Welcome aboard Doug! Stoked to be working with you again :-)
Interested in where PayPal is headed in the world of Javascript/User Interface Engineering? Ping me. bill.scott at paypal.com.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The Experimentation Layer
Designing for Reusability
Code reuse has been a major concern of mine throughout my career. I graduated with a computer science degree and was taught the value and beauty of loosely coupled, modular code with a clear separation of concerns. In fact some of my most rewarding experiences have been writing user interface frameworks (a few dozen over the last 30 years).The same goes for designing experiences. Early on I realized that interaction designs could also be reused. Sometime after reading the gang of four book (Design Patterns) I started thinking that patterns could be used to define experiences as well. It was after that I stumbled upon Jennifer Tidwell's excellent work which would later become the book Designing Interfaces. A few years later, I went on to help launch the Yahoo! Design Pattern library and write a book on the subject.
I mention all this to set the context that I am a huge fan of reuse.
Designing for Throwaway-ability
In my prior role at Netflix, I quickly discovered a wrinkle to the reuse mantra. If you know a little about Netflix you will know that experimentation is the bread and butter of refining the experiences there. The big "aha!" moment came (2008) when I counted the number of experiments we fielded vs the number of experiments that became a lasting part of the site. I discovered thatOnly about 10% of the UI code written to craft the experience lasted more than a year. 90% of the UI code needed to be thrown away.
Could that really be right? In some cases we were testing 10+ test cells over a couple of months time. Only 1 cell (or sometimes a combination of cells) was selected as a winner. The winning cells often led to a new hypothesis that led to another set of test cells being fielded (perhaps another 10+ cells). And of those a new cell (or control) would end up as the winner. It doesn't take too many 9 out of 10 losers to start seeing that a lot of code needed to be thrown away over the course of a year. (I am over-simplifying this a bit. There is often reuse between test cells as well as the number of cells fielded will vary.)
Now to a typical user the experience doesn't seem to change much in the short term. User A might be in a control cell (the standard experience). And in the next set of tests User A might still get allocated to the standard experience again. So to User A the site seems pretty stable. However if you plot the arc of the experience year over year you will see some substantial changes occur (think: Amazon, Netflix, Twitter, Facebook) as newly minted experiences are released to the full user population.
The epiphany for me was that for the most volatile part of the experience...
We needed to design for throwaway-ability and not as much for reusability.
What does that even mean? Design for throwaway-ability? It means not over-investing in the scaffolding for reuse. It means designing a way to select code for experiments in a simple grokkable manner (like using the file system or packaging mechanisms for bundling experiments together). It means externalizing the logic for selecting experiments as much as possible. It might even mean copy and paste reuse to make it easy to modularize the experiments. It means don't start with writing components, instead start with creating the experience.
Heresy!
When I had this epiphany it certainly felt heretical. Over time I have come to see the wisdom of knowing when to reuse and when not to reuse. However, lest I be next for a good stake burning for giving others a license to writing crappy code (since one could argue that it will be thrown away anyway ;-) let me provide some nuance.Reuse is Still a Good Thing
Not all of the UI layer changes with experimentation. The nuance is the UI layer contains different levels of volatility. The code to make a button or render a template doesn't change with an experiment. However, the placement of the button or the contents of the template will often vary from test to test.For the more stable areas of the experience, the great news is we have a rich set of open source libraries and frameworks that can provide a lot of this reuse right out of the box. Examples include component libraries like YUI or jQuery; templating solutions like mustache or dust; MVC patterns like those expressed in backbone.js; common javascript extensions like those found in underscore.js and so on. In addition each organization will find certain aspects of their user experience that benefit heavily from thoughtful reuse.
The truth is volatility increases as you get closer to the user experience and reuse opportunities increase as you move down the software stack.
This funnel illustrates the relationship of volatility and reuse
as you move up and down the software stack.
