How not to talk about quality
In article #4 last week, I said I’d dive into quality as a topic:
Quality, velocity and focus are the trifecta of great products and companies. Many speakers mentioned quality. But still in an abstract manner. What does it even mean? How do you measure it? How do you explain it to a team? These are questions I try to answer every week with my teams. Haven’t found the points on this entirely helpful yet. A good topic to dive into here at a future time.
Let me expand on this a little more:
We tend to start with words like attention to detail, care, delight, and taste. These are all what it takes to do quality. They don’t explain why it’s important.
So when I’ve mentioned quality, I’ve ended with questions on how much quality is enough? Who defines quality? Is it subjective? When should we stop on quality and just ship it?
Before we get to doing quality work, let’s check if we should do quality at all.
Because it can be counter-productive to pursue quality without understanding the importance. You may find yourself in subjective debates. Or worse, pursue quality in areas that might not be important to your product at all!
Utility of Quality
Let’s start with generally accepted examples of quality - Apple, Nike, Figma, Linear, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Airbnb. These are more design-led examples of quality. Amazon is quality too - on the supply chain and warehouse front. Not as much on the interface design front. Billie Eilish is quality too - on pop music, lyrics, and production front. SpaceX is quality too - on rocket science.
Every product that has seen any form of success over a sustained period of time has done so because some core part of it is of exceptionally high quality. And continuous effort goes into keeping it so.
A high-quality product is an effective product scoring well on acquisition, activation, and retention. It creates a state of flow in the audience it’s designed for, while a poor-quality product will break flow for the audience. And lead to drop-offs. Listen to how Spotify makes use of LTV for every decision across the company:
10x Quality - Making it tangible
For any challenge at hand, first, ask if a 10x experience is possible. Sometimes it might be. Other times it might not at all. Take Bangalore traffic for example. Is a 10x experience possible? Definitely. Is It going to come from another ride-hailing app? Very unlikely. Any 10x experience will probably have to touch road infra.
Any worthwhile problem to solve will be an over-constrained environment. Otherwise, it would’ve been solved already. Creating a delta-4/10x experience in an over-constrained environment is incredibly hard. Maintaining a rolling 10x experience over years and decades is even harder.
Now let’s say a 10x experience is possible. Depending on the product, the 10x experience comes from just one core part of the product. Or it might take 2-3 areas together. And none of these might be visual or interaction Design. Be honest about it. And if one of these is your area of craft, pick a product where your craft is core to the 10x experience.
Examples on making it tangible:
Elon Musk uses the term “An order of magnitude“ in many of his interviews, and explanations. Which is essentially a 10x. Watch here how he’s able to break down the 10x cost improvement in tunnel boring costs. He’s done the same with reusable rockets. Watch from this timestamp:
Kunal Shah, CRED articulates it as a delta 4 experience. If people were to rate an old and new service out of 10. Is the difference reliably more than 4 points? Yes in the case of transportation vs no in case of online fashion. Watch from this timestamp:
Astro Teller, Google X says most people are trying a 10% improvement. It’s more straightforward to do. A 10x improvement is much harder. It requires examining the broader picture and the underlying assumptions. Watch from this timestamp:
Brian Chesky went to the extent of hiring Disney storyboard artists to help define what the spectrum of 1⭐️ — 11 ⭐️ experiences feel like on Airbnb. It involves limos, elephants, and a trip to space. Watch from this timestamp:
Operationalising quality
So you’ve identified that 10x experience is possible in your problem space. You’re certain design is core to it. You’ve articulated what it looks like. What now does it take to execute on it?
Steve Jobs talks about the difference between having a great idea and building a great product. It’s holding 5000 trade-offs in your head and fit them just the right way to make an exceptional experience. It’s the process that’s the magic. He also talks about the 10x experience towards the end of this talk.
Karri, Linear talks about bringing together really capable craftspeople who are also product-minded. This specific combination is important because then the teams can also be small. Reducing the coordination overhead needed and as a result, being able to ship really fast. He also talks about lots of internal testing. Watch from this timestamp:
George Kedenburg, Ex-Instagram talks about the need to speak each other’s language across teams and respect the importance of finding the right trade-offs to be able to ship quality. Also, read Cost of Scale. The same theme in Dylan Field’s talk from this timestamp.
Figjam Team. Finally, this is what it can look like to explore and execute on delight in just the right areas with intention. Notice the range of explorations in the third section. It needs mastery of the craft. Notice the range of inspirations in the first section. Quality is a way of life.
Jeff Weinstein, Stripe. flips the definition. He says craft is a lagging indicator of a real problem solved really well. Also love his examples of talking to customers, and listening intently to their most important problems in life even outside the immediate problem space. Watch from this timestamp:
In conclusion — Sure, quality is a philosophy and inherently worthwhile. But that’s the result. That’s not clear enough of a reason to build with. Quality is important because that’s the only way to build effective products that people want to use over a long period of time. Define what that is. Identify what it will take to get there. Take the journey of fitting 5000 trade-offs. And then as a result, you will end up with a product that is crafted beautifully.
As always, these are my working notes, which are sure to evolve in the future. When that happens, I will write a follow-up. If you have ideas, thoughts, or suggestions on any of these ideas or resources, please write back, I’d love to hear from you!
Until then, thanks for reading!