Specify with Examples, Illusion of Transparency, Envisioning
Specify with Examples, Illusion of Transparency, Envisioning
3-2-1 Mondays - Edition #9
Hello 👋,
Welcome to the 3-2-1 Monday newsletter.
Every Monday morning, start your week with the following:
💡 3 short ideas about working with devs and product teams.
📰 Two articles to explore to help be more effective with product and dev teams.
❓ One question for you to think about this week while working.
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💡 3 Short Ideas
Short ideas on how to improve working with devs and product teams.
1) Specify with Examples
Do you find that your recommendations aren’t implemented correctly by developers?
You try and explain a technical or content change, even write it down in detail in an email or on Slack, but what they produce isn’t quite what you had in your head.
What you and the developer lacks is shared understanding. A shared mental model of the problem you are trying to solve and why it is important.
But how can you and other technical teams communicate to get on the same page quickly?
The answer I’ve found is simple. Always specify with examples.
There are a number of ways of specifying using examples, including:
💽 Data - You can use SEO data to point to where problems have been found or use it to show exactly how you want the data to be structured in the HTML or in the design.
🎨 Designs - You can work with design partners to create new components or designs which can be used to communicate and discuss with developers possible solutions.
💡 Competitors - You can use examples from either direct competitors or adjacent websites to show live examples of how you want to tackle a problem.
🏗️ Diagrams - You can use diagrams or flowcharts to help map out how different parts of the website will interact.
For example, let's say I wanted a development team to dynamically add a stats table for the EURO on a euro converter page. Then I would communicate how the stats and data will be shown on the page in an actual table or in updated designs before speaking to them.
Another example is to give a developer the schema structure you want to add to a page template. Rather than just asking for a “FAQ Schema” to be added to the page, you can create an example and talk to them about how to implement it on the page. You can even talk them through the fact the FAQ Schema needs to be tested and be seen as valid in Google’s Rich Snippet Result tool.
<html lang="en">
<head> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type ":"FAQPage","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name": "What is the return policy?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"<p>Most unopened items in new condition and returned within <b>90 days</b> will receive a refund or exchange. Some items have a modified return policy noted on the receipt or packing slip. Items that are opened or damaged or do not have a receipt may be denied a refund or exchange. Items purchased online or in-store may be returned to any store.</p><p>Online purchases may be returned via a major parcel carrier. <a href=http://example.com/returns> Click here </a> to initiate a return. </p>\n"}}]}</script></head>
<body>
</body>
</html>Finally, I’ve even used sketches using tools like Excalidraw to help me communicate with development teams a possible solution for the pagination link design.
2) Illusion of Transparency
The illusion of transparency is a cognitive bias that causes people to think others can easily read their thoughts and emotions.
For example, the illusion of transparency can cause those who do public speaking to overestimate how much the audience notices their nervousness.
How does understanding this principle help us work better with developers and product managers?
Simple. As SEO professionals, we can overestimate how much other teams know about:
📈 Impact - Their impact on organic search performance.
🏀 Best practices - The general SEO best practices we consider to be simple.
As we spend a lot of time considering SEO strategies and tactics day in and day out, it’s easy for us to naturally assume everyone knows about SEO.
The same thing happens when we communicate our recommendations to development and product teams. We assume that we are being obvious, that they understand what we are saying, when in fact, we’re actually not being clear at all.
As we spend a lot of time considering everything from the POV of SEO, it is hard to adjust from the anchor of everything that needs to be solved using SEO.
How can you reduce the illusion of transparency?
The best way I’ve found to overcome the illusion of transparency is to:
🧠 Recognise the bias - The first step in reducing the illusion of transparency is to recognise that you must overcome it.
🎩 Identify assumptions - You must also recognise your assumptions and take steps to reduce the uncertainty.
🔄 Continuous discovery - You must always be talking to different teams, understanding the business and the target audience to help you anchor between SEO, business and technology.
🗣️ Conversation over documentation - You need to prioritise conversation over documentation, as you might think you’re being obvious, but discussions can help you be more explicit.
🎓 Shared Understanding - You need to ensure that you and other technical teams have the same shared mental model by using techniques like specification by example.
3) Envisioning
Do you ever feel like your small and frequent releases aren’t adding up?
This is a big problem in software teams. How do we know what the end result looks like?
Well, it could be that you’re not practising the art of envisioning.
Envisioning is a simple technique product teams use to bring an idea to life but show it in its “end state”. It helps teams not deviate from the solution when making small releases.
Product and design teams will use design tools like Figma to create a high-fidelity design which can be interacted with by users and customers. To help get everyone to get the same mental model of what we’re trying to accomplish and get on the same page.
I often work with UX design partners in organisations as they can easily and quickly build out a “vision” of any idea the team has within hours. Then they can make it interactive with tools like Figma so that the team or the user can use it without a developer needing to write a single line of code.
Envisioning any complex project is important because it allows teams to:
✅ Validate ideas - A design or prototype helps the team have a shared vision and validate the solution together.
☑️ Release valuable increments - Once a shared vision has been agreed upon, each release needs to build a valuable increment toward achieving that goal as efficiently as possible.
✔️ Slice features or products into small items - A design or prototype can help the team slice releases into smaller pieces of work, that can be released and validated by the team.
🚦 Ruthlessly prioritise - Allow the product and engineering team to ruthlessly prioritise new ideas from feedback on small and frequent releases.
Teams can take this “vision” and break it down into small pieces, which can then start to be built using both incremental and iterative development.
📰 2 Articles to Explore
Articles to explore to help be more effective with product and dev teams.
WTF is Strategy?
by Vince Law, Hackernoon
“Strategic thinking is often what sets senior members of a team apart from the junior folks. Within one’s career trajectory, I have observed that acquiring “strategic thinking” skills is among the greatest leaps (i.e. mental shifts) one undergoes.”
Shipping is your company’s heartbeat
by Darragh Curran, CTO Intercom
“Shipping brings life to your team, to your product and to your customers. Shipping is your company’s heartbeat.”
❓ 1 Question For You
A question for you to think about this week while working.
What steps can you take to reduce the illusion of transparency?
How did I do this week?
If you enjoyed reading this article, then consider the following:
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