EP16 - How do you design products people love?

Explicit content warning

02/05/16 • 50 min

Stacking the Bricks: Creators and Entrepreneurs You Can Relate To

Scott Hurff - who you met back in Episode 2 of this show - just released a new hit book through O'Reilly called "Designing Products People Love."

But Amy and Alex aren't interviewing Scott about his book or his launch in this episode. In fact, the opposite.

In this episode we turned the tables and Scott interviewed us, digging REALLY deep into our combined backgrounds in business and how we do research, conduct "Internet Ethnography" a.k.a. Sales Safari, and how we build learning systems to help our customers and students. You can even learn some of the "expert-level" Sales Safari techniques that we use.

Note: We didn't plan to make this a podcast episode so the audio quality isn't perfect, but when I found this recording buried in some folders a few nights ago I realized that there wasn't anything even close to this comprehensive anywhere out there So it's time to change that..

Click play to tune into this fun, fast-paced, and multi-layered conversation with an alumni we're very proud of, as we share what goes into creating the products that people love, and how we help others do the same.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott Hurff - who you met back in Episode 2 of this show - just released a new hit book through O'Reilly called "Designing Products People Love."

But Amy and Alex aren't interviewing Scott about his book or his launch in this episode. In fact, the opposite.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

EP15 - Why "Lambo Goals" never keep you motivated

Hey brick stackers, Amy here.

Last time we talked about resolutions (which are easy). Now let's talk about motivation (which is hard).

Realtalk: How many times have you started a project with a burst of motivation and dream and then it just... fizzled out? Not with a bang, but with a whimper?

(Or dreamt about it and planned it, but never started it?)

Believe me, I'm not wielding the Scepter of Snooty Judgment here. I used to be a total creative flake. My Someday Maybe file was so thick it could have served as furniture. I started everything and finished nothing.

I sure felt motivated... but it didn't last.

I dreamt about riches and acclaim... but they weren't enough to get me off my ass. Much less keep me there.

My life was littered with undone projects and frankly, it felt like shit.

Obviously in 2008, this all changed — I designed, co-developed and shipped my first app (after literally years of telling myself "I should build a SaaS"). Then followed a technical book. Then workshops. Then conf calls. Then this class. Then conferences. And another book.

What made the difference? The right motivation.

The right motivation is a fire under your ass, not a Happy Place you retreat to in your mind when things are hard.

The right motivation is enduring, meaningful, and personal — and often times, painful.

Here's what the right motivation is not:

fantasies of acclaim
fantasies of riches and luxury
fantasies of retiring early to a Mojito Island

They're fun, but actually destructive to your ability to keep going.

Why? Why can't these shiny Lamborghini Goals keep you going?

What will?

Listen to the latest episode of Stacking the Bricks to find out!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

EP17 - Kids Incorporated

Amy has talked about starting Freckle. Alex has talked about starting Indy Hall. But NEITHER of these were our first brushes with business.

To get our true origin stories, you'd need to see what we were doing to earn money while we were still in grade school. And it wasn't from babysitting...

Jump into a time-traveling DeLorean with us to go back, back back in time and learn how our EARLIEST experiences with business, making sales, and understanding customers and their behaviors shaped the businesses we run today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.