One simple idea
Routine. When you have the proper routine, you get more productive.
Other than morning reading books, my favorite routine is the weekly calendar audit. Every Saturday, I will run through my calendar for the upcoming week and ask these questions:
What are my top priorities this week?
Do I really need this meeting? Can I get it done asynchronously?
What's my goal in this meeting?
What value can I give in this meeting?
I have too many meetings. But this routine helps me prioritize. It uncovers a lot of unnecessary meetings that I can cut off. Always. Every week. What is your favorite routine?
One tactic
When you think through the problem, try to quantify it.
If you have an assumption that a certain screen is confusing and overwhelming, find the metrics that correlate to that. For example, a bounce rate could be a quantifiable metric. If people are confused, they will exit.
You can say our goal is to reduce that bounce rate. That's a more acceptable discussion than saying, "This page is overwhelming."
With that in mind, you can easily set what success means for your work. Let’s reduce the bounce rate by 30%.
One personal update
I moved to a Product Management role.
As a Group Product Manager, I'm responsible for maintaining a group of products. One reason that pushes me to make this transition is to expand my view and experience as a designer. I've been in design for almost 12 years, and I feel product management would help me improve my product sense.
There are a lot of concepts in product management that excite me. For example, thinking about how we can set a strategy to improve retention. I'm looking forward to sharing more ideas with you.
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