UI Layer = Experimentation Layer
What I want to impress upon you is a simple thought.The UI layer should be thought of as the experimentation layer
Think of the topmost layer of the user interface code (especially the HTML, CSS and Javascript for experiments) as the experimentation layer. As a corollary
You should always create an experience before thinking about creating a component
In other words seek to use before reuse. I have found in my conversations at PayPal, talking about the UI layer as an experimentation layer is a great way to shift the conversation to the experience rather than to spending months building components and interface scaffolding. The goal is to get code in front of the user as fast as possible. Instead of starting with reuse, we start with the experience.
What about Consistency?
Now let's be clear, experimentation is not the silver bullet that will create the perfect experience. A lot of understanding about the user, scenarios, and just good solid design principles are needed to make a good start on the experience. Experimentation can often lead to local optima instead of finding the overall experience. But given a good experience, experimentation can allow you to refine the experience in the right direction.One of the valid complaints that designers will often raise about experimentation is that it can lead to different experiences across the product families as the experimentation often is chasing specific business metrics in a specific area of the business. This can lead to some inconsistency when we allow the experience to be experimented on (at Netflix we call this the Frankenstein phase). There is a natural tension between innovation and standardization and the truth is healthy products will swing back and forth between loosening the constraints and innovating and then pulling back in the reigns and standardizing.
Design standardization (read: patterns, guidelines) can be used to bring consistency. But I have often seen design standards teams position themselves at odds to innovation. And on the converse I have seen design innovation teams totally ignore basic patterns that could be employed. Both are wrong. Consistency without informed learnings during phases of innovation is the dead letter. And innovation without the learnings of the past & best practices is just wild speculation.
Engineering teams will struggle with when to invest in the reuse scaffolding and when to simply create an experience that is quick to build and quick to tear down.
The Bottom Line
The key thing to remember is everything must be in service to the user's experience. It's way to easy to forget this and get in an endless cycles of finessing the UI - which I must remind you might not even be the right experience.Saturday, January 28, 2012
My PayPal Update: PayPal Rocks.
The last three months have been a blur. The last blog I posted was right before joining PayPal. So I thought it would be good to give an update on my honest impressions about PayPal.
Here are my take-aways.
#1 PayPal is positioned like no other company to change the way people use money.
I am really excited to be part of changing something that is so fundamental to the way the world works. I sensed that PayPal was at an inflection point. And now seeing the products we are working on has convinced me we can do this and we welcome the competition. At Netflix we changed the way people view movies. At PayPal we change the way people use money :-) I am totally stoked about our business future.
#2 The wisdom is in the crowds!
I interviewed over 100 different people in the organization in my first 6-8 weeks. My theory was the "smarts" was already in the organization. My interviews confirmed this. In many ways my job is collecting the intelligence, distilling it, and connecting the right people and information together and ensuring that we remove friction, indecision and instead multiply the ability of our makers to make.
#3. Innovation is blooming all around the organization
I think this surprises colleagues of mine when I tell them that innovation is alive & well at PayPal. At PayPal's quarterly Leader's day they have a great tradition of every new leader (director & above) standing up and telling about where they came from, what's unique about them and what they will be doing. At the November meeting it took us over an hour to get through all the new people. I would estimate that 15-25% of the leaders were new. Either through acquisition or new hire. All this new blood brings in change with it. Couple the sparks from the new blood with the kindling of the wisdom in the crowds (to mix a few metaphors) and you have a roaring fire. I can assure you the PayPal you see on the site today and on merchant sites around the world will not be the same paypal you see in the future.
And the competition from our friends at Google, Square and many others is awesome. Thank God for good competitors. This is energizing and refines a company and makes it lean.
In fact I am in the middle of hiring for my head of UIE Innovation. This is a kick-butt role that partners directly with UED & Product in a lean & mean & collaborative manner to burn through as many ideas as possible and marry technology & innovation.
#4 The Technology Platform is being Re-Invented
Prior technology choices on the front-end have hindered productivity. Using XML/XSLT is a HORRIBLE choice. It is a curse that thankfully is being rooted out. We are migrating all of the products to a simpler architecture that supports true client side development. I am happy to report that my team and the infrastructure team are building strong alliances and we have a shared vision that is about making UI development as nimble as possible. We are building towards a rapid experimentation platform.
