In 2013 I was working with my team building a digital product. This was a little unusual because I didn't work at a product company.
A little background: I've spent the past decade working in UX, specifically for digital agencies helping big-brand companies design marketing and ecommerce websites. Agencies are really good at building something to specifications provided by a client. But we'll never be mistaken for a product company (even though more and more agencies are trying to pull this off).
The product we were trying to build was a geo-location based social media app whereby users were able to "place" digital content in the real world to be discovered by other users walking by. We failed miserably. But this post isn't about that experience.
I bring it up only because it was at this time - while I was trying to figure out what we were doing wrong, or trying to figure out how to do it right - that I came across this Medium post: The Secret to Designing the Right Product by Matt Schlicht.
This post was eye-opening to me, introducing me to a new way of thinking about design and web development. It was a very non-agency approach. From this post I began reading everything I could find on the subject of product design and lean methodologies. The subject invigorated me and thankfully there's a lot of content out there on it.
This is why I'm starting this blog. I'm interested in building products (and companies) - how to do it well, and new ways of working. I intend to use this blog to talk about what's happening in the space, as well as comment on what I find interesting about those developments.
If you're interested in this theme as well, check back. I haven't settled on a cadence, but I'm hoping to post at least a couple times a week. And reach out to me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
More to come.