Thoughts

There is a clear, repeatable way to build viable businesses by delivering experiences and outcomes people are willing to pay for with sustainable cost structures. This approach requires intrinsically incentivizing collaboration between financiers and builders to build and nurture profitable, long-term, self-sustaining businesses.

Unicorns aren’t real. You and your customers are real. Focus on reality. Avoid hell.

But honestly, how do you, as a designer, push for product design to be grounded in reality (market dynamics and development feasibility)? Product managers often come in with their perspective on what to build - sometimes it's a set of evaluation standards, sometimes it's pure gut, and sometimes it's an extensive set of things that are compromises from clients and internal stakeholders.

As a designer working with startups, it’s common that you’ll get a lot of ownership over what you’re tasked with creating. That’s great, and it feels good to move fast and broad across many projects.

When I first started working in product management, I felt constantly afraid that I might make the wrong decision - and yet I was supposed to lead almost constant decision-making.

Product does sit in the middle of most functions in a technology company, but it's not product management’s job to keep everyone happy.

Some version of this question plagues every product manager - if not all the time, then at least semi-regularly in the form of quarterly roadmap planning. The struggle of what to build next, in what order, and most importantly, WHY is real.

If you don’t know who you are building for and what they value what is guiding you?

A perspective on how to sequence your creative efforts.

Considerations for how to build a viable and scaled business