#5 My Leadership Team Rocks
Ok, so you might say "well you would say this because some of your leaders will read your blog." Regardless, it is true. I have never been as challenged by my leaders to be bold, make quick decisions, lead, allow no excuses to paralyze us as I have been here at PayPal.
I can't speak for the past at PayPal. And we certainly are not where we need to be yet. But I can assure you that we are unified on empowering an army of change agents. And we have the right vision, the right story that defines where we will be.
We are Hiring
How about it? Want to join me in this grand adventure? I am on the lookout for talented user interface engineers. I need strong developers. Strong computer science skills. JavaScript rock stars. HTML5/CSS3 aficionados. If you have the chops contact me at billwscott over on gmail.
Here are my take-aways.
#1 PayPal is positioned like no other company to change the way people use money.
I am really excited to be part of changing something that is so fundamental to the way the world works. I sensed that PayPal was at an inflection point. And now seeing the products we are working on has convinced me we can do this and we welcome the competition. At Netflix we changed the way people view movies. At PayPal we change the way people use money :-) I am totally stoked about our business future.
#2 The wisdom is in the crowds!
I interviewed over 100 different people in the organization in my first 6-8 weeks. My theory was the "smarts" was already in the organization. My interviews confirmed this. In many ways my job is collecting the intelligence, distilling it, and connecting the right people and information together and ensuring that we remove friction, indecision and instead multiply the ability of our makers to make.
#3. Innovation is blooming all around the organization
I think this surprises colleagues of mine when I tell them that innovation is alive & well at PayPal. At PayPal's quarterly Leader's day they have a great tradition of every new leader (director & above) standing up and telling about where they came from, what's unique about them and what they will be doing. At the November meeting it took us over an hour to get through all the new people. I would estimate that 15-25% of the leaders were new. Either through acquisition or new hire. All this new blood brings in change with it. Couple the sparks from the new blood with the kindling of the wisdom in the crowds (to mix a few metaphors) and you have a roaring fire. I can assure you the PayPal you see on the site today and on merchant sites around the world will not be the same paypal you see in the future.
And the competition from our friends at Google, Square and many others is awesome. Thank God for good competitors. This is energizing and refines a company and makes it lean.
In fact I am in the middle of hiring for my head of UIE Innovation. This is a kick-butt role that partners directly with UED & Product in a lean & mean & collaborative manner to burn through as many ideas as possible and marry technology & innovation.
#4 The Technology Platform is being Re-Invented
Prior technology choices on the front-end have hindered productivity. Using XML/XSLT is a HORRIBLE choice. It is a curse that thankfully is being rooted out. We are migrating all of the products to a simpler architecture that supports true client side development. I am happy to report that my team and the infrastructure team are building strong alliances and we have a shared vision that is about making UI development as nimble as possible. We are building towards a rapid experimentation platform.
#5 My Leadership Team Rocks
Ok, so you might say "well you would say this because some of your leaders will read your blog." Regardless, it is true. I have never been as challenged by my leaders to be bold, make quick decisions, lead, allow no excuses to paralyze us as I have been here at PayPal.
I can't speak for the past at PayPal. And we certainly are not where we need to be yet. But I can assure you that we are unified on empowering an army of change agents. And we have the right vision, the right story that defines where we will be.
We are Hiring
How about it? Want to join me in this grand adventure? I am on the lookout for talented user interface engineers. I need strong developers. Strong computer science skills. JavaScript rock stars. HTML5/CSS3 aficionados. If you have the chops contact me at billwscott over on gmail.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Shared Understanding Resource: Head First HTML5
I am constantly talking about creating a "shared understanding" between design and engineering. And I love it when I find a book or resource that creates more bridges across these two worlds.
