When we build a product, we make thousands of decisions. We search for patterns, draw conclusions, and act upon limited information. It's all in a day's work.
In this talk, I'll explore the 5 most common cognitive biases and how they mislead our product decisions. These include our tendency to value a user's experience more if it coincides with our own experience (confirmation bias) and our tendency to forget that our users are not experts (curse of knowledge).
You’ll walk out of this talk with ways to identify when your cognitive bias is creeping into your decisions, as well as tips and tricks on how to outsmart your brain and make better product decisions.
This talk is relevant for designers, product managers, developers, founders, managers, and anyone else who finds themselves making product decisions every day.
6. But System 1 is Easily Distracted
• Which Weighs More?
• 100 Kilos of Bricks
• 100 Kilos of Feathers
7. Anatomy of a Bad Decision
• System 1 “blinks”
• System 2 snoozes
8. How System 1 Causes
Bad Product Decisions
1. Assumes Causation
2. Has Selective Hearing
3. Assumes Others Care
4. Assumes Others Know
5. Underestimates Time & Price
20. 4. Assumes Others Know
• 50 Listeners, 50 Tappers
• Tappers listen to a song and tap the beat
• Listeners guess song
• Half of tappers think listeners will guess
the song correctly
• 3% of listeners actually guess correctly
24. 5. Underestimates Time & Price
• Americans remodeling their kitchens
expected the job to cost $18,658
• They ended up paying $38,769
25. 5. Underestimates Time & Price
• “Estimate when you will finish your thesis”
• 13% of the students finished by their 50%
probable date
• 19% finished by their 75% probable date
• 45% (less than half!) finished by their 99%
probable date
26. 5. How to Outsmart
• Estimate complexity, not time
• Estimate for others, not yourself
• Estimate past actions