New year, new goals and no time to waste in books — Highlighting books is a waste of time. Even if you are an active reader, you forget those mind-blowing insights from the book you read 2 weeks ago. And that’s ok. Instead of reading faster you should focus on your learning system… Read more · 1 min read Latests 1 minute posts Make the process work for you, instead of working to meet the process Research is what separates flashy concepts from usable features

1. Explain to your team the rules for a safe space Every opinion is valid It’s not personal. Focus on facts, not blaming someone. Open-minded listening to detect opportunities 2. Choose the questions template for a better perspective Quick retrospectives define the team’s key focuses of attention Mad, Sad, Glad format to understand your team’s emotional health and consider changes Start, Stop, Continue template to focus the team on new habits by defining what to do or don’t

Here are some diagrams you can use to frame a problem from different angles: Block diagrams to illustrate concepts built by objects, their attributes and interrelationships. Flow diagrams to describe the steps on a process, their connections and flow conditions. Venn diagrams to highlight how different concepts or objects relate or connect. Hierarchy diagrams to draw the relation between people, places and concepts.

Side-projects are never a priority. Do you remember those internal tools, book clubs, podcasts, blogs or health routines that were never done? After those energetic starts, use these 4 steps to prepare a shared-place and ensure progress: Create a single-source-of-truth for knowledge and activities. Use a Wiki and Kanban apps. Set recurrent reviews and block execution times. Use a shared calendar and a task focus app.

Sure, personas are not accurate. And they could be a waste of time when over-designed. But that’s not the point. They are research artifacts to show customers context and needs to facilitate communication among teams. Using personas help teams to: Be focused on real needs according certain customer journeys. Have open discussions in terms of a third person’s goals. “Does this design meet the persona needs?” sounds more productive than “Can we make this bigger?” or “Will this provide more conversions?”.

So here’s how to transform your survey, usability tests or heatmaps, into product requirements: Identify the issues and the metrics behind. Clicks and views are not meaningful analytics Brainstorm with your team on solutions about the research insights Prioritize in a list, what should be done first. Consider: Technical feasibility. Is it doable with your current technology and team skills? Business/Project budget. Is that affordable with your resources?

Collaboration and communication issues are present at every company. What makes different your team from Intel, Google or Tesla teams is having a continual improvement process. After contrasting Lean vs Agile vs Design Thinking, here’s how Jeff Gothelf’s book explains it: You must identify and choose the specific elements of each methodology that work well for your teams, so you can focus on effective collaboration and continuous improvements to satisfy your user needs.

Even if you are an active reader, you forget those mind-blowing insights from the book you read 2 weeks ago. And that’s ok. The best way to learn is teaching. So share while you learn. You must stop collecting and start connecting knowledge. That will feed your creativity, produce original content, and help more beginners. You can create your own system, instead of worrying about physical or digital notes, flashcards and spaced repetition.