspiring (except in a few cases in Germany) because as a third person you always have a vantage that the designer didn’t have. Also, you cannot do much about it and people won’t accept unsolicited feedback probably because it was untimely or they already knew about it. I also pointed out gaps in people’s logic or numbers when they tried to convince you into their arguments during the talks or presentations. I must have been pretty mean, but sometimes I felt they deserved it because they were to consider all the sides of any argument. Few people liked this side of my attitude but mostly people didn’t like it though they didn’t openly share it with me. Many times, when I was in the business development team, I commented on the algorithms used by the engineering team and gave them detailed algorithms myself. I did the same with designs and marketing teams too. Of course, they were not really happy when an outsider tells you “let me tell you how to do what you have been doing for ages”. Little did I know that these attributes were monetizable and you can make a career out of these if you can channelize them in the right way. It is important to re-read the part in bold font in the last sentence. It took me a while, but finally I found the overlapping of what I really love to do and when I am good at (relatively). Thanks to a few of my colleagues who noticed this in me before I did and nominated me for the role of product manager.

In this post, I am considering a house as a product and I am trying to put framework (not force-fit though) to the things or features or processes that I noticed when we built and set up our new home in Kathmandu (after our old home was wiped out by the devastating earthquake of 2015). We did not use the professional builders as the demand for them was 5x the usual and you know how things pan out in such scenarios. I was away and I along with my brother (who was at the site) agreed for the designs (structural part of it) and the house was built. When I returned home a few months after the house was done, I found the house quite habitable. But, I also noticed many uncomfortable and irritating Piccadilly which could have been avoided at no extra expense. I am sharing few of the lessons (Dos and Don’ts) below:

Design for THE users: 

• Consider which feature is used by what % of the family members and for what % of the time of the year. E.g. in Kathmandu, winter is for 3 months, hot summer is for 2 months and rest is mild weather. So, optimizing windows, ventilation system, flooring and wardrobes for non-winter is much more sensible and cost effective than otherwise.
• People in Kathmandu are mostly under 175cm, it is in a high earthquake prone area and it almost never requires a ceiling fan. Considering all these facts, having houses with floor height not more than 220cm makes a lot sense unless you are building a long hall or hotel.
• My brother spent good amount of time and money to construct a religious themed wardrobe in my parents room. My parents were pissed off, they never mentioned it but they never used the wardrobe the way my brother build it for. It is sheer waste of resources and a case of an unhappy user. So, build it for the USER not for the builder/ engineers.

Mind the tiny details: Everyone knows roughly what to do or what not to do. Only the great designers or PM get into the threads and ensure every nook and corner of a product is optimized for the best performance. Small things such as bathroom light switch is next to the edge of the door’s handle’s side, not towards its hinges and its outside the bathroom. You never know what’s at the door if it’s dark or whether the user might slip before getting the lights on. Same with the room’s light switch but its inside the room right next to the door’s opening edge.

Avoid distractions or irritations: The Indicator LEDs of the switchboards or the routers or chargers can really keep you away from sleep sometimes. They force you to come out of the warm bed in the icy cold winters of Nepal and stick something on top of them or switch them off. So, either place them in the right position or have them night friendly (tiny, weak, blue indicators or so).

Have CTAs very close to the activities/actions

• Have switches spread around in the room. Have switch for the balcony light at the exit to balcony, switch to the night light next to the bed,
• Have subtle plugs in almost every wall so that users won’t have to draw wire all the way across the room to connect devices to connect the chargers or a television.

Group similar items together:

• While using a switchboard with multiple switches or plugs, keep all light switches together, have switch for the fan or AC at either end, then have switch for the plugs next to the plugs.
• While designing the wardrobe, have the drawers that carry your socks, shoes, underpants, undergarments (vests, sleeveless etc.) and caps - ties - handkerchiefs - gloves from bottom to top in the order. This ensures you or the user does not have to remember the order as the order is already known to everyone.

