The following is a transcript of a keynote speech given at the 2022 Women in Tech Texas Conference in Houston, Texas. The reveals the top trends in product innovation coming to market as the result of consumers voicing their opinions during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Recently, I was invited to talk about women in STEM. Here are video answers to three important questions that define the careers of women in STEM.
The following is a speech presented at the 10th anniversary of TEDxRiceU’s speaker series. The talk took place at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Last week, I attended the Black Enterprise Summit and learned of the Houston auditions for ABC's Shark Tank. I promptly signed up to pitch my mobile app, NewsAGENT, with a prepared business plan. I spent the next day in a ballroom surrounded by eager business professionals from all over Texas and ABC Network producers. As a result of the process, I became a more refined tech professional.
In today's digital age, design has become an integral part of our lives, shaping how we interact with technology and the world around us. However, we must ensure these designs are accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities.
From practical guidelines to innovative techniques, here are a few resources helping designers make their creations welcoming and usable for all individuals.
Prototyping can save time and money, enables speed to market, and helps products go further faster.
“Time is money” is an oversimplification and common idiom rooted in truth.
Prototype your product to protect your brand. The risks are much lower than launching a flawed product, reducing risk, and avoiding detrimental costing-cutting measures. Product design prototyping can save time and money, enables speed to market, and helps products go further faster.
Product design prototyping creates a scale or full-size model of a product, which tests form, function, and feasibility. There are four categories of prototypes, each suited for testing different assumptions, that yield the following benefits:
Desirability — Form a compelling argument for what users want from a product: Verify the market demand.
Usability — Access product goals to avoid users abandoning your product or service: Receive faster user feedback for product integration. Identify errors (i.e., design, technical, and operational) and proactively strategize around product opportunities. Nimble companies increase the likelihood of getting to market faster with a robust prototype.
Viability — Clear a path for product validation: Validate future product feature work without “going all in” on capital investment. The path to product validation comes with practicality and a smaller price tag. With the advent of digital prototyping, you can go from CAD design to digital prototype in hours — at a fraction of the cost of physical prototyping.
Feasibility — Improve product cost-efficiency: Conduct an informed cost-benefit analysis with a line of sight into the product scope. Product design prototyping avoids costly mistakes and hedges against making expensive product changes. It is less expensive to make changes to a prototype than to make changes to products in the post-production stage.
Example: Product Board’s prototype (pictured above) led the way for a Slack integration built and deployed in 20 days
JustInMind’s prototype (pictured above) narrowed the team’s usability test scope and minimized product scope creep.
Prototyping is a practical approach rife with pitfalls if not approached strategically. Ideally, teams can leverage prototypes to test quickly without the substantial product development costs associated with product development. Alternatively, prototyping without a purpose risks the onset of design debt and sinks of cross-collaborative teams.
Pro Tip #1: Design for simplicity. Taking a low-fidelity prototype and building on the user experience in the high-fidelity version solidifies basic functionality with less distracting feature work.
Design for simplicity: Overcomplicating a design prototype can cause additional turnaround times and costs. Opt for the lowest performance classification that stakeholders’ pain points as a baseline and a starting point.
Design to maximize prototype iteration speed: A best practice for enabling design is acquiring and following design governance guidelines.
Design for the maximum yield rate: Employ a first-pass yield calculator during the procedure to avoid scope creep.
Minimize the number of prototype iterations required: Numerous prototype iterations can cause high design costs, significantly impacting product operation costs.
A robust product strategy defines a product vision and identifies inputs for realizing that vision. So, where does prototyping fit into product strategy?
A prototype is a working model that exemplifies the product vision and perfects the requirements needed to bring the product to market. Markets move fast, and more of your competition will experiment to improve their market position. It’s better to test and build than be left with an outdated business.
According to Gallup, 53% of the U.S. full-time workforce operates within a hybrid work model that allows them to spend part of their week working remotely and in the office.
Coordinating a hybrid life requires organization for the remote and office environment. Traveling between the office, my home office, and on-site with a client is easy when you have the means to adapt to any setting.
Admittedly, my transition into hybrid life was rocky. I never had everything I needed or lost gear along the way (i.e., phone chargers, computer chargers, and endless cords to who-knows-what).
At networking events and around the water cooler, folks ask me, "How do you work hybrid and stay steady?" It's easy now, after losing items and making these staples on the go.
Here's what's in my bag:
Hiearcool USB-C Adapter - Plug into docking stations and set a great day in motion without a ridiculous number of cords.
EarFun AirPro 2 Noise Canceling Earbuds - Impressive noise canceling with a long-haul battery charge at a reasonable price. CNET and CNN consistently ranked these earbuds best in their class.
Team Gee Portable Triple Monitor for Laptop - A triple monitor setup on the go better ensures productivity, especially in offices that lack several docking stations and multiple monitor setups.
Jabra Elite 85h Noise Canceling Headphones - Because I am most often in an "open bull pin" concept office, I can go without headphones. Jabra Elite 85h are wireless headphones with a built-in battery that lasts up to 36 hours on a single charge for continuous use while accepting calls. These are a solid backup to my earbuds.
Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook - Instantly connects and stores my notes, UX doodles, information architectural sketches, and lists in the cloud with the free smart notebook app. I purchased a Rocketbook shortly after my Spring Cleaning 2022 unearthed 28 paper notebooks, a collection amassed over the past five years.
Pilot Frixion Ball Point Pens - Compatible with the Rocketbook and "regular" paper notebooks.
Lovevook Tote Bag with USB Charging - A waterproof bag that seamlessly transitions from coffee meetups to a client's office to a networking happy hour. Holds two laptops and helps me out when I am running low on a charge.
Note: This is not a sponsored ad, and I do not receive a commission for these recommendations. These are just amazing products that withstand turmoil in my bag from place to place.
The following is a transcript of a keynote speech given at the 2022 Women in Tech Texas Conference in Houston, Texas. The reveals the top trends in product innovation coming to market as the result of consumers voicing their opinions during the COVID-19 lockdown.
