Chris Barrell

Ex-psychologist working in product. Using tech and design to make an impact. Product onboarding and growth @ @buildkite. He / Him

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

@dwhitedesign I love this so much. Definitely using this instead of generated sound effects for a game I'm working on.

Do you have plans to allow custom defined recipes? or should I just fork library?

[Agnes Callard @AgnesCallard]

LLMs made me realize that my whole life, I had been asking A LOT fewer questions than I wanted to be asking.

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

@GeoffreyHuntley @cursor_ai I'm glad I read this, that's a great mental model to use rules with. Already created my first rule:

[Wayne Hamadi 🖇️ @wayne_hamadi]

https://t.co/8zg36n3fbo

[James Clear @JamesClear]

If you already live a comfortable life, then choosing to make more money but live a worse daily life is a bad trade.

And yet, we talk ourselves into it all the time. We take promotions that pay more, but swallow our free time. We already have a successful business, but we break ourselves trying to make it even more successful.

Too much focus on wealth, not enough focus on lifestyle.

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

@neilsuperduper Loving where this is going!

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

@delba_oliveira @nextjs Thanks for sharing @delba_oliveira! It's great to see behind the scenes.

Especially useful as we're thinking about how we do docs for @buildkite. You're setting a high bar in Nextjs!

[Carl Vellotti 🥞 @carlvellotti]

PMs – I've said it before and I'll say it again:

✅ AI won't replace you
❌ PMs using AI will

I'm building out PM use cases with instructions + killer prompts.

Eventually I'll sell the full table for $50, but for the next 24h: FREE.

Follow + RT + comment "🤖" for access.

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

@ttorres You really hit the nail on the head about generating ideas of the tops of our heads vs. from real customer stories. Has definitely been a barrier in the past!

[Ryan Singer @rjs]

Interesting asymmetry.

When shaping, it's important to have one narrow problem and multiple paths to solving it.

Agreeing on the problem prevents us from getting frustrated. Finding multiple paths ensures we don't miss opportunities.

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

@lennysan First you need to have a good level of trust which sets you up for the long term. You build trust by

- showing you understand and care about others problems
- communicate well progress and updates
- introduce real impact and noticable improvements whether product or structural

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

Jira should show confetti when you delete a card on a backlog 🥳

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

The practice of writing things down continues to pay dividends.

Writing your position down requires hard, clear thinking.

And courage sometimes.

But it always, surprisingly, leads to good conversations. In fact the harder the work to distill the point, the more valuable it is

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

@lshackleton Some great ideas and identified problems here! Thanks for sharing!

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

Having great success lately (relatively, given lockdowns and all) with time block planning. Where you give every hour of your day a job, in advance.

best impact: I can just execute my plan for the day without concern for missing anything. Super low cognitive load

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

Great little framework from @hidovetail for getting more insight from during customer calls with good open-ended conversations.

> T E D W

Tell me....
Explain...
Describe...
Walk me through...

Use it when on the spot to get customer to keep talking

https://t.co/KFkG1xT2YO

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

@johncutlefish On the other hand, when things just inexplicably don't make sense why they continue inspite of not working, or decisions continue to not be made or what have you - it often is leadership or communications from (lack of) ... That contributed to these feelings

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

@jmj If you were trying to introduce one, where would you start?

For me, I'm thinking two parts.
1. Show problem solving benefits and better outcomes via product thinking
2. Better communication & alignment from motivating (product) vision = people onboard the train

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

@virginia Very true! Especially when it's something that doesn't have hard and fast rules.

[Chris Barrell @Chris_Barrell]

I'm actually kind of surprised at the amount of things I do for the first time by myself without actually getting help with it first.
Not by design. It's just the way things happen.
Everything would be better if we "apprenticed" on even the small things.