Have validations or make it idiot proof:

• Door stoppers: They just cost you a tiny % of your overall expense, but they save you a lot in terms of keeping the doors and the paints behind them intact. 
• Sofa/table stopper (if such a name exists) so that paints/curtains of the window behind the sofa can easily be operated/ protected.
• Contour the sharp edges to avoid any accidental cuts or injuries not only for babies but also for adults
• Have hints or indicators wherever possible (have different types of switches for bell, fan, heater or AC wherever possible) - have slightly bigger switches for heater or fan or AC than those for lights.
• Keep main-switch (one that can control electricity of the entire home) secluded or at much higher level from ground than the regular switches

Plan for one off but big headache cases too:

• Have a small opening to pass wires whenever adhoc requirements come up. I remember having to keep a sliding window of pan height 4 feet open all night to pass a wire; though it was about 0.5cm wide but it was still 4 feet wide and the amount of cold air that gushed out of this slit was much colder than that by a 3 ton AC.
• Few segments of the shoe rack segments are tall enough to accommodate the high boots
• Have a key hanger, umbrella rack, torch etc. next to the door in the inner side; saves every a lot of time at the rush hour.

Don’t over-do and be greedy too at times

• Extra spaces above or below the staircase are a great place to use your creative mind. Space about can be used to create a bunk or storage space while space underneath can be used to create a wardrobe or a bed.
• You don’t need robust inner wall in-between rooms - you just need sound proof partitions. This makes the structure lighter, cheaper and dynamic (the wall can be moved or removed when needed)
• There are few features with multiple usage. Know which feature is for what. E.g. windows could provide ventilation, lighting and the way to the balcony. If you clearly know that the window is only for lighting, having a fixed glass window is much cheaper and convenient and so on.

Have enough white space: 

• Reuse the assets wherever possible to minimize cluttering. If you have limited space, have a living room sofa that can be used as a bed also at night. Use a bed that has a bonkers inside which you can store off season items. Store spare mattress on top of the regular mattress and use it for guests instead of congesting your living room with extra bed.
• Don’t hang more than one or two paintings per wall. Choose the paintings depending on the theme of your home.
• No matter how lazy you are, dump all your clothes or extra books or electronics inside the wardrobe. If that too is difficult, just have a big box or basket in the room and put everything inside it.
• Always have a table with a drawer that has an invisible label “misc”. Sweep your tabletop every week and dump all stuff inside this drawer. Take this drawer to your balcony every month and get rid of things you don’t need.

Be consistent in look and feel: 

• One of the colors of the walls matches the color of carpet and furniture (consistency in color). This not only makes it consistent, it also saves you money both at initial painting and during future re-painting.
• If you are using a switch board with multiple switches, ensure you follow the same pattern in each room. E.g. The first switch is for the night light, second is for tube light, third for the balcony and so on.

Plan for back-up: Have additional lights or light bulbs - you don’t want to rush for bulbs at midnight when you are in strong urge to finish that book or in between work with a deadline of the following day.

Plan for rainy days: Know which direction the winds mostly blow during the rainy season. Have the ledges projected above the window or design the window or its material in such a way that rain does not spoil it or does not enter the room.

Plan for exceptions too: Doors do not always have to have two equal segments. Keep one at 30% and other at 70%. 30% is fixed and is opened only when you are shifting furniture or its a party time and too many people are going to pass through that door at a time.

Have single call to action (CTA): Minimize the distractions if you can afford. E.g. have only a bed and probably a bedside drawers in the bedroom. Don’t have TV or books or any other activities in it so that your body knows when you enter the room, it’s time to get into sleeping mode. Similarly, never have a bed in the study room/home office room. If you cannot afford separate rooms, fold your bed away, or ensure your bed is made so nicely that you don’t feel like spoiling it in the middle of the day. Or Go to your dining table in the kitchen or living room and study/work.

Avoid redundancies:

• Too many bathrooms (full set) in the house does not really make your life easier. You can separate a bathroom into WC, shower and basin-mirror and decide independently where you need all of them, 2 of them or only one. It saves some money and space by avoiding redundancy.
• A dedicated guest room which is used less than 20 days in a year is not really a wise investment. Instead have a room that can serve both as a guest room and probably a study room / home office; have mattresses instead of fixed cots so that they can be stowed away when guests are not around (which is 90% of the times in most of the houses)

I still do nitpicking..well not really now, let me say constructive criticism or feedback. But now, I present them in a way that the other person knows my intention and more importantly, I put what, why and solutions together along with numbers/analysis and a good language. These make me a part of the same team as the people who built the product rather than an outsider who is trying to have a mental masturbation finding faults in other’s work.