Cindy Alvarez @[email protected]

I ❤️ making peoples' lives better through technology. Dir of UX, PowerPoint. Author, Lean Customer Development. 👉🏼@[email protected] 👈🏼

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

People all over the world have been learning from Lean Customer Development for 7 years now!

https://t.co/MHMXbged0z

(These are the translations I know of - if you own a copy in another language, please share a pic of it with me!)

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

@mulegirl Fiction: Anything by @megelison and Tana French
Nonfiction: Anything by @mary_roach

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

@LuxAlptraum I recognize that street because one time I was jogging up it (verrry slowly) and a truck driving by slowed, rolled down their window, applauded me, and then drove on past.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

Most people have a *few* areas where they absolutely want to understand all the options and make reasoned choices.

For everything else, we're happy outsourcing that decision to someone who spends more time thinking about that problem space.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

Try reframing
- "we should give people the option between A and B"
as
- "we should force people to make the decision between A and B"

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

Do they understand the difference between A and B?

Do they *want* to understand the difference, or were they hoping you'd suggest the option more appropriate to what they're doing?

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

@rliumd Similarly: while I deeply love Kaiser in most things, child/teenager COVID booster appointments seem to only exist between 1-3:30pm on weekdays. I... do not understand.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

How to guarantee your prospective customers will report your marketing emails as spam.

Step 1: make this your 'edit preferences' UI

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

If a team has been sheltered, it’s true that *full transparency* can be incredibly disruptive in the short term.

AND ALSO, you must start exposing a team to change gradually and lead them through how to deal with uncertainty. To do otherwise is SO harmful to people’s careers. https://t.co/FqQcIC8zcL

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

@Pseudorandom75 @whstancil This happened to me (class I forgot to attend) AND I still have these dreams

AND *my mother* still has these dreams about forgetting a class she needed to graduate high school. She graduated HS in *1959*.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

I often say "people believe things more when they think it was their own idea" - and it's true!

And also: you can use this technique for better (helping them learn something new, adopt a desired behavioral change) or for worse (sowing fear and chaos). Lean into 'better'.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

During the worst of lockdown + Zoom fatigue, I noticed people would send a calendar invite *and* a quick chat message to give context.

It was a really nice practice that I'm trying to maintain - helps me think about agendas and be more intentional about asking for folks' time.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

@polotek this is adorable ❤️ you two ARE nerd goals.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

@EricaJoy I saw a dude with a dreamforce backpack on muni today and thought about this tweet and snickered quietly.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

@johncutlefish You must.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

“Write every day” was the most well-intended but unhelpful advice I got when working on my book.

Frustration and guilt over not being able to do that probably set me back 6 months.

[Lana Wood Johnson @muliebris]

Sometimes you’re bad at the things that help other people write.

That doesn’t mean you can’t write, it means you have to find your own way.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

@mattedgar @jwaterworth Giving people space to talk through their problems is such an underutilized tool!

Often simply *acknowledging* a problem is enough to give someone confidence to start getting themselves unstuck!

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

Thinking about going on vacation and leaving behind a bot that asks either:
"What's the problem we're trying to solve here?"
or
"What's the desired outcome you're hoping for?"

and waiting to see how long it takes for people to notice it's not actually me

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

@onejasonknight $20B is too much to spend simply to knock a competitor out of the market - and, big companies have had the chance to learn from failed acquisitions and see models of good ones.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

Also, “what about discoverability?”

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

Thinking about going on vacation and leaving behind a bot that asks either:
"What's the problem we're trying to solve here?"
or
"What's the desired outcome you're hoping for?"

and waiting to see how long it takes for people to notice it's not actually me

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

There’s no such thing as “the best candidate” but there ARE “uniquely great for YOUR team” candidates and it is absolutely worth making the time to figure out what that means and how you’ll recognize it.

[Cindy Alvarez @[email protected] @cindyalvarez]

@NW_Horadam Not sure I could’ve stopped myself from muttering “the popping corn… in 3-D!”