In the unforgiving world of SaaS, delaying a critical feature will mean losing clients. A solid agile workflow can make all the difference. The development process needs to run smoothly and up to a standard, with delays reduced to a bare minimum. Before any change makes its way to the end user, it goes through five crucial phases: feedback, design, development, quality assurance and deployment. In this article, Vanja Mimic will share what he’s learned about each of the stages from over eight years in the business.
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When talking to potential clients, be aware that many will have never solicited a professional design service and likely have little understanding of the design process itself, or they have had a poor experience in the past. For many clients, it can be an anxious jump into the deep unknown, a big financial investment steeped in risk. Our knowledge and experience shouldn’t be seen as a free commodity. However, at times, a little patience and empathy are required on our part. Many designers will agree that clients, for the most part, need us to guide them through the design process, to ask the difficult questions and ultimately to reassure them by delivering measurable results.
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The worst thing that can happen to your product is that loyal users suddenly aren’t able to use it in the same convenient way. Frustration and anxiety enter social media quickly and suddenly, and the pressure on customer support to respond meaningfully and in time increases with every minute. You can prevent this by being more strategic when rolling out new versions of our products. In this article, Vitaly Friedman will look into a strategy for product designers and front-end engineers to thoroughly test and deploy a feature before releasing it to the entire user base, and how to avoid UX issues from creeping up down the road.
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From coworking spaces geared to nurturing the next generation of tech unicorns to boutique offerings, coffee shops, amazing workshops, art galleries and even a beach locale, Gemma Church has scoured a hundred coworking spaces across the world. Coworking spaces allow freelancers, small business owners and independent workers to rent a working area that is shared with others. The setup is usually more casual than the fixed rental agreement you would get in a dedicated office space.
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When developers are expected to work in a corner until needed, that isolation from the design process prevents them from crafting the end product just as much as the designers themselves. The person who ultimately pays is the user. Whether you’re a developer, designer, or in another role, our mindsets need to change; we want to provide the best products for our users. Design decisions aren’t the sole responsibility of the design team. Decisions made during the design stages have far-reaching consequences that affect the entire project. A representative of each area, especially development and design, should be included when project-critical decisions are made.
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In his article on Selling Design Systems, Dan Mall suggests to illustrate how fractured an organization is by printing out its different presences online and putting them on a large board as an example of all the wasted money and effort that goes into making sites from scratch, one-by-one, needlessly reinventing the wheel every time. What Vitaly Friedman learned from his experience is that trying to focus on the workflow or the process is never as helpful as focusing on tangible benefits that the client will get as a result.
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Robots only succeed in making customers feel like another number, a dubious accomplishment for your team. They’re the opposite of the personal touch that effective support is supposed to be all about. It’s not that robots are useless. They’re great at repetitive tasks, perfect for finding data and remembering anything you’ve ever written down. You just have to give them the right job. In this article, Matthew Guay will show you how to find the perfect job for your robots, so that you can automate support and offer more personalized, hands-on support at the same time.
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Leadership is not a dirty word. It’s not about ditching collaboration. It’s not about commandeering the room and shelling out mandates. Leadership is a natural, normal human craving. For a group to succeed — for design to succeed — someone has to establish a vision, a goal, a destination, and help the team get there — inspire the team to get there. In this article, Robert Hoekman Jr will look at how to run a kickoff and how to get yourself into a positive position in which you can steer the ship, rather than crash it into the dock.
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Lyndon Cerejo spoke with Amit Murumkar about his journey with Canvsly over the past three and a half years. Canvsly helps parents capture and store their children’s artwork for posterity. Amit independently funded the iOS app for two years until it became self-sustaining, and he experimented with different monetization strategies until settling on revenue-sharing from services. The conversation excerpts that follow highlight ten lessons for first-time app entrepreneurs, which I hope will be helpful for readers who are considering a similar journey.
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Vitaly Friedman believes that blocking loyal readership isn’t a reasonable option for any website. Relying on donations for an “ad-free experience” is unlikely to work either. Publishers should figure out a way to initiate an honest, direct conversation with their readers and find a respectful and profitable way of dealing with the ad revenue gap. Fighting against ad-blocking extensions is a fight against windmills. Ad-blockers have the upper hand, and while advertising will evolve, and it will become less disturbing and annoying, it remains to see if the trust users lost in traditional display advertising can be regained.
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