UI Breakfast: UI/UX Design and Product Strategy

Latest Episodes:

Episode 114: Product Demos Done Right with Aaron Krall Jul 06, 2018

Show notes

What makes a perfect product demo? How do you engage and convert a potential customer instead of boring them to death with a monotonous screenshare? Today our guest is Aaron Krall, a SaaS enterprise sales coach. You'll learn when SaaS demos are a good fit, how to organize and structure your call, and how to move the sale forward by making it all about the user.

Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.

Show Notes

SaaS Growth Hacks — Aaron's famous Facebook group
Breakthrough Advertising — a book by Eugene M. Schwartz
24sessions — Aaron's favorite no-download tool for scheduling and conducting video calls
Zoom, GoToMeeting — other popular tools for video calls
Calendly, Book Like A Boss, YouCanBook.me — popular scheduling tools
Userlist.io — Jane's SaaS product with Benedikt Deicke and Claire Suellentrop
Aaron's blog
Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaron_krall

Today's Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Userlist.io. This new tool helps SaaS founders get a better understanding of each individual user journey, and send users relevant behavior-based email. To learn more, join the waiting list at userlist.io.

Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here.

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Episode 113: Designing Messaging Systems with Kostya Gorskiy Jun 29, 2018

Show notes

Chats and messengers represent a huge design challenge: there's always room for innovation, but the users are deeply attached to existing UX patterns (think of the latest Skype update). Our guest today is Kostya Gorskiy, Design Lead at Intercom. We talk about their recent messenger redesign, peculiarities of popular chat platforms, and how to design a messaging interface for your own product.

Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.

Show Notes

Intercom — Kostya's current place of work
Yandex — Kostya's previous place of work as a design director
Product thinking: behind our new Messenger home screen — an article by Brian Donohue
Design for the Real World — a book by Victor Papanek
Inside Intercom — Intercom's blog & educational resources
Follow Kostya on Twitter: @k00

Today's Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by The UI Audit. Want to design web applications that are actually useful to people? This book will help you adopt a smarter approach to UI/UX — from product strategy to each individual screen. To get you copy, head over to uibreakfast.com/audit and use your special promocode SUMMERTIME20 to get 20% off any book package.

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Episode 112: Optimizing SaaS Trials with Alli Blum Jun 22, 2018

Show notes

Optimizing the trial-to-paid conversion rate is one the most effective ways to improve any SaaS business. Our guest today is Alli Blum, a SaaS onboarding optimization consultant. You'll learn how to define the user's path to success (and their common roadblocks), write onboarding emails based on research data, segment your users, and A/B test every step in your onboarding funnel.

Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.

Show Notes

Alli's consulting website
NomNom — Alli's favorite tool for aggregating customer feedback and user research
Episode 30: Describing Customer Motivation (Jobs to Be Done) with Eric White
Putting the (Onboarding) Cart Before the (Product) Horse — slides from Alli's talk at MicroConf 2018
The Sustainable SaaS: What Permaculture Can Teach Us About Building Software — Marie Poulin's talk recap from MicroConf 2018
Inside Growth at Wistia: The Process Behind Our A/B Tests — an article by Andrew Capland how they've ran over 150 A/B tests to improve their conversion rates
Recommender system (recommendation engine) — a Wikipedia article
Get Alli's free course on SaaS trial optimization
Follow Alli on Twitter: @AlliBlum

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Episode 111: Effective Website Navigation with Els Aerts Jun 15, 2018

Show notes

We've been building websites for decades, yet each project imposes new challenges when it comes to navigation. Our guest today is Els Aerts — a famous usability expert, speaker, and co-founder of AGConsult. We talk about the core principles behind effective navigation, how to figure out what information deserves the spotlight, and how to avoid common pitfalls. You'll also learn how to deal with navigation challenges in different industries: government websites, ecommerce, and SaaS.

Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.

Show Notes

AGConsult — Els' agency
Identifying Customer Top Tasks — an article by Gerry McGovern
Treejack, OptimalSort — tools by Optimal Workshop for tree testing and card sorting
Balsamiq, Axure, InVision — prototyping tools
Information Scent — a definition at Optimizely Glossary
Navigation versus search — Els' article
GOV.UK — a good website example without top navigation
Jakob Nielsen, Jared Spool, Gerry McGovern — usability authorities to follow
CTAConf 2018 — one of the upcoming conferences where Els will give a talk (August 27-29, 2018 in Vancouver, Canada)
Follow Els on Twitter: @els_aerts
Get €200 off user research training by AGConsult Academy using promocode UIBREAKFAST (valid until June 31, 2018)

Today's Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Balsamiq. This super easy-to-use wireframing tool can help you and your team get user interface ideas down before you start coding or sweating the details on fancier tools. Try it free for 30 days at balsamiq.cloud.

Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here.

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Episode 110: What Makes an Awesome Product Strategy with Zack Naylor Jun 08, 2018

Show notes

What is a product strategy? More importantly, what makes a good one? Our guest today is Zack Naylor, co-founder and CEO at Aurelius. We talk about product strategy vs tactics, the objectives and key results framework, the elusive product-market fit, and customer research as the foundation for all of the above.

Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.

