JC Chupack

Launching a hardware product (and product development in general) isn't a "one size fits all" type of venture. Important decisions or directions, will impact the success of your company. One of these questions will be: should I hire a full, multi-disciplinary team in-house... or partner with outsourced engineering/product development firms? My (biased) take: Outsourcing offers more scalability and typically more flexibility compared to hiring which can be lengthy, cumbersome and more expensive in "hidden structural costs" (you have to take into account sourcing/hiring/onboarding time, benefits, cost of terminating if needed). As you all know: the clock is ticking when it comes to launching a hardware product. Outsourced engineering can yield great results in "flexing muscles where needed" to meet aggressive timelines and to "do it right the first time" as you're (supposedly) taping into a pool of experts who have brought many different products to market. The real beauty, though... is that You can do BOTH! You don't actually have to pick one vs the other. Not everything has to be done internally. Focus on the core IP/differentiator while some of the more traditional, detailed design is handed off to a team of capable folks who will gladly be helping in sprint mode (and fade away when the product hits the shelves). #Outsourcing #ProductDevelopment #ProductLaunch

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I had a great time at Product-Led Alliance last week speaking on product-led growth at different stages of the product lifecycle. Specifically what kinds of strategies and tactics you can utilize to take advantage of PLG with different business goals in mind. A "playbook" is just an abstraction that talks about the combination of tactics, strategies, tools, and techniques being used to achieve your objectives. One of the slides I used was below, which highlights playbooks in growth and maturity, and then matrices generated in tactics when you combine Viral Tactics with Education and Awareness, which is more applicable to growth-stage of the lifecycle. Viral Tactics with Differentiation and Expansion, which is more applicable to the mature phase of the product lifecycle, are also matrixed. Each of these tactics are useful to consider, can drive your lower-level KPIs in ways that are easy to measure and can move the needle, and empower PLG within your product.

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Unlocking Product Value is a Marathon, not a Sprint. A recent experience reminded me of this very critical product principle - good products continue to provide value over time. Here's the story. During the Brand30 challenge, Justin Grabowski, a fellow participant, designed a "cohort support roster" on Notion. I thought it was cool, and I used it every now and then to support my cohort. Given our regular posting, and LinkedIn's algorithm showing me my cohort's updates, the roster wasn't part of my daily routine. Fast forward to today, since the program is over, I’m not posting every single day. I find myself looking for that roster so that I can see what my group has been writing about. So, what are my findings here? 🚀 Great products and features don't just shine at launch. Their glow endures, providing value well into the future. ❗ A product’s value can be impacted dramatically due to external circumstances. It raises two compelling questions for fellow product leaders: Are you tracking usage & value of features well beyond the launch? More importantly, are you aware of how your customers' environments are changing, and the impact that has on your product? As we ponder these thoughts, here's to Justin Grabowski for his forward looking outlook! #productmanagement #customerexperience

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For anyone who's been looking to try the new GLP-1 medications like #wegovy and #zepbound, you've probably faced (and apparently will for the foreseeable future) a number of issues sourcing the medication. Since this is a business site, I'm going to limit this to 2 questions. One, if you sat on a board where your CEO made comments like the one from Eli Lilly who in January said supply isn't a concern (end of article at https://lnkd.in/grzcuGQn) after seeing what happened with Wegovy, how long would you keep them in the role? Was it a lie? Did the people who project sales just completely fail? The interview mentioned before was in January. 3 months later... just see the attached image from the FDA shortages site. How could a reasonable person make that statement on supply? Also, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly both say to talk to your doctor about alternative treatments, and in many cases, that leads to buying from a compounding pharmacy (which Novo and Lilly say to avoid). So question two is, how is it possible compounding pharmacies have access to these GLP-1s in ways that can be compounded? Is security so lax that people just steal raw material? Did someone steal the patented formula/manufacturing process and is manufacturing it on their own? This one is a real head-scratcher. I've asked multiple doctors, and no one seems to be able to explain that one even going so far as to describe the possible answer as "shady".

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Our design team recently attended Figma's Config 2024 conference, and they returned energized and full of insights. The event was a fantastic opportunity to network with designers from around the world and deepen our knowledge of Figma, our most critical design tool. Figma AI:  The new AI capabilities in Figma are particularly intriguing. Features like generating UI mocks, images, prototypes, and contextual layer renaming promise to streamline our design process. We're excited to explore how these tools can be applied practically in our projects. Figma Slides:  Figma's bold move into the presentation space with Figma Slides is noteworthy. Challenging established tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides, Figma Slides offers advanced editing tools, AI writing assistance, and interactive features. We're keen to see how this evolves and how we can leverage it for our design presentations. Attending Config 2024 has been incredibly valuable for our team. Jay Fienberg, Mariyam Elshrief, Claire Barth, and Ola Hirszler, feel free to call out some of your favorite learnings from the event! Let's embrace these innovations and see where they take us! #Design #Figma #Config2024 #Innovation #AI #Networking #TeamGrowth