Eric Freeman & Elisabeth Robson have done the community a great favor with the addition of Head First HTML5 Programming. If you are a designer or product manager or backend engineer (though as the latter you will have to get past the less serious tone you may be accustomed to) then this book is for you.
As with all of the books in the Head First series they aren't meant for mid to advanced level developers. Where they shine is as a first introduction to a set of technologies. In this case they do an delightful job of introducing the HTML5 family of technologies.
The first thing to understand is what they mean by "HTML5". They aren't restricting the discussion to just HTML5 markup and the technologies that are strictly part of the current HTML5 spec. Instead they take a looser, more popular perspective on what HTML5 is. I actually like this approach. I like it because it is just too confusing to constantly explain to the public what is in and what is out of the spec at any given time. And I really need an easy way to talk about this collection of technologies. So using the term "HTML5" in this sense becomes more expressive. I don't even mind when CSS3 gets lumped into the bucket. I know call me a heretic.
Ok, back to the review...
The book ends up covering a lot more than I expected: markup (of course), JavaScript, DOM manipulation, geo-location (complete with a google maps/geo-location integration), AJAX, Canvas, Video, web storage and web workers. There is also some discussion of CSS3 and styling and selection.
Overall, I really liked the examples and was pleasantly surprised at how real world they were. Another great touch was the Bullet Points section which summarized each chapter in a single page.
Its really hard to write a book for the complete newbie yet remain technically accurate. The authors have done this and more. Let the shared understanding grow. Highly recommended.
Full Disclosure: I received a free copy for review. However, if I didn't like it I wouldn't have bothered to write anything. The review above would have been the same even if I had bought it.
Eric Freeman & Elisabeth Robson have done the community a great favor with the addition of Head First HTML5 Programming. If you are a designer or product manager or backend engineer (though as the latter you will have to get past the less serious tone you may be accustomed to) then this book is for you.
As with all of the books in the Head First series they aren't meant for mid to advanced level developers. Where they shine is as a first introduction to a set of technologies. In this case they do an delightful job of introducing the HTML5 family of technologies.
The first thing to understand is what they mean by "HTML5". They aren't restricting the discussion to just HTML5 markup and the technologies that are strictly part of the current HTML5 spec. Instead they take a looser, more popular perspective on what HTML5 is. I actually like this approach. I like it because it is just too confusing to constantly explain to the public what is in and what is out of the spec at any given time. And I really need an easy way to talk about this collection of technologies. So using the term "HTML5" in this sense becomes more expressive. I don't even mind when CSS3 gets lumped into the bucket. I know call me a heretic.
Ok, back to the review...
The book ends up covering a lot more than I expected: markup (of course), JavaScript, DOM manipulation, geo-location (complete with a google maps/geo-location integration), AJAX, Canvas, Video, web storage and web workers. There is also some discussion of CSS3 and styling and selection.
Overall, I really liked the examples and was pleasantly surprised at how real world they were. Another great touch was the Bullet Points section which summarized each chapter in a single page.
Its really hard to write a book for the complete newbie yet remain technically accurate. The authors have done this and more. Let the shared understanding grow. Highly recommended.
Full Disclosure: I received a free copy for review. However, if I didn't like it I wouldn't have bothered to write anything. The review above would have been the same even if I had bought it.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Excited About My New Role - Sr. Director, Web Development @ PayPal
Elsewhere I have updated my bio to reflect my new job as head of web development for PayPal (which starts on 10/24). The 'elsewheres' being on my twitter profile, facebook profile, blogger profile, linkedin profile, etc. I also tweeted it and updated my status that I had taken this new role. However, those formats are shorter so I thought I would discuss what I am up to and why I am making this change.
As many of you know, I returned to Netflix after a short stint away and have just wrapped up being back a year. Altogether I spent about 4 years at Netflix and had some wonderful experiences and especially wonderful folks that I got to work with (in particular I am partial to those who worked for me).
