Clients
Thoughts on things
After +30 years of experience building with different technologies it's safe to say that I've made a bunch of really bad decisions when creating products. And tons of brilliant ones as well. Bad bets stays, good bets transitions to future products.
When creating products, I think mainly about two things.
1. How do we conceptualize this product to delight its audience?
2. Are the said concepts on brand, on product and on the money?
The simple rationale is: Make your user-base happy and they will make you happy. And when they're happy – you can focus on business opportunities and nurture that relationship. It's an elegant equation proven hard to put into practice.
No products are created equally. Not event bootlegs that mimic original products. There's a reason why multiple Ketchup brands exists. It's not "just" Ketchup.
Finding out what makes your product unique and amplifying those properties are key to make your product truly stand out in your vertical (or shelf).
Most of the time "more technology" is not the answer. Technology usually leads to more complexity – which inherently means more risk. And risk is something you generally want to avoid all cost when dealing with advance technology.
It's funny to advocate for less technology when that's what I do.
This means I focus on delivering value, not selling hours.
Building products is about working smart and capitalize on your strengths – not working hard trying to "solve problems" with more hours added.
We create prototypes to sheds light on unknown factors, remove bias assumptions and other guesswork. This helps to gather product critical factors and insights on what works, what requires more work and what must be trashed. These insights can turn in to new business opportunities while other factors could've had devestating impact for your product.
The approach: "We'll solve it once we get there" is by far the biggest culprit in budget wrecking and sunk cost. I know, since I've been guilty of doing that earlier in my career. Not addressing unknown factors exposes your team and product to risk that manifests as unmanageable scope creeping and unrealistic deadlines.
Crystal balls showing the future are not yet invented. A prototype is the next best thing when it comes to "cost estimations" and risk mitigation.