Hi there 👋 I’m Julie, Head of Product Design at Product Hunt. AMA 👇

@jmsuth My work is very varied, so I can use many different tools depending on what I’m working on. I’ve tried to list my main tools here 👇 User research: Dovetail for qualitative research  Zoom to talk to people Typeform for large surveys  Invision to share designs and collect feedback from the community   UX/UI/IxD design: Sketch Framer primarily to prototype mobile experiences  Whimsical for early collaboration on wireframes and user flows  Communication and collaboration: Notion this is where I take notes  Pitch to formally present ideas  Loom to present designs and ideas asynchronously  Slack for gifs mainly (and to talk with my team)  Asana to follow projects and work together  Testing and tracking: Stark to test designs for accessibility Koa11y to test live pages' accessibility  Hotjar occasionally to test how people use features  I'm not listing analytics tools like GA, Looker, or Periscope because although I use data, I do not set these up. As a team, we certainly use more than this, but these are the tools I use personally.

@jmsuth @syswarren Do you use anything to manage user feedback? I've recently been questioning the value of the platform I use and think I would be better off going back to something a little more analog. I currently use ProductBoard if that helps clarify what I'm asking.

@jmsuth @aaron_chiandet To me ProductBoard "customer feedback" feature is primarily used to manage feature requests, which is a bit different from user feedback. We've been using Dovetail for research — outside of unprompted feedback — but it's possible to manually add feedback there. But really, you could simply use a Google doc, or Airtable to list feedback and tag them.

@chrismessina We've recently hired new people and built a team dedicated to mobile apps. What I can tell you is that they started working on the apps and are rebuilding them from scratch to create native experiences on iOS and Android. @ahiggz herself is leading product for the mobile experience! I don't want to speak for her or the team and share a timeframe but things seem to be moving fast and they just got started ⚡️

@ahiggz @syswarren sweet! Need a beta tester? 😉

@griveau Probably the 2L of Diet Coke I drink every day. I've a ton of side projects ideas, I just need to find the time to work on them 😅

@ch__rles In the best situation: 1. Product Managers and Product Designers start working at the same time: at the definition of a project. Engineers should also be involved, and any other person whose domain is impacted by the project. 2. I don't think Product Designers need Product Managers' input to start working on a project. Everyone can write PRDs if it's missing so they shouldn't have to wait. But Product Managers are the ones ensuring the team works on the right things at the right time for the right reasons, so before jumping on a project, designers should check with PMs if now is the right time. 3. It should be rare for one person to have the final say on what's shipped. It's more of a team effort and constant agreement. In the situation where a final call has to be made, it'd be up to the person in charge of design at the company level or the CEO.

@ch__rles I make allies before fighting a battle instead of going alone.

@sylvainramousse In most cases, you'll only receive unprompted feedback from users who are either unhappy users or power users. Unhappy users have issues and bugs to fix. You solve the problem, and everyone is happy. On the other hand, power users can lead you in a direction you think is correct, but they use the product in a way that's very different from how 99% of people use it. Power users can be the most active users of your product. Or people with industry knowledge. Or anyone who has the power to lead you in a specific direction. One single user's feedback shouldn't change how you think about your product. However, if it does, you should talk to more users and do more research before changing your product strategy. Occasionally though, we receive feedback from people saying they landed their first job, or they were inspired to build their own product, or they found their co-founder on Product Hunt, or that something negative happened to them... and it's always a good reminder that we're not just building products, we're directly impacting people's lives and the decisions we make have to be thought through.

@ostirbu YES

@ostirbu where is your no-code project?! It's been 20 minutes, it should be live by now!

