-
The books you read shape who you are
•
5 min read
I can still remember the first book that changed my life: Gumshoe Goose. It was given to me by my teacher after I showed an early interest in reading. Without realizing it, she set me on the path of an avid reader for the rest of my life. I spent my childhood bouncing between Diana…
-
Product mindlessness
•
3 min read
Let’s start with some product trivia. Without looking at your phone, how many items do you typically see in a bottom bar in a mobile app? How many icons do you usually see in a top navigation bar? When is the large title treatment used on iOS? If you’re like me, these are hard to…
-
Missing the inflection points in history
•
2 min read
Something I’ve learned recently: A commonly missed implication of incremental improvements are inflection points. These are most obviously seen in hindsight and very hard to identify while you’re in them, especially if you’re on the sidelines and not on the ground level building things. At a certain point along the trajectory of technology becoming better,…
-
How knowledge grows and expectations change
•
3 min read
When entering a new field these days, there is often an overwhelming amount to learn. If you’re like me, you might think there is more than ever to learn. Is that the case? Take a field like Web Design or SEO. Ten years ago, simply using a flexible grid on the web was considered innovative…
-
Is DTC the natural end-state for e-commerce?
•
5 min read
Most of this thinking is not my own. I’ve spent the last few months living in e-commerce with my team at Versett (Omid & Betty) and more recently had thoughts triggered by recent posts from Elena Burger and Web Smith of 2PM. The question at hand: Is DTC the future of retail? Let’s start by…
-
Thinking Like a Software Company
•
7 min read
Originally published on the Versett Blog Over the last ten years, your customers have dramatically changed. Their behaviours, habits, and technical aptitude have evolved and will continue to do so. They expect to be able to interact with you through digital channels of their choosing and have high expectations of those interactions. This disconnect between…
-
I am a strange loop
•
8 min read
Having spent a lot of time reading about growth loops, Reforge, and complexity theory, I wanted to explore the possibility that everything is a loop. There has been an emergence of loops as a topic in the product/growth/tech discourse over the last few years. As our understanding of digital products matures, we can analyze and…
-
The separation of thinking and doing
•
9 min read
I started this post almost 2 years ago, but never finished it. There was always something missing from my perspective on Skin in The Game, and why I don’t necessarily agree that it’s the only way. Since then, I have read a couple books that helped shape my thinking further. Knowing it’s been so long,…
-
A Compound Life
•
17 min read
This post is a bit more personal development than I would like, but am publishing it anyway. Introduction The first half of your life is commonly conceived of as the best half (youth, memories, earning power, freedom, etc.). But what about the second half? How can we make that better? When you plant an oak…
-
Taking a systems view of an organization
•
7 min read
Surviving in the new digital economy has required a new set of tools. As companies—equipped with more data and more powerful tools—become smarter, staying competitive is more challenging. Companies need to be aware of how they fit into their competitive arena and evolving to keep up. There are a variety of frameworks that have emerged…
Works in progress
