Tabrez Syed is an entrepreneur, a product builder and an advisor with a background in engineering.
Tabrez advanced to the position of VP of Product at Austin's own Spiceworks before co-founding Swivel, the commercial real estate technology startup where we met him. He has co-founded two ventures since, and he's now Co-Founder and CEO at Mighty Canary, a startup focused on enabling informed business decisions with data.
In this edition of For Humans’ Sake, Cofounder and Principal Erin Young talked to Tabrez about:
How often users don't live in a rational world
Focusing on asking the right questions in order to receive answers more easily
How Slide UX remains focused on solving the problem at hand which leads to a more successful outcome
Erin Young: Can you share an example of a time when a user insight changed your assumptions?
Tabrez Syed: “We like to think of ourselves as rational actors and that we live in a rational world, but I'm often struck by how our users don't live in a rational world.
“They work in bureaucracies. They have all sorts of regulations and rules that they have to follow.
“So an example of one time that my insight from a user interview reminded me that I was acting too rationally was we were working in commercial real estate and we had this idea for how property owners and property managers would benefit from having extra sources of income for this particular space.
“But what we quickly realized that we did the research is that most of these landlords have Preferential tax rate through a structure called a REIT. So by definition of that legal structure, they can't accept income that's not tied to rent. Even if it rationally made sense that they could potentially make more money, they can't because of the tax preference that they get.
“This kind of stuff keeps coming up because it's easy as product managers to go, “Hey, it's rational, it would happen”. But there are all sorts of like organizational structures and political structures that don't make it rational.
“And so it's always important to not just look at what logically makes sense from a product workflow, but also applied back to — what does it look like in the real world? Which sometimes, or how often it's not as rational.”
Erin: Have you found yourself needing to go back and revisit past decisions based on new things that you've learned along the way?
Tabrez: “Yes a thousand times yes.
“I'm a fan of the Mike Tyson saying, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
“So I believe in having strong convictions, but loosely held. It allows you to get started and adapt as you learn. And I mean, that's just the best way to do it.”
Erin: If you could give advice to your younger self, what advice would you give that person?
Tabrez: “If you ask the right question, then the answer almost just falls into place. I think my younger self was so eager to find the answer, but I didn't figure out if I was asking the right question. I think it was with age, I spend a lot more time asking if I'm asking the right question and then the answer almost kind of comes out of that.”
Erin: What words of wisdom would you share with others in your field?
Tabrez: “I think that most of the valuable lessons are already out there and we all know it, it’s just very hard to practice. So an example of that, the famous story of like, look, nobody really wants a hole in the wall. All they want is a painting that they want to hang up.
““We like to think of ourselves as rational actors and that we live in a rational world, but I’m often struck by how our users don’t live in a rational world. ”
“But as product managers and people working, we love what we do. So we get obsessed about our work and we spend our time on the size dimension and depth of the hole in the wall and lose track of why the hole is there in the first place.”
Erin: How has Slide UX contributed to your success?
Tabrez: “What I remember the most about my experience with Slide UX was how persistently and consistently you focused on why we were trying to solve the problem. You know, it's easy to lose track of the why. And I think having partners who help remind you keeps you on target towards a successful outcome.
About For Humans’ Sake
If you’re passionate about making other people’s lives easier through great user experiences, you’ll enjoy For Humans’ Sake, a video series from Slide UX that curates wisdom and helpful insights from experienced product leaders in a bite-sized format.
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