@stanmassueras I judge landing pages on 2 criteria: - Do I understand what the product can do for me in less than 10 seconds? - Is the visual design memorable? If I search for this website again, will I know this is what I was looking for? Bubbles: Video and Screenshot Collaboration Gumroad – Sell what you know and see what sticks Browserless: Headless Automation Lunchbox — Online solutions for enterprise and virtual kitchens

@ipgregor My design process is complete A.N.A.R.C.HY 💥 Acknowledge opportunities/problems through research and insights - Always listen, look at metrics, talk to users and think about possible improvements. Note what should be improved - Formulate your hypotheses: what you believe the issues are, what impact you hope a new experience will have. Agree on the scope of the project - Share your thoughts with the team. Reach agreement on what needs to be done. Refine solutions - Discuss with other designers, PMs, engineers, support… to explore solutions as a team. Use wireframes, user flows or high-fidelity mockups as support for the discussions. Create the designs - After you’ve collected feedback, create the finished designs and collaborate with engineers to facilitate implementation. HYpothesis testing - Work with the team on defining which metrics to track and how the new designs will be tested. Follow how the experiments are doing… and repeat the process. Now, it’ll depend on the size and complexity of a project. You have to be flexible for innovation to happen. 
There are times when you just need to get things done. Sometimes, you need lots of research before doing something. Other times, you need to take a leap of faith and run with your idea.

@syswarren This is amazing. I love that there is somehow a framework but allows to break out of it if needed. Thanks for sharing 🙌

@raphael_167 We use Typeform, Intercom, Dovetail, and whatever channels people use to contact us!

@syswarren Interesting, thanks!

@gabrielnes I only use Figma for personal projects so I can't really answer for this but, we organize files on Sketch in folders in our team workspace. There is a resources folders where you can find templates to start new projects, the components library, datasets... Then, we organize files in different "platforms" folders: Web, Mobile apps, Others. For finished projects, we archive them in another folder to keep some clarity on the active folders. We also name our files with a description of the features or the page that's designed there. So if you're working on something specific, you can search for existing files related to that page/feature for reference, see what was explored before. In the files themselves, we usually have a page for explorations, a page with the final version, and by default, you'll find a page with the different layouts we use for widescreen, desktop, tablet, web mobile. All the symbols/components are fetched from our shared library so it's always up to date.

@alecdewitz My favorite part is "being in the zone" when you're going with the flow, and things come naturally, and it's exciting and moving fast. For me, the draining/challenging one is the wait between having an idea and having the time and resources to work on it.

@daniel_latsch I get overwhelmed 😭 but in the end, I look at what is possible to do and what is the most promising direction and I try to stick with it.

@5harath the current generation of (successful) founders is quite good at understanding the importance of design. It's way better now than when I first started working in tech but there is still progress to make. There are so many startups selling the same thing, similar features, same services, with similar pricing... Potential customers don't care how nice your code is. They rarely care how many new features you've launched last quarter. They choose to use a product because it looks clean and safe. Because the experience is pleasant. Because the branding looks reassuring. Because the startup listens to their needs and designs features they need. All of this is design: visual design, user experience, branding, product/feature design. We've moved from design being "a coat of paint" to "design can make my startup stands out" I hope more founders will think "design is the key differentiator between us and our competitors"

@hwjedaggett This is not an easy question! My biggest/latest highlight is probably convincing talented product designers to join our team ✨ And if I'm still excited about designing after all this time, it's because design is my way of communicating ideas. It's easier to show what you have in mind than explain it with words sometimes.

@daniel_leal The people I work with! 💯

@aaron_chiandet If we're talking about experience feedback loops (someone does something and something else happens), the most useful loops I can think of aren't the ones we intentionally create as product people, but the ones users create themselves and that we are able to identify and strengthen. The PH team will probably laugh if they read this because I've made a dozen visualizations explaining what I call the "Product Hunt ∞ flywheel" which details how one action on Product Hunt generates a feedback, which encourages another action... until it goes back to the first step of the loop.

@ryangilbert On Mondays, my cat wakes me up long before my alarm goes off. Then I get ready, workout or go for a walk, buy food for lunch, go back home, clean things a bit, and go to my desk to start working. In the morning, I try to answer questions and ensure I'm not blocking anyone's progress on a project. Then, if I have time, I'll do design work before taking a break for lunch. In the afternoon, I'll either do design work or be in meetings. Then suddenly, it's Friday. ⚡️

@ryangilbert @syswarren I like how quickly its Friday!