Daily Observations

We want you to observe 3 interesting things around you every day and share them on
#07_thehawkeye_observation channel.

TL;DR:
● Interviewers look for folks who’re curious and observant
● By observing, you’re able to learn why something’s built the way it is
● Observe things around you and write down their “why”-s
● You’d enter interviews with 300+ observations if you observe every day
● When you get started as a PM, you’d be able to make your products better because of
your interesting observations in other apps

Examples
1. A login flow where the app nudges the user about common misspellings
Why? Bad emails lead to hard/soft bounces affecting promotional and update-oriented emails’
CTR

2. An old version of YouTube which had different favicons for the buffering, play and pause states
Why? People might have multiple YouTube tabs open. Displaying buffering/paused state helps
users navigate to the most relevant tabs
3. Google Maps showing accurate shadows. Attention to detail

4. Gmail prevents back and forth by reminding users to include attachments

Great example of user obsession
5. Instagram understanding the music trigger intent and providing helpful guidance

6. Flash On and Flash Off⇒ The camera icon on the shutter button has changed slightly to reflect
the flash state. Amazing attention to detail
7. Dr Lal Path Labs 24x7 Report collection unit in Delhi. Why? People are anxious about their
reports + Automation
8. Corona Beer sending a message during the Coronavirus crisis

9. Powerbank on rent service in Bangalore. Very interesting problem to solve. Placing it in cafes
and busy metro stations could be a game-changer.
 10. BigBasket promotes its subscriptions program. Leveraging “Loss Aversion” Bias.

But why should I notice all this?

When you attack product problems from an engineering mindset OR if

you try to solve growth pangs by sprinkling some marketing floo
powder, results aren’t going to be impressive.

Most interviewers can sniff this and that significantly reduces your chances of getting a job.
SO what is the solution to all this?
The solution is: Adopting the Product Lens!
Adopting the product lens
Any profile requires you to apply multiple lenses to a problem. To understand a problem in its entirety,
you need to broaden your horizon of observation and understand the engineering, design, UX,
business, operations, marketing, legal and financial aspects of the problem.

That does not mean that you need to have a deep knowledge of all of the above subjects, but it means
that you need to be cognizant of the fact that there are multiple aspects involved in a problem and you
need to consider all of them to reach an optimum solution to the problem.

How does the “product lens” originate, then?

The only way to get started is to train yourself to become more curious, more observant regarding
everyday activities. Look around. Like, right now, look around you. You’re surrounded by hundreds of
products — physical and digital [Unless you’re reading this from inside a cave]

Every product is designed — either deliberately or not. Observing these nuances and determining why
something “just works” or fails miserably helps sharpen your sensibilities.

- PhonePe and Paytm both have their QRs plastered everywhere. Why is it that users prefer one?
Why is it that shopkeepers prefer one of them?
- Why did Uber launch this new feature? What problem did it solve? What’s that shiny new thing
that I see on my way back home every day?...

Constantly observing and trying to dig up reasons for why things are designed the way they reveal a
ton of hidden information that is naked to the human eye.

There could be subtle elements added in your surroundings that make things easier (or tougher) to
conduct some activities eg: some shops might use escalators to help users enter the store but keep
stairs for those who want to leave.
Why does this app make me “feel” good? Why do I suddenly trust Google Pay with my money? How
does Airbnb make its hosts feel safe?

When you start thinking about these questions — the details start revealing themselves. A small icon or
a line somewhere or the imagery used in the app might be triggering some emotions and the fact that
they’re there means the experience has been architected, it’s been designed, it’s been experimented
on — keeping the human behaviour and emotions in mind.

How do I get started?

The easiest way to get started is to pick the object right in front of you and try to understand why it’s of
a certain form, shape, size, colour etc and how that makes you feel.

Start by observing the products that are around you, those that you see every day and especially the
ones that you absolutely love. If you don’t find anything interesting, go looking for it.

Make it a goal to register 5 new observations every single day and in no time, you would have an entire
library of interesting observations with you.

Inculcating the habit of doing product observations daily has long-term benefits too:
- It forces you to think critically about even the most mundane activities in your daily life
- It puts you into a habit of asking good questions
- It makes you think deeper
- It helps you put yourself in the user’s shoes and analyse it from their perspective
- It makes you more observant and aware

What to observe?
Observe the things in your kitchen, observe the things on your commute, observe things in your office.
Talk to your friends about their preferences, conduct polls on Instagram, Download and try new apps.
Everything’s fair game
Observations can be:
1. New products / new features (and the problems that they solve)
2. Interesting UI patterns that you come across
3. Clever marketing billboards or push notifications
4. Brilliant application of human behaviour/motivation
5. Decoding how certain products use emotions to start/stop certain actions
6. A strategic initiative taken by a company
7. A potential improvement in a product

Note that product observation is not mere reporting of a data point or a

user behaviour pattern. It should be supported by your own
understanding, inferences and insights for the said product.

Also, try to keep your daily observations diverse to include examples from every possible area such as
marketing, engineering, design, user experience, operations, finance etc. in order to widen your
product lens.

Tips from the best observers

Observations don’t walk up to you. You need to go looking for them. You need to create a system or a
process to increase your chances of stumbling across an observation

● Download new apps, try them out with the intention of learning from them
● Wherever there are people, there is interesting behaviour — observe people in social settings
[That also means social networks and forums]
● Follow some interesting Facebook / Instagram / Twitter pages to stimulate your environment
● Explore Product Hunt every day. There are a bunch of other curators — awards, best
animations every day etc Set them up so that you have a steady inflow of ideas
● Download American/Chinese alternatives of Indian products and compare
● Explore your friend’s phones — What apps do they use? Why?
● Conduct polls on Twitter / Instagram to learn more about behaviour and choices