Writing &
Insights

Sharing my brain-dumps on product strategy, design systems, and the intersection of human psychology and technology.

A photo-realistic editorial image shot from a slight overhead-and-side angle, looking down at a wide wooden desk in warm tungsten light at night. The desk is covered with the visible residue of a search: a laptop open in the centre showing four browser tabs in the tab bar (the labels readable as logos / favicons for a performance-management dashboard, a journaling app with a "How was your day?" prompt, a generic AI chatbot interface, and a Google Docs page titled "Brag Document — 2026"), with the active tab being the dashboard. To the left of the laptop, a leather-bound A5 notebook lies open, the visible page hand-written in fountain-pen ink with the heading "WHAT I ACTUALLY NEED" underlined twice, and a numbered list of six items written below in legible but personal handwriting (only the first three lines fully readable: "1. asks a question, not a blank field / 2. catches glue work / 3. cadence beats forgetting"). A black uniball pen rests across the page. To the right of the laptop, a half-drunk cup of black coffee sits on a saucer beside a pair of reading glasses. The figure is not in frame — only the workspace tells the story. The wall behind the desk is dark and bare. The room outside the warm desk-lamp pool fades to deep navy-black. The visual focal point is the handwritten list against the glow of the laptop — the moment when the search through other people's tools ended and the writer's own list began. Shot on a 50mm lens at f/2.2, the notebook and laptop screen in sharp focus, the further corners of the desk softly out of focus. The mood is late-evening, slightly exhausted, decisive — the energy of a Sunday night when a personal project has stopped being optional. Lighting evokes the same Edward Hopper *Office at Night* register as the cover for the previous piece in this series, recomposed around a workspace mid-build rather than a workspace mid-paralysis. Photo-realistic.

Featured

May 19, 2026 9m read

I'm Building the Performance-Review Tool That Doesn't Exist.

Eight months scanning four tool categories. Lattice tells managers to use ChatGPT. Day One has no schema for work. Here's the wishlist that came out, and why each item is on it.

Read Article

Product Building

All Product Entrepreneurship Tech Career Work Productivity Decision Making Life Lessons Ambition Product Building Travel Teaching Career Transition Finance Psychology Parenting Comfort Zone Family Founder Lessons

Where product vision meets engineering execution

Aug 11, 2025 4min

"This is Technically Complex": How to Work Better with Your Engineers

Where product vision meets engineering execution.

That moment every creator knows: a mix of pride in what you've built and the nervous hope that others will see its value, too.

Aug 9, 2025 4min

Will They Pay for It?

How to Validate Your Product Idea and Avoid Building a Flop

Aug 8, 2025 5min

From Napkin Sketch to Interactive Prototype (With Fewer Tears Along the Way)

The Power of Prototyping and Wireframing

Finding the right problem will lead you to treasure.

Aug 6, 2025 4min

Stop Solving Problems That Don’t Exist

A Guide to Effective Market & User Research

A drawing of a man in front of a glowing lightbulb. Next to him are the words "Beyond the Lightbulb Moment: Crafting a Product Strategy that Doesn't Flop"

Aug 5, 2025 4min

Beyond the Lightbulb Moment (and Other Household Hazards)

Crafting a Product Strategy That Doesn’t Flop