Avi Siegel

Jan 13, 2025 | ehandbook.com | Avi Siegel

Hyperfocus is making you build features instead of solutionsI recently watched a founder demo their product. They were excited, and clearly very proud of what they were building. And they had every right to be proud — they had done a lot of work. As they talked, their eyes lit up. But… it got a little… off track. They went on to showcase (micro-)feature after (micro-)feature, dropdown after dropdown, toggle after toggle. They literally beamed as they dove three levels deep into a settings menu.

Dec 13, 2024 | medium.com | Avi Siegel

Why being nice is killing your productLet me guess. Your 1 year roadmap is 5 years long. Your backlog is a graveyard of “maybe”s that everyone knows will never happen. And you keep nodding along as if everything is going to go swimmingly. (We all know it won’t.)I understand why this keeps happening to you — I’ve been there, too.

Dec 9, 2024 | medium.com | Avi Siegel

(no, they can’t — blame the curse of knowledge)Avi Siegel·FollowPublished inManagement Matters·7 min read·--Imaged created with GrokThe human brain plays a cruel trick on us all. Once we know something, we literally can’t imagine not knowing it. Psychologists call this the “curse of knowledge” — that cognitive bias that makes experts terrible teachers and leaders unconscious saboteurs. Every time you think “they should have known,” you’re falling victim to that curse of knowledge.

Nov 22, 2024 | uxdesign.cc | Avi Siegel

And there it is — the moment that you realized your productivity was killed and your focus was derailed, all for an idea that probably won’t matter in two weeks (if not two minutes). But you’ll do it again tomorrow, because that’s what product teams do. We entertain ideas. We explore possibilities. We chase potential. Well… that’s what we’re here to talk about. Take a seat!Good ideas are a dime a dozen. They’re a lot like [checks metaphor list] potato chips.

Nov 9, 2024 | uxdesign.cc | Avi Siegel

Great products transcend the Usability vs. Utility debateYour users want results, not compromises. Photo by Andre Frueh on UnsplashYour design team is pushing for simplification to make users’ lives easier. Your sales team is advocating for power features to close deals. Your customer success team is demanding both — a clearly impossible feat. You’re stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. The next step is for you to choose which flavor of pain you want this quarter.