The first stint at Netflix was a strategic role in which I had the opportunity to define & build the UI engineering organization there as well as guide the architecture and build the talent. I also helped build out the UX design team and especially worked closely with that team. The second stint had some of the same elements as I focused on the ECommerce side and we built out a UI architecture using Mustache (the java version -- thanks Sam Pullara!). And as a team we rewrote the whole code base back to front, internationalized and localized it in just 7-8 months and launched in 43 more countries. In addition, we were able to simplify the device UI code base to handle multiple devices, resolutions and input handling. Even with those good things it was one of the more exhausting experiences I have had in my career. And once the dust settle I quickly realized the role was becoming way too tactical and too focused on one aspect of a single product.
So I popped my head up and decided I would start looking for an opportunity (thinking I would make the move in 6 months or so). But within just a few days this awesome opportunity at PayPal showed up.
Why PayPal?
PayPal continues to be the world leader in online payment. And with the formation of x.commerce the position of PayPal as the payment provider and more importantly the payment identity for online transactions around the globe, I could see the huge upside to the business. Couple this with what is to come in offline payments (POS, mobile, tablet, etc.) and the huge resources of eBay as the parent company and I was sold on PayPal as the company.
Why this role?
While PayPal has all this goodness, they felt strongly that one thing they needed was a strong Web UI leader who could help define a nimble, open source based UI architecture, who could help bring design & engineering together, who could help simplify the process of getting design to life and who could attract top UI talent to the organization. That is a tall order. But as we talked about this role and my background we felt it was the right match. And just 2 weeks after the initial conversations I accepted the role as Sr. Director of Web Development.
Looking back at my career the most successful & enjoyable times for me have been when I am in the role of influencer or change agent. Back at Sabre I was able to found the common web & desktop UI engineering teams as well as the UX design team and influence many of the core products. At Yahoo! as evangelist I was able to influence dozens of their sites and evangelize great engineering & design internally & externally. And as I mentioned, the same for my time at Netflix. So this seems the most logical next step for me.
I will have a lot to learn as I join PayPal. There are many people there I look forward to learning from. I certainly don't have all the answers, but I do have the confidence that I will be able to join forces with other smart people there and at the right time know what is the next best step to take. It's a little like improv. I can tell you a lot of stuff I might try, but until I get there and get a deeper understanding of the needs & the assets I won't know what will make the most sense to try.
It takes a Team
If you work at PayPal, be sure to reach out to me and let me know who you are. I need others like you in order to make the right impact. Or if you don't work there but would like to join me somehow in this opportunity please reach out also. And while I don't know yet what my open positions will be, don't hesitate to reach out in an exploratory manner.
Contact Me
You can always find me at billwscott on all social networks and on gmail. Look forward to talking with as each of you that reach out to me.
As many of you know, I returned to Netflix after a short stint away and have just wrapped up being back a year. Altogether I spent about 4 years at Netflix and had some wonderful experiences and especially wonderful folks that I got to work with (in particular I am partial to those who worked for me).
The first stint at Netflix was a strategic role in which I had the opportunity to define & build the UI engineering organization there as well as guide the architecture and build the talent. I also helped build out the UX design team and especially worked closely with that team. The second stint had some of the same elements as I focused on the ECommerce side and we built out a UI architecture using Mustache (the java version -- thanks Sam Pullara!). And as a team we rewrote the whole code base back to front, internationalized and localized it in just 7-8 months and launched in 43 more countries. In addition, we were able to simplify the device UI code base to handle multiple devices, resolutions and input handling. Even with those good things it was one of the more exhausting experiences I have had in my career. And once the dust settle I quickly realized the role was becoming way too tactical and too focused on one aspect of a single product.
So I popped my head up and decided I would start looking for an opportunity (thinking I would make the move in 6 months or so). But within just a few days this awesome opportunity at PayPal showed up.
Why PayPal?
PayPal continues to be the world leader in online payment. And with the formation of x.commerce the position of PayPal as the payment provider and more importantly the payment identity for online transactions around the globe, I could see the huge upside to the business. Couple this with what is to come in offline payments (POS, mobile, tablet, etc.) and the huge resources of eBay as the parent company and I was sold on PayPal as the company.