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I’m going through an iterative design process with a XFN team right now. We know we’re solving the right problem because we get repeadted validation that the value prop aligns to user needs, but the experience doesn’t provide that outcome in an easy/intuitive way. So we iterate and iterate some more, each time finding ways to better achieve the outcomes we’re targeting. This process is messy. You learn that your initial assumption were off so you lean on failure to improve incrementally. It means as a designer you need to be vulnerable…that it’s not about you providing all “the answers” to your team in a beautifully packaged deck/speck. You need to show what’s “behind the curtain” and bring them along during your process. Show your thinking and learn to interpret feedback. Approach everything as a hypothesis, remain curious, explore and share.

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Great products are born from actively listening to customers. Investing in user-centered design and research is the place to start. As a product design leader, I always tell my teams to deep dive into customer journeys, analyze support tickets, and gather insights from community forums before designing anything. Products like Loom and Calendly shine because they prioritize simplicity and align with user workflows. #CustomerExperience #ProductDesign #UserCenteredDesign https://lnkd.in/ghD8fUJ2

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Let me tell you about the one time I paired a design team with their product folks to work with a group of customers who had recently lost a loved one. It was an incredible project that led to a huge simplification of old, well-intentioned processes to help people. Together, we radically improved the experience by reducing the time it takes to report the Loss of a Loved One from 30 minutes down to 45 seconds. The outcomes were beyond expectations. By creating a process that spoke directly to the awful pain and needs of survivors, customer retention shot straight up and their assets remained under management in the amount of hundreds of millions of dollars. That type of “innovation” is easy to come by when you genuinely exercise empathy, listen, and co-create a way to pair their needs with those of the business. If you invest in providing time and empathy to earn trust and loyalty, the money and assets will follow. Designers can help make this happen. We can’t and shouldn’t own the work (that’s your role President Business), but dammit, we can put one hell of a huge dent in the problems and challenges people have daily. My name is Greg Storey and I love working with your designers who do not have a dedicated design leader or a design ops role. We can do good things together to improve your team’s skills, processes, maturity, and cross-functional relationships. I have done this work many times at all sizes and scales, from small teams of ten to global enterprise programs of thousands. I'm looking to work with a team or two fractionally on a quarterly basis. Act now, right now! Supplies are limited. If that's not you, then take two seconds and share this story with your network! Tell your Uber driver about it. Use this tale to break the ice whit the poor person who has to sit in the middle seat on the flight home. Jump in front of a live news broadcast and say my name. Whatever it takes to help me find teams that need the kind of vision, guidance, and growth I provide in spades. #design #fractionalleadership #designervsgoliath

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So I had this serious existential dilemma the other day. After years of methodical taste testing I finally arrived at my perfect mid-afternoon convenience store indulgence - a black coffee and a mini Snickers bar. The terrible cheap coffee is balanced out by the ridiculously sweet candy bar that’s not too big. It just works. That is until you are presented with a sneaky marketing gimmick ie: a more appealing alternative *angelic sounds* the Snickers Almond bar. Almonds by conventional wisdom are supposed to be the superior choice. Healthier, tastier, pricier, lowers blood sugar (ironic), promotes weight loss, etc, etc. So I brushed aside my loyal trustworthy companion, and jumped at the shinier more attractive alternative. Wrong. A terrible mistake. Balance of flavors all off, the delicate dance of savory and sweet with crunchy and chewy were thrown into chaos. Completely underwhelming, and I was disappointed in myself. Note to self: Don’t cheat on your snacks. Don’t be tempted by the siren call of new choices. Stick with your old school routine - it won’t let you down.

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I’m often tapped by the LinkedIn algorithm to weigh in on certain topics and I tend to shy away from participating. Usually I’m versed on the topics albeit not passionate. I had an experience today I’ll gladly share. Amazon Prime has a partnership with GrubHub right now where you can have a one year trial membership for free via your Prime subscription. I heard about it from a Facebook group. I chose to try the service for the first time today and ordered McDonald’s breakfast. I paid about $18 for a steak egg and cheese bagel meal with a large drink. I submitted my order at 10:01am (breakfast ends at 10:30) and it was delivered to me an hour and 10 minutes later. My breakfast was cold, and was roughly 2~ miles away. Grubhub has an “on time guarantee” that should not be taken at face value. “Even one minute late” which suggests they have a strong stand with their ETA projections and aim to be better. I chatted with support who communicated like a bot, informed me they completely understood my situation (first) and then asked what the reason for reaching out was. How can you understand my situation if I haven’t told you yet? Here’s a summary: the first person I spoke with told me they could not issue a refund and offered me a $7 credit. I said No thanks, that just makes me want to cancel my membership. They came back and offered the maximum credit of $10. I replied You clearly need that $10 more than I do - I’ll chalk this up to a lesson learned and won’t do it again, that’s MY on time guarantee. They referred me to a Senior Specialist. I grinned. The Specialist also attempted to empathize before knowing my reason for reaching out. Then said they could offer me a $15 credit that would expire in 30 days. I shared the same sentiment as I did with the $10 offering and told them their leadership should be ashamed for devaluing their customers this bad (I also said referenced “And I thought DoorDash was bad…”) The problem was there were no drivers in a 15 or so mile radius of me so my driver had to come from like 9 towns over (not sure exactly, on the map he was far away). Somehow GrubHub didn’t feel this was their fault entirely and somehow I shouldn’t get reimbursed wholly and invited to try it again. So in a way, thank you GrubHub - your terrible service is inspiration enough for me to put the work in and just pick my own food up - how does this support YOUR business and most importantly your drivers representing you? Pro-tip: make promises you can keep - I kept mine and cancelled the trial and deleted the app.

