Writing
Startups and Investing

If You Build It, They Probably Won’t Come

After working with early-stage founders for the past five years, this is probably the most common mistake I see. Founders know — or at least strongly believe — that they’ve built a better solution. So they spend months, sometimes years, talking to users, shaping the product, fixing awkward workflows and polishing the experience. Then they launch with an unspoken assumption that the market will notice. That people will look at the clunky software they’re using today, look at this shiny new thing and think: finally.
Design Practice

Designing Fast and Slow

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman described two modes of thought. System 1 is quick, intuitive and heavily shaped by past experience. System 2 is slower and more deliberate: stop, examine the problem, consider the evidence, then decide.
Design Practice

The Confidence Gap

We’ve all been in the meeting where an influential stakeholder says something in a confident tone, everyone around the table nods, and within minutes the idea has hardened into fact. Designers are often the ones who hesitate.
Startup Growth

Finding Your First 100 Users

As a start-up founder, your first focus is usually getting some sort of Minimum Viable (or Minimum Lovable) Product out the door. Something that solves a meaningful customer problem which at least some of your potential customers—your early adopters—would be willing to try, however basic.
Startups and Investing

What a High Performing Designer Looks Like

In order to hire a top end Designer—or for that matter a Product Manager, Marketer or Engineer—you need to know what “good” looks like. Otherwise you may end up hiring somebody who looks good on paper, but is actually a bit of a dud. The best way to know what good looks like is to have worked alongside amazing designers in the past. That way you’ll already have a model in your mind of what you’re looking for. However if you’re not from a tech background, or have been unlucky enough to work alongside less talented designers, it’s hard to pick the wheat from the chaff.