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Product Design

How would you describe your Product Design style to others?

My Product Design style

My product design style revolves around being part of strategic thought happening at the product level, and then pushing the organization. I thrive when partnering with parts of the business that need big innovation in ambiguous spaces. And I push the organization to be better from establishing better processes to frameworks we can apply that identify and solve customer and business problems at scale. Some driving principles that really define how I operate are that the team is more important than the individual. Just like in the Marine Corps, everyone on the team has a role to play and a specialty, something that they're really good at. I also believe in ownership, extreme ownership. So accountability is a must. You have to own your work and how you go about doing it. Excuses are just something I do not have time for. And lastly, I have a big propensity or bias for action. I'm all about disagreeing and committing, moving fast and building stuff and getting it out into the wild. I could never operate on a team that spends time ideating and philosophizing without having a bias for action.

My product design style is focused on strategic thought, pushing the organization to be better, emphasizing team over individual, ownership and accountability, and a bias for action.

My product design style is centered around being an integral part of strategic thinking at the product level and driving innovation in ambiguous spaces. My teams and I excel when collaborating with areas of the business that require significant innovation. I strive to improve the organization by establishing effective processes and frameworks that address customer and business problems on a large scale.

Several guiding principles define my approach.

Firstly, teamwork makes the dream work. Drawing inspiration from the Marine Corps where each team member has a role and expertise, but the team accomplishes the mission.

Ownership is crucial to me, and I believe in taking extreme ownership of one's work and actions. Excuses have no place in building products. Step up or stand down.

Lastly, I have a strong bias for action. I thrive on disagreeing and committing, moving quickly, building, and releasing products into the real world. Customer feedback is paramount, let’s get people touching and using the product asap.

How do you incorporate customer feedback into your design iterations and improvements?

3 ways to incorporate customer feedback into design iterations

How do I incorporate customer feedback into my design iterations to improve my product? I do it in three ways. One, I do a lot of upfront user research. Great product designers excel in gathering customer feedback through user research, employing interviews, doing surveys. This enables them to identify user needs, pain points, preferences, and helps guide the iterations effectively. One thing that I always do is competitive user research, looking at how competitors and similar companies have handled the problem space. Product design is a great area where you don't want to reinvent the wheel all the time. The second way that I incorporate customer feedback is through usability testing. The best designers involve customers in designing their products. They get their products in front of their customers early and often. This iterative process refines the user experience, interaction design, and aligns your products with user expectations. It's always best to get potential users' eyes on your design as early as possible. The third way is I look for ways of getting continuous feedback. The best designers do this by implementing things right into their product that allow customers to give feedback. You can do that with surveys, support channels, and prompts that monitor the satisfaction of the user, ask for open-ended suggestions for ways to make the product better, and address the customer needs. It's important not to lead the customer in certain directions and to let them openly answer in an honest way. If you do those three things, you will create experiences that reflect the feedback of your customers and will make your products kick ass.

To incorporate customer feedback into my design iterations, I do upfront user research, usability testing, and implement ways to get continuous feedback into my product.

Incorporating customer feedback into my design iterations and product improvements involves three key approaches. 

Firstly, I prioritize upfront user research. This includes conducting interviews, surveys, and competitive analysis to gather feedback and understand user needs, pain points, and preferences. By learning from competitors and similar companies, I can avoid reinventing the wheel and make informed design decisions.

Secondly, I engage in usability testing. I involve customers early and frequently in the design process, seeking their input and feedback. This iterative approach helps refine the user experience, interaction design, and ensures that my products align with user expectations. It's crucial to get potential users' eyes on the design as early as possible.

Lastly, I actively seek continuous feedback. I integrate feedback mechanisms directly into the product, such as surveys, support channels, and prompts that monitor user satisfaction and solicit open-ended suggestions for improvement. It's important to allow customers to provide honest feedback without leading them in specific directions.

By following these three approaches, I can create experiences that reflect customer feedback and ultimately deliver products that truly meet their needs and exceed their expectations.

What are some of the challenges you face when designing products for the rapidly evolving crypto industry?

Challenges of designing for the complex crypto industry

Designing products in the crypto space is challenging from a product design perspective because the concepts in crypto are complicated, and it's a new, it's a newer type of product design. Keep going, keep going. The whole idea is you can just keep talking. This won't be published. Basically what it's going to do, Brad, is you just ramble on for a couple of minutes. Take it and put it into something coherent. Fintech in general is already complicated, and with crypto on top of it, it's even more complicated. Being a designer that's not in the fintech or crypto space, coming from that space, it's difficult to learn about the concepts and feel like I'm moving fast enough for the crypto natives at the company. Thank you.

Designing products in the crypto space is challenging from a product design perspective because the concepts are complicated and unfamiliar. Fintech in general is already complex, and crypto adds an extra layer of complexity. As a designer coming from outside the fintech or crypto space, it can be difficult to learn about the concepts quickly enough to keep up with the crypto natives at the company.

Designing products for the rapidly evolving crypto industry presents several challenges from a product design perspective. The concepts in crypto can be complex, and it requires a newer type of product design approach. Fintech itself is already intricate, and adding crypto to the mix makes it even more complicated.

As a designer who may not have prior experience in fintech or crypto, there is a learning curve to understand the concepts and keep up with the fast-paced nature of the industry. It can be challenging to feel like I'm moving quickly enough to meet the expectations of those who are more familiar with crypto, especially when working with crypto natives within the company.

Overall, the complexity of the concepts and the need to stay up-to-date with the rapidly evolving nature of the crypto industry pose significant challenges for product designers in this space.

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Self Reflection

Brad Durkin has led design at startups and been part of innovation teams at major brands for 15 years. He's built successful design teams and taken concepts from zero to launch. A Marine Infantry Veteran of Afghanistan, he's noted for his leadership, teamwork and quick action.