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Another example of how Knapsack helps teams go from design to code quickly and efficiently to deliver real value to the product teams that use your design system. So many folks are focused on documentation being the way to connect design and code (and docs do matter), but having a structured, codified, version controlled way to specifically define how you connect Figma to a coded component is really what helps us deliver value to product teams that use the design system.

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Why do you need to learn business as a product designer? In my design career, one of the most important shifts of my mindset was evolving from a designer obsessed with details, typography, and aesthetics to one focused on solving business problems. Nowadays, in my work, I take more time to think about how to use design to transform user experiences, solve problems, create new interactions, and drive customer satisfaction to create business value. You could say I evolved from an “aesthetics enthusiast” to a “business problem solver.” Read more on my thoughts as a product designer about why I pay attention to business strategy.

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My team took tonies® North American market from $0 to $150M+ in < 4 years. Here’s what that process taught us about growth: 1. Validate product-market fit rigorously - it's non-negotiable. Be incredibly specific and thorough in your assessment of who your target consumer is and how you plan to reach them. 2. Build for scale from the start, and make sure you have the right team on board. When it comes time to grow rapidly, your partners and your teammates will be your biggest asset. 3. Need to validate your product’s stickiness? Look to your customer base - great products naturally draw great people. Product-market fit forms the bedrock of success. So dedicate yourself to the journey of finding it.

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Congratulations Paul Lambert, Bill Kee, and the entire Quilt team! It’s exciting to see Quilt making remarkable strides in advancing room-by-room heat pump based heating and cooling systems that are both accessible and great looking. The innovative approach not only promises significant energy efficiency but also aligns with crucial #health and environmental goals. Fossil fuel-based home heating systems are incredibly inefficient and expensive to install and operate. This has become a health issue in addition to a climate issue.  Many households struggle without proper air conditioning or heating during extreme weather conditions, which are becoming more frequent and severe. Quilt's solution of low-profile, ductless installations and room-by-room control is not just a leap in HVAC technology—it’s a leap towards healthier living spaces and a healthier planet. https://lnkd.in/gkic3nKP

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If you've ever been asked why a company needs Product Management 👀 . Come join this ProdPad webinar and learn from Matt LeMay how to prove the ROI of your product work, the product team and the discipline as a whole. Useful knowledge to have these days - whether you're defending your function, fighting for more resource, or just want to feel good about yourself ☺️ Register here 👉 https://hubs.ly/Q02sws6M0  #productmanagement #productmanager

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This is such a powerful concept. Leveraging actual data from actual user research to build GPT-based "user impersonators" has the potential to accelerate creativity in the product team and to democratize knowledge of the user in a way that can help non-product people better understand their customers (especially important during onboarding). The interactivity, the ability to ask questions and then follow-ups, is the key. And, of course, this will drive the need for more actual user research, completing the virtuous cycle. #productmanagement #userresearch #productdesign #onboarding

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The perfect idea doesn't exist. No idea turns out exactly how you expect it to when it confronts reality. As Naval shares, quality products come out of confronting reality 100x by putting something in the hands of customers and continually tinkering with it. 📌 I shared 9 more tips to elevate product quality here: https://lnkd.in/gRzMGmNE

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When we launched Petcube, our mission was to “Connect pets to the internet and give them a voice.” Now, our work and plans are even more focused on strengthening the bond between pets and their owners. Here’s my perspective: 40,000 years ago, our ancestors understood animals well because they spent a lot of time with them, learning to read their emotions, whether it was perky ears or a wagging tail. Today, with our changing lifestyles, we don’t spend as much time with our pets, leading to a loss of connection and understanding. Petcube isn’t just about connecting pets to the internet. It’s about restoring the mutual relationship between humans and animals, strengthening their bond. 🐾❤️ Read full The Washington Post article by the link below 👇 #Pets #Technology #Connection #Innovation #Petcube

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