Project 50to30
Lead content designer
Google Play, 2017-2022
What I did
Google Play allowed app names up to 50 characters long, and it was making an unholy mess of our interface. Developers were stuffing keywords in titles to improve search results, and that made them too long to fit in our designs. I got so fed up with it that I decided my personal mission was to lower the official character limit to 30.
Finding the right ally
I pitched the idea to people two and three levels above me, and everyone thought it was a good idea, but they all had more urgent priorities. I was promised we’d get to it “eventually.” You and I both know that means never.
The smartest thing I did in this whole journey was find the right ally. I went to the most influential PM in the org, convinced her it was important, and let her work some scheduling magic. The key was to lump the policy change with one of those other urgent projects, and suddenly the roadblocks melted away.
Before
After
