What We Can Learn About Product Development From… Cats
I have to confess I’ve just feared cats all my life.
When I was a child I couldn’t approach even the most adorable kitty in the room.
But life is strange and now, when I am 32 years old, I own two beautiful cats.
And I have learnt to appreciate them. Maybe, I have learnt something from them.
I think we all can get some lessons about product development from cats.
Calculate your movements before actually move
Cats don’t move very much, to be honest. They sleep for hours and when they move it’s mainly to eat. But, sometimes, they play.
As I have two cats, I can observe how they play together. Most of the times, “battles” start by surprise. One of them hides and waits for the other and then, fast, attacks.
The attacker has been waiting for some time. Has been thinking. Calculating the next movement. The cat doesn’t jump before he knows he is ready and everything is going to be ok.
In product development you need to think any movement very carefully, measuring what implies the change, maybe doing to some UX research, A/B testing, user group testing, etc.
Like cats, you don’t need lots of movements per day, but useful and right ones.
Keep it simple
Have you ever observe how simple cats keep things? Their movements are stylized, they go straight to the point, they never spend any unneeded effort.
You need to keep your product as simple as possible. Complexity makes it difficult for people to use it. So you lose clients.
In nature, cats lose preys if they do unneeded movements when they are attacking.
Be like cats and don’t lose your clients by doing overcomplicated things.
Be fast
Cats are fast and I don’t think I need to explain this very much.
Being fast for cats it’s just a must to survive.
For product development, is very important too. Being able to put your product in the market as fast as possible can perfectly be the reason your product survive or not.
So be like cats and be fast. Put and MVP in the market, measure it, pivot.
Regardless of whether you like cats or not, you must admit they have some very interesting skills you can just copy in your product development journey.
Be like… cats.