Show Notes

Aurelius — Zack's product, user research and insights platform
Aurelius Podcast — their podcast
The Nerdery — Zack's previous place of work
Why The Best Design and Product Teams Decide What, Then How — Zack's article on strategy vs tactics
Objectives and key results (OKR) — a popular framework for defining and tracking objectives and their outcomes
The Exact Customer Research Process We Used for Userlist.io — an article by Claire Suellentrop, Jane's co-founder
Aurelius Podcast: Episode 18 with Patrick Campbell — an episode on customer development, user research for pricing and using data for better decisions
Product/market fit — a term that defines the degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand
Ask 37signals: How do you say no? — an article by Jason Fried
Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results — a book by Christina Wodtke
Just Enough Research — a book by Erica Hall
Indi Young — a famous data scientist and researcher
How to Win Friends & Influence People — a book by Dale Carnegie
Follow Aurelius Blog
Follow Zack on Twitter: @zacknaylor

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Episode 109: Mastering Google Analytics with Jeff Sauer Jun 01, 2018

Show notes

According to research, 70–80% of all websites in the world have Google Analytics installed! However, only a fraction of them use it well. Our guest today is Jeff Sauer, founder and lead instructor of Jeffalytics. You'll learn why Google Analytics can be so frustrating, how to approach your data, what tools can help, and how to get yourself up to speed in the topic.

Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.

Show Notes

Jeffalytics — Jeff's consulting & training company
Google Analytics Certification Course — Jeff's premium GA program
Quill Engage — a tool for sending GA reports
Google Data Studio — Google's dashboard service
Tiny Reminder, RightMessage — examples of products with low level of awareness
Jeffalytics YouTube channel and blog — Jeff's free resources on the topic
MEASURESCHOOL, Simo Ahava's blog, Analytics Mania, Optimize Smart — other great blogs on analytics
Sign up for Jeff's free Analytics Mini-Course
Follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffsauer

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Episode 108: How Startup Accelerators Work with Nina Stepanov May 25, 2018

Show notes

What do founders really get out of accelerators? What are the wins and the trade-offs? Our guest today is Nina Stepanov, Associate and Head of Platform at Acceleprise. You'll get familiar with the industry terms, learn how accelerators work, and how all parties can benefit from such collaboration.

Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.

Show Notes

Acceleprise — the global SaaS accelerator where Nina works
Y Combinator, Techstars — other famous accelerators
Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist — a book by Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, and Dick Costolo
Apply for Acceleprise on AngelList
Follow Nina on Twitter: @ninarstepanov

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Episode 107: Growing Design Teams with Andy Vitale May 18, 2018

Show notes

How do you help a team of creative professionals achieve their best results? Our guest today is Andy Vitale, the director of user experience at Polaris Industries. You'll learn how to manage and grow an in-house design team, bring new members up to speed, and optimize the UX process.

Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.

Show Notes

Polaris Industries — Andy's company
Polaris UX Design Principles
Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams — a book by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner
Design Is a Job, You’re My Favorite Client — books by Mike Monteiro published by A Book Apart
Andy's website
Follow Andy on Twitter: @andyvitale

Today's Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Userlist.io — a new tool for sending event-based email to your SaaS users. Overwhelmed with existing automation tools? Try this simple solution for converting free trials, user onboarding, and promoting specific features in your web application. To learn more, join the waiting list at userlist.io

Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here.

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Episode 106: Designing Decentralized Apps with Matt Cyrankiewicz May 11, 2018

Show notes

What does the world of decentralized apps (dapps) hold for us? Our guest today is Matt Cyrankiewicz — a designer, creative director and founder at HOO KOO E KOO. Matt explains how dapps work, what makes them so challenging UX-wise, and shares his insights on the future of this exciting ecosystem.

Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.

Show Notes

HOO KOO E KOO — Matt's digital product studio
Decentralized application (dapp), distributed ledger, decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) — Wikipedia articles
Is Coinbase creating a centralized or decentralized financial system?
Hashgraph wants to give you the benefits of blockchain without the limitations
CryptoKitties — a famous game using blockchain technology
MetaMask, Ethereum — other blockchain projects mentioned
Venmo — a popular money transfer service
Understanding off-chain transactions in blockchain for fun and profit
AxiomZen — a studio behind CryptoKitties
Dissecting the Ethereum whitepaper in four minutes
The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency — an interview with Nick Szabo by Tim Ferriss
Follow Matt on Medium

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Episode 105: Website Personalization with Brennan Dunn May 04, 2018

Show notes

Custom sales copy will always outperform general copy — with very little effort on your side. That's the magic of personalization! Our guest today is Brennan Dunn, co-founder of RightMessage. Brennan talks about different ways of personalizing websites, shares his favorite case studies, and explains how to get started with small experiments.

Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.

Show Notes

RightMessage — Brennan's personalization tool, co-founded with Shai Schechter
Double Your Freelancing — Brennan's famous resource for freelancers and consultants
Planscope — Brennan's previous SaaS (acquired in 2016)
Laura Elizabeth — the designer who works on RightMessage
Episode 103: UX Personalization with Samuel Hulick
Personalizing ConvertKit.com — a video case study by RightMessage
Optimizely — a popular A/B testing tool
Bookify — another product mentioned as a case study
The Anatomy of a Six-Figure Email Course — Brennan's article at GrowthLab
5 Ways to Use Personalization to Grow Your SaaS — Brennan's article for Baremetrics
The Personalization Masterclass — Brennan's course on personalization
RightMessage learning center (free content)
See personalization in action at rightmessage.com/uibreakfast
Follow Brennan on Twitter: @brennandunn

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