Felt Presence
feltpresence.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2011
A product design blog on interface layers, jobs-to-be-done, minimum viable products, and designing in the open.
What HN saysHN links it in discussions of product design tradeoffs, such as shipping speed versus quality, where a founding designer relates to its themes.
21HN people shared it
1linked it in comments
26stories submitted
170story points
3 years agolast shared
2011people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Visualizing a product's UI and code layers3 people · 6 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 2Products Are Functions2 people · 90 points · first shared 2018 · 27 comments on HN
- 3From designing in secrecy to designing in the open2 people · 5 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 4Vital Elements of the Product Design Process (Ryan Singer)2 people · 4 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 5Minimum viable product: What happens to the user experience?2 people · 3 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 6UI and Capability2 people · 3 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 7Thinking of interfaces as sets of jobs2 people · 3 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 8Time-Based Analytics2 people · 2 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 9Identifying conflicts in a UI design1 people · 34 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 10Actually understand design patterns for UI design1 people · 4 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 11What UI really is (and how UX confuses matters)1 people · 4 points · first shared 2013 · 1 comments on HN
- 12Advice for product managers1 people · 3 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 13Managing product development by integrating around concerns1 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 14Ryan Singer: UI Breadboards1 people · 2 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 15Three “what about?” questions when considering Shape Up1 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
ianstormtaylor · 2014-02-26
This is something I struggle with thinking about too as the founding designer, and generally most quality-driven person, at our company. The simplified version of the spectrum as I see it is:
1. Shipping quickly with a shitty solution.
2. Shipping slightly slower with a polished solution.
3. Shipping very slowly because minor details took over.
The frustrating thing is I can generally feel the difference between #1 and #2 myself, but I'm not sure how to distinguish between #1 and #2 enough to argue my point to the rest of the team. Instead I usually have to result in vague responses about quality and reputation and such, or just go into the UI or codebase and tweak things myself.
But on the flip side, I also know that I bring up issues that, at first glance, I think are must-haves for quality, but really aren't. Instead the scope should be decreased not to include the feature at all. But my credibility each time I bring up something like that is diminished, rightfully so.
I often struggle with this when giving friends advice about their MVPs too. Everyone has gotten so wrapped up in MVPs and they equate the MVP to throwing quality out the door, but MVPs are much more about throwing away scope in my opinion. I actually think quality can actually break or break an MVP, but it's hard to convey this properly to non-design-focused founders because they might not see the difference between certain purely-aesthetically-driven decisions and the more general and…