Mini masterclass for making magical, ethical metaverse products with XR veteran Avi Bar-Zeev

Mini masterclass for making magical, ethical metaverse products with XR veteran Avi Bar-Zeev

Season 2 | Part 2. Episode 24 Avi Bar-Zeev, founder of Reality Prime (realityprime.com), shares your excitement for the #metaverse, but he’s got 30 years of learnings and “bludgeonings,” from shipping some of the most lauded #XR products, that he hopes can save you from future product pain points. By sharing his perspective and lessons learned along the way, Bar-Zeev seeks to make a more #ethical & trustworthy metaverse.

Quickly setting the tone in this conversation from #AWE EU (and the final episode from Season 2!) Avi asks product teams “How much goodness and greatness are you putting into the world?“ This episode quickly becomes a mini masterclass on how to create and launch great XR products.

As a seasoned product leader and user experience (UX) prototyper, Avi knows from decades working on #AR and #VR products—like Microsoft’s #HoloLens, Disney’s Aladdin Magic Carpet VR, Amazon’s Echo Frames, and a few things he can’t discuss from a recent 3-year stint at Apple—that there are many inputs and decisions that lead to great products; far beyond technological breakthroughs that many companies are founded on.

Of course all products need customers and a path to revenue to succeed, but in this model Avi recommends starting with magic. “Find the moments that evoke magic and focus on those. Don’t add anything that takes away from the magic, only add to your product if the features add magic.” This guide of ‘Minimum Magical Product’ will help ensure that your spatial experiences or apps are connecting with the customers in positive and powerful ways.

Without fail these early attempts and versions will have issues or unintended impacts — that’s still part of the process. Product teams should make sure to review their assumptions and strategies to understand where there were gaps in the magic and then build the next version. This iteration helps us focus on and build to that magic north star.

“Humans were made to ‘F around and find out,’” Avi notes, but hopefully by sharing some of his learnings and experiences from the last 30 years, you don’t have to learn all of them the hard way. In the best case scenario we’re not making the same mistake twice, and we’re always making bigger, better mistakes on the next round until it eventually works out.

Intertwined with this excellent product advice, Avi introduces the XR Guild (www.xrguild.org), and encourages any product person to join. The XR Guild is a resource for any professional looking to make more ethical products; even if they don’t feel that their company shares their same values.

Sometimes building ethical, safe products is about how you empower and listen to the experts you already have. “The quietest person on your team might have the answers, and they are worth listening to.” When you’re trying to change a global computing paradigm, it’s worth the time it takes to build diverse teams, listen to customers, and make sure those notes and feedback make it into the product.

Stay until the end to learn which characters of the metaverse Avi and Nathan identify with most.

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#ethics #ethicalproduct #humancentereddesign #prototype
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