Pseudocode

A programming technique that might be useful for product practitioners

It looks like this:

Programmers usually write pseudocode before they write the actual code. They write in a plain language to sketch out their logic on how the algorithm might work. We can borrow this can concept and apply it in our work as product practitioners.

I find myself thinking about the business process a lot. For example, let’s say we need to hold a contest for YouTube every month, I will need to think quickly what are some of the big steps:

1. Decide what the theme of the contest
   — Billy must decide what theme based on trending data
   — We lock the theme in the first week of the month

2. Prepare the landing page
   — Should embed the submission form

3. Announce it
   — We’ll prepare an entry point in the app
   — We’ll email active users

4. Wait for the submission

5. Curate the submission
   — Use machine learning model to eliminate bad submission

You get the idea. It’s useful to think in this way before I go into creating detailed flow or something more advanced.

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