Daniel Just

IxD turned Product Manager @dvinciHR, ex-Eurodata, ex-XING

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

@KiwiDenny Gamification

[Denny Klisch @KiwiDenny]

The Best of the Best about Gamification just for you!

Articles, podcasts, videos, tweets and books.

Get free access to this crazy overview with linked sources!

Like + Retweet + Reply "gamification" (Follow so I can send the link).

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

Another mindblowing example of what is possible with AI. The translation alone is great. Creating an audio track resembling the persons voice is even better. But also combining this with the video adapted is just surreal.

[Jon Finger @mrjonfinger]

Testing out @HeyGen_Official translation on French and German. I don’t speak either language so let me know if it sounds natural if you do.
I hope if you pay you can turn off the color correction.
It didn’t work on my phone so I had to upload on my pc.
https://t.co/FMJp9sJEBI

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

Some really interesting ideas here, good food for thought.

[Enzo Avigo @0zne]

In the cut-throat tech world, the few who survive often have one thing in common:

They ship incredibly fast ⚡️

Staying ahead in the competitive market is the key to success.

But fast shipping doesn't mean rushing products or releasing useless features - it means being agile, flexible, and efficient in product development and release.

Startups are known for their rapid growth, and product shipping speed is a key indicator.

@paulg, co-founder of Y Combinator, suggests frequently releasing new features can predict startup success. He said:

" Mere rate of shipping new features is a surprisingly accurate predictor of startup success.

In this domain, at least, slowness is way more likely to be due to inability than prudence. The startups that do things slowly don't do them any better. Just slower. "

Why does this matter?

Simply put, when you ship quickly, you learn from your customers, iterate quicker, and identify valuable offerings for your users.

Let me share 6 simple yet unconventional strategies that can help you deliver value to your users (and you) at the speed of light.

1. Say No to Staging

Staging environments, used for testing with simulated data or unreleased interfaces, can sometimes slow down the process.

To speed this up, use a feature flag system. This lets you test a specific user experience on a subset of your users in production while still keeping things safe.

This way, you're just one click away from going live.

This approach means your engineers need to be more responsible, ensuring their features are ready and free from bugs.

The trick is to adopt a feature flab system…

2. Adopt a feature flag system

A feature flag is a way to flag a specific user experience for only a portion of your users. When you do that, you can learn from production but also be on the safe side.

If you want to be the only one to try it out, you can also only flag yourself or your company or your account, which makes it a type of staging environment without the deployment overhead.

The great thing about adopting this system is that you are always one click away from going live.

Your engineering will now know that when you ship something into the feature flag, it’s only one click away from being released by a Product Manager - usually using very simple no-code interfaces or tools like @LaunchDarkly.

3. QA Straight Away

Switching between different tasks (aka context-switching) can slow down engineers.

Instead of jumping from one task to another, implement immediate quality assurance (QA). This means checking the work right after it's done.

A quick 10-20 minute QA can speed up delivery by solving issues on the spot.

While some companies have specific QA roles, many startups find that everyone can participate in QA, creating a culture of shared responsibility and speed.

4. Minimize the Scope

A smaller scope allows you to deliver projects faster and more effectively.

The key is to dream big but start small.
Big ideas are exciting, but they often require a lot of time and resources.

By breaking projects into smaller parts and shipping them incrementally, you can accelerate overall delivery.

This strategy also allows for immediate user feedback, enabling you to make necessary adjustments quickly.

Having a clear scoping phase in your product development process can help you set your initial milestone, collect feedback promptly, and determine the next steps quicker, laying the groundwork for rapid, iterative progress.

5. Be Consistent With Changelogs

Changelogs, whether public or internal, are a great tool to help maintain your shipping pace.

Regular updates on your team's activities and what you've delivered can foster a sense of urgency and focus, effectively pushing your team to deliver quickly and consistently.

By establishing a regular cadence of updates, your team can remain accountable and motivated, knowing that their progress will be documented and communicated.

