October 2015 Summaries

The 666 roadmap is a framework for thinking about product roadmaps in three timelines: the next 6 years, the next 6 months, and the next 6 weeks. This approach helps to break down the long-term vision into more manageable chunks, with the next six months being the focus of concrete planning and execution, and the next six years providing a broader view of the desired future state. The next six weeks represent the immediate plan, with design work well underway and team knowledge intimate. This framework can help align product roadmaps with the unpredictability of the world, avoiding timelines that are too long or too short for meaningful planning.

The concept of a technology fingerprint refers to the unique pattern of experiences, devices, and software that an individual has been exposed to over time. This fingerprint is shaped by an individual's personal history, including their childhood, education, work experience, and daily activities. As technology becomes ubiquitous in everyday life, this fingerprint becomes increasingly important for understanding user behavior and designing digital products that cater to diverse needs. The traditional approach of relying on demographics or one-dimensional personas is outdated, as users are more complex and dynamic than previously thought. Designing around a user's mental model, which is influenced by their technology history, will become a cornerstone of successful product design. This requires a deeper understanding of how technology shapes our experiences and interactions with digital products.

We built a message editor at Intercom twice because the first attempt using ContentEditable proved to be more complex than expected, with issues such as inconsistent rendering on all devices and unexpected behavior. After realizing this, we adopted a new approach called the Block Object Model (BOM), which gave us complete control over the editing experience and enabled us to build a solid editor that supports features like lists, formatting, images, and videos, ultimately leading to a better product for our customers.

The text discusses two product principles that are often overlooked: finding your core idea first and embracing quantity to guide you to quality. The author draws an analogy with Archilochus' quote about the fox and hedgehog, which explains the difference in survival methods between these animals. According to the author, the best designers and engineers work with a single big defining idea before exploring secondary details, as they know that getting the core correct is more important than perfecting secondary features. The text also highlights the importance of iterating until something is not obviously broken, rather than relying solely on iteration to produce good results. Additionally, it emphasizes the need for freedom to be bad at something first in order to get better, and warns against picking a bad idea simply because it looks great.

Intercom has shipped several new features to improve marketing automation, conversations, and messaging. The new Message Goals feature allows users to track return on investment metrics for their messages, while the Scheduled Messages feature enables sending of automated emails at specific times. Delivery Windows and Folders have also been added to help manage message volume and organization. In Conversation Improvements, teams can be created to assign inbound messages to specific people, and bulk actions for message results allow users to tag or message specific groups based on the results of a message. Messaging Improvements include custom data preview, an App Profile Card that shows when someone was last active, and customizable welcome messages. Email Improvements feature new email templates, test emails to multiple addresses, and an updated 'From' field. Integrations with Github have also been added, allowing conversations and issues to be kept in sync.