LESSONS LEARNED: The Creative Founder

Before this class, I thought.

Before this class, I was excited and nervous about this class of the business knowledge and practice. First, why do we design? In the interview between Barry Katz and Steve Jobs & Jonathan Ive, Jobs thought we should talk more about product rather than just design. We design products, for users. In the article The Language of Product, design technology, and business are the three components of product. I believe that design can bring impact to the business, while business can make design more sustainable.

There are always a tons of debates about, should a interaction designer learn coding? Should a interaction designer learn business? Jesus Christ, such kind of questions are totally waste of time. The answer is obviously YES! People who don’t know how to code out a web page would never invent Material Design, Google’s design language. Therefore, people who know nothing about business strategy can not find the right direction of design, unless they want to be artists. It is also important to reduce the cost of communication in the team in the future. If the designer know a lot about technology and business, he can play super well in the team because it is easy for him to communicate with other teammates.

Also, I have some friends in my country who founded companies, it is necessary for me to absorb more knowledge to keep in pace with them.

I did this (activities you did in class that were particularly meaningful)

• Researched about the blue ocean are we were interested in. We tried to research senior citizens’ situation especially in San Francisco. Airbnb + Senior Care was a great idea to significantly improve their life quality.
• Read two books, Business Model Generation, and Value Proposition, by Alexander Osterwalder. These two are hot and classical business books. Not only in the USA, I saw these two books in China many times.
• Sketchnoted key ideas of these books and some other resources.
• Recruit particular people to interview.
• Test value proposition, business model.
• Storyboard, wire flow, key screen, and the road map. It is more related to the product itself. Before investing money into producing the products, we have to do some tests to see if there are any potential to improve the things we sell.
• Got fired by some people because they do not understand how to collaborate with people.
• I refined the value proposition canvas. It would be better if we change the “Products & Services” to “Behavior Optimizers.” The definition of products is too broad. We know that a product is composed of business, design, and technology. Let’s go back to take a look at the customer segments. “Products & Services” reflects “Customer Jobs,” which means that customers have many tasks to do, and the products have to help them finish the jobs. It is still too abstract. You taught us: always explain WHY BECAUSE and SO WHAT. Therefore, we provide “Products & Service” BECAUSE we want to shape user behaviors to help them finish their jobs in a better way, SO they can have a better user experience. For example, when I go to the restaurant, my task is to tell the waiter and order my food. In this case, we can design the “Behavior Optimizers” as telling the waiter elegantly and ordering food accurately. Then, we can create some products and services to make these behaviors happen.

I learned this

• We should listen to the user’s feedback and figure out their needs, but never one hundred percent believe in it, because what they think, what they say, and what they do are three different things.
• Presentation every week is very hard but it is necessary to repeat to practice to make it your own ability. You have to keep on practice and practice. One second on the stage, ten years of efforts.
• When we want to improve ourselves, we need friends to point out things we should change, this can be called real friends. Except who are afraid of you getting more benefits.
• When you are presenting, tell WHY BECAUSE and SO WHAT. People care more about what the product can bring to them. You need empathy to think about what they want, from their perspectives.
• Set a timer and do things as quickly as humanly possible. It can make you always focus on working.
• Before joining a team, sign a contract. It is a way to protect yourself and avoid wasting time.
• Never start a company with people who have super strong feeling of superiority.
• Always prepare for a backup plan. For example, always download the data from Google Drive before the owner locks you out.
• The world of business is dangerous but inspiriting. No matter how hard you work on your business plan, there always be something wrong, you have to learn to accept that no one is perfect, then continue.
• Do things more or better than what you expect, always. Reality always comes worse than you’ve expected. Therefor you always need backup plans to save yourself.
• Deliberately to train your skills. If you automatically get something done, it means you did not pay enough attention to improve it. For example, you get the storyboard done very fast and automatically, but if you want go to a higher level, you should always think about the storytelling skills and structure when you are doing it.
• Be brave to reach out and communicate with people. Don’t be afraid of being rejected. If everyone loves you, it means you are too conservative.
• When you feel tired, just think the work as a game, and you have to fight to be a better soldier.
• Never give up.

When i go out into the world, I’d do that

I would connect to more excellent people and talk to these experts in each industry and imitate their working styles to make them my own abilities faster. Practice more to play different roles in life, business, and design successfully.

And, always be lonely but fabulous.

What the VC’s wanted to say was “Good idea, kid. Grown ups will take it from here”. But not this time. This is our time. — Sean Parker