📖 Nudge: Why Product Managers Should Become Proficient Choice Architects
Designing a great choice architecture should be one of your core responsibilities as a product manager.
This blog is relying heavily on Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein. While I highly recommend this book, this is not a review of the book, and you do not need to have read the book to enjoy this article.
In this enjoyable read, with a lot of humour, the authors present the impact of choices and decision-making on critical economic and societal issues: healthcare, loans, subprime, student loan, education, marriage, etc.
With a lot of humour, the authors present two key personas: The Econs and the Humans.
The Econs
On one side, the Econs: These folks are pure analytical brainpower. They are spreadsheet experts, and before making any decision they will review thoroughly the options, survey the market for the best possible solution and come up with the best possible choice architecture for their own situation. Imagine a spreadsheet with 20 columns and more, some type of future projections and then all the weighted criteria based on their own situation and problem.
To give you an example, an Econ friend of mine was looking for a new microwave. He built a spreadsheet with 20 interesting models for his use case and then came up with 30 criteria (each in its column!). All in all, he filled in 600 values. He used online product descriptions, reviews, and local flyers, visited some stores, and took pictures of the micro-wave he found. He also ordered a special consumer report edition dedicated to home appliance reviews in order to complement his analysis. Then he made his choice with a scorecard formula weighting all the various criteria. He finally purchased the selected microwave based on this thorough analysis.
