The Looking Glass: All About Execution

June’s weekly Twitter threads, in one handy e-mail

3 min readJul 1, 2021

Hello there,

You’re looking good. Yeah you.

It’s nice to see people again. It’s nice to do some work again in person

I’m deep in the muddy waters of execution, aka the “actually doing” part after you make a plan, so a lot of the past month’s threads are practical little guides: questions to ask, balls to juggle, reminders to jot down.

Without further adieu…

Good Execution vs. Bad Execution

What does it mean, really, to be excellent at “executing”?

Julie Zhuo @joulee

Good execution vs. bad execution, in 10 tweets: Bad execution: Pick two — time, quality, or cost. Good execution: Thoughtfully choosing the scope such that things are built on time, on budget, and at a high level of quality. 1/10

3:47 AM ∙ Jun 2, 2021

2,124Likes407Retweets

Common Design Mistakes I Am Extremely Guilty Of

… and am therefore terribly sensitive about.

Julie Zhuo @joulee

The Five Most Common Product Designer Mistakes, a thread 👇 #1/5: Reinventing the Wheel When “Let’s be innovative!” wins at the expense of “Let’s do things effectively and quickly!” Examples: Facebook going hamburger menu before tabs Horizontally scrolling web pages

3:10 AM ∙ Jun 9, 2021

1,578Likes294Retweets

All Kinds of Conflicting Advice about Product Development

The punchline is that everything depends on context, so don’t get too attached to anyone’s field guides, yours truly’s included.

Julie Zhuo @joulee

The Razor’s Edge of Product Development (a thread in 7 parts👇) Focus on the competition, and you won’t take the risks necessary to make it big. Ignore the competition, and you’ll miss plausible threats until it’s too late. Be optimistic, but paranoid.

4:50 AM ∙ Jun 17, 2021

677Likes117Retweets

How To Become A Way Better Design Critiquer

Hint: fewer off-the-cuff opinions; more questions.

Julie Zhuo @joulee

Everyone has an opinion on design. There’s always an immediate gut reaction: “Ooh, I love this!” or “Meh.” But how do you go beyond that to honing your skills of giving helpful, actionable feedback? Here are the 7 questions I run through when critiquing a product’s design 👇

3:24 AM ∙ Jun 24, 2021

2,445Likes497Retweets

How To Become A Way Better Metrics Critiquer

I consider this really really important and it’s something I wish more product builders paid close attention to, even those who don’t consider themselves data people (*ahem* many designers).