Thread by @techienimi

Last week I attended a session on Cognitive Traps while building a product by @paraschopra and I could relate to every bias. Here is a thread on those biases. Read to know how to build products for end-users and not your own satisfaction.
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Trap 1 : Confirmation bias - We hear what we want to hear.
While building a product, we often have a solution in mind, and get too focussed on making it work, rather than focusing on the actual problem, and looking at it from all angles.

Google is a great way to do confirmation bias. We'll always find something to support our assumption. We do not focus on things that don't support the assumption and label them as outliers. We are not motivated to seek truth, rather be correct all the time.

Trap 2 : Efficiency bias - Engineers should be working all the time. While building, I used to plan for next week just bcz engineers are going to be free. Rather than looking for the right problem to solve, I was looking for what problems can be solved, just to keep them busy.

More often, these problems turned out to be artificial problems. It is difficult to internalise that anyone working 24*7 is not necessarily being productive. Being efficient and working all the time are two different things.

Trap 3 : Customer Development bias - Taking guidance from customers to develop a better product.
It is good to be customer focussed and really understand the pain points of the customer, and build a solution around that. But this is not true for all the cases.

You shouldn't neglect moats while being user focussed. They will never tell you to build a product which keeps em hooked, but you gotta build em. You might build features which might not be liked by them, but keeps them from leaving or can only be used on your platform.

Trap 4 : Selection Bias - Focussing only on vocal customers.
Out of 100% of your users, the extremists are the only one who are vocal about your product. They'll either strongly like your product or dislike it. These only constitute to ~10% of your users. Talk to others as well.

Trap 5 : Complexity bias - one which reduces simplicity over time.
This is what I've seen almost everywhere. Things tend to get more complex over time. If in a screen there were 2 actions that could be performed, later you'll find there are 6 actions now that can be performed.

PMs tend to forget what it is like to not know your product. Empathy shifts from new users who don't know anything about the product to power users who want complex features. It happens because over time, you become habitual of your own product, and it is difficult to unlearn it.

Trap 6 : Beauty bias - It leads to bad design.
Over time, features built are not focussed on its usability and functionality, but more towards the design, look and feel and the delightfulness. Products should be designed for end-users, not designers.

This often happens when designer's ego is attached to the product. They look at the product by how beautiful it can look, and not how easily it can be understood.

How to avoid these biases?
We'll, it's tough. Building a successful product is a very uncertain thing. You won't know, until you know. I think knowing about these biases can help you take better decisions. You need to bind yourself to reality.

One good framework for this is to catch yourself happy at work. Most of the times when you're happy, there'll be one or more biases at play. Just be vigilant. Obviously you'll get better at this with experience.

Thankyou @MotwaniSuhas @TheProductfolks for hosting this event. Thankyou @paraschopra for taking out the time. It was really insightful, and deck was really fun to watch. Hoping to attend more of such sessions 🚀🚀✌️✌️

#product #productdevelopment