Why this role?
While PayPal has all this goodness, they felt strongly that one thing they needed was a strong Web UI leader who could help define a nimble, open source based UI architecture, who could help bring design & engineering together, who could help simplify the process of getting design to life and who could attract top UI talent to the organization. That is a tall order. But as we talked about this role and my background we felt it was the right match. And just 2 weeks after the initial conversations I accepted the role as Sr. Director of Web Development.
Looking back at my career the most successful & enjoyable times for me have been when I am in the role of influencer or change agent. Back at Sabre I was able to found the common web & desktop UI engineering teams as well as the UX design team and influence many of the core products. At Yahoo! as evangelist I was able to influence dozens of their sites and evangelize great engineering & design internally & externally. And as I mentioned, the same for my time at Netflix. So this seems the most logical next step for me.
I will have a lot to learn as I join PayPal. There are many people there I look forward to learning from. I certainly don't have all the answers, but I do have the confidence that I will be able to join forces with other smart people there and at the right time know what is the next best step to take. It's a little like improv. I can tell you a lot of stuff I might try, but until I get there and get a deeper understanding of the needs & the assets I won't know what will make the most sense to try.
It takes a Team
If you work at PayPal, be sure to reach out to me and let me know who you are. I need others like you in order to make the right impact. Or if you don't work there but would like to join me somehow in this opportunity please reach out also. And while I don't know yet what my open positions will be, don't hesitate to reach out in an exploratory manner.
Contact Me
You can always find me at billwscott on all social networks and on gmail. Look forward to talking with as each of you that reach out to me.
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Join Me in Boston for User Interface 16!
I am excited to be part of UI Engineering's upcoming User Interface 16 Conference in Boston. The full event is November 7-9th and will be held at the beautiful Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.
I will be giving a full day workshop Monday, November 7, on "Designing Rich Interactive Experiences." You can check out & signup for my workshop here.
Additionally on Tuesday, November 8, I will be presenting a talk on "Designing for Mice & Men" which focuses on experiences across mobile, tablet, TV & Web.
There are a host of other great speakers as well: Kevin Hoffman, Luke Wroblewski, Jared Spool, Hagan, Brandon Schauer, Kim Goodwin, Steve Portigal, Stephanie (Sullivan) Rewis and Greg Rewis.
Join us in Boston for an awesome lineup of topics & speakers.
I will be giving a full day workshop Monday, November 7, on "Designing Rich Interactive Experiences." You can check out & signup for my workshop here.
Additionally on Tuesday, November 8, I will be presenting a talk on "Designing for Mice & Men" which focuses on experiences across mobile, tablet, TV & Web.
There are a host of other great speakers as well: Kevin Hoffman, Luke Wroblewski, Jared Spool, Hagan, Brandon Schauer, Kim Goodwin, Steve Portigal, Stephanie (Sullivan) Rewis and Greg Rewis.
Join us in Boston for an awesome lineup of topics & speakers.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Looking for a User Interface Engineer for our Account UI team
How about it? Want to work at Netflix? If you have strong user interface engineering skills coupled with solid computer science skills then my latest opening may be just the fit for you.
The ECommerce Team at Netflix is responsible for all member account & profile experiences (including help). It's time to grow the team so I am looking for a talented, passionate engineer who will take on the following responsibilities:
- In concert with design and product management, deliver multiple simultaneous experiences in an A/B test environment
- Develop the full stack from data marshaling in Java, to JSP, Mustache, HTML5, CSS and JavaScript to create these experiences
- Work in close concert with backend web development team, be able to understand the impact on the whole product, and suggest and plan the best solution with backend to UI in mind
- Take full ownership of a feature set from first discussion to bringing it live on the site
- Turn requirements into simple, elegant, optimal solutions that balance the needs of the health of the technology stack but always guided by our business needs
If you are interested or know someone interested, please email at bscott -- over at netflix dot com.
Full description here (or apply here):
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