This creates momentum that can significantly speed up your shipping cycle.

6. Define Clear Engineering Ownership

Clear ownership of tasks can significantly speed up your delivery.

When engineers are responsible for solving a user's problem, they are more invested in the result, which means they’re more motivated to deliver faster.

There are fewer delays and bottlenecks because each engineer has a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities.

This approach leans more towards an engineering-driven culture, a strategy proven to boost pace in companies like Intercom and Stripe.

By empowering engineers to take ownership, you cultivate a culture of accountability and speed.

-----

While they may seem unconventional, these five strategies can profoundly improve and speed up your delivery and ultimately drive your product's success.

In the fast-paced world of tech startups, speed is of the essence, and these strategies can help you stay ahead of the curve.

So, move forward, adopt these techniques, and watch your shipping pace skyrocket.

I hope these strategies help you as much as they've helped me and the rest of the June team.

Remember, success isn't just about having brilliant ideas; it's about bringing them to life as swiftly and efficiently as possible.

If you've discovered other strategies that work well, I'd love to hear about them! DM me 😃 and I’ll share your ideas with the rest of the world.

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

10 years on Twitter
#MeinTwitterJubiläum

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

They look really gorgeous!

[Rowan Cheung @rowancheung]

AI-generated QR codes using ControlNet are insane.

This is going to be increasingly common in ads in the near future.

These examples blew my mind (try scanning them):

1. Ancient Village

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

Now you have an even fancier way to generate domain names for side project ideas that never come to life :-)

[Steven Tey @steventey]

Introducing DomainsGPT → https://t.co/M1wm67wUJD

Generate brandable & memorable domain names using AI.

Powered by @OpenAI and @Vercel Edge Functions ▲

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

2 years into remote work and one of the most common sentences is still: "Sorry, I was trying to unmute."

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

Tech debt is hard to prioritize, some good thoughts on it here:

[claire vo 🖤 @clairevo]

An engineer one lamented to me: “we’ll never fix things, because a PM won’t ever prioritize tech debt over a feature.

My response? “You’re right.” 🧵

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

Its back again! What a relieve on the beginning of the week,

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

The only thing that made @MicrosoftTeams halfway usable is gone. The @GIPHY option is not there anymore! Please tell me this is just a bug! Please say that is not permanent! PLEASE!

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

Today I learned... about punctuation marks. Really interesting! Check it out.

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

What are all these scribbles on your keyboard?

A brief history of punctuation marks:

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

I am a huge @canva fan when it comes to quickly creating a design for a birthday gift voucher or the like. The tool is unbeatable to achieve great designs quickly. Super curious about the new products!

[Turner Novak 🍌🧢 @TurnerNovak]

A lot of people missed this last week: Canva just announced a suite of new products to challenge Microsoft Office + every other productivity tool.

Here’s why I think this might be one of the most significant product announcements ever:

[Tobias Günther @tobias]

In the last 18 years, I started 4 companies.

I made 2 of them profitable and successfully sold 1 (@gittower). But I made a *ton* of mistakes along the way. 🙄

Here are 13 pieces of advice I’d give to my younger self…🧵

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

@danielguse @Martin_Jordan Only HH or also SH?

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

@danielguse @Martin_Jordan So you can register at your new hometown online?

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

@alsterfalter @XING_com All the best for the start of your new adventures!

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

I am not really into the current UX Tools. Just got invited to @condens_io for our current project. Wow, looks like a super helpful tool to do research interviews.

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

Especially the: "going to the office to have calls with remote colleagues" is really a struggle, as the office is not prepared to have these many closed rooms for zoom meetings.

[Andy Berman @berman66]

After the last two years of working remotely, I decided to try working in person again. Here are some observations from a week of returning to work:

Spoiler alert: In-person work is dead 🧵

[Daniel Just @DanielJustPM]

@alsterfalter At least it is vegetables...