On Focus & Boiling An Ocean
Focus is something you learn, not something you're born with.
Tyler Wanlass
I'm an entrepreneur & designer. I write about startups and design. I build businesses and products.
I'm an entrepreneur & designer. I write about startups and design. I build businesses and products.
Focus is something you learn, not something you're born with.
I recently wrote about my latest personal experiment: going on an information diet. It's only been a few weeks but one thing is clear: I'm creating far more than I'm consuming and it feels great.
It's been 14 days since I've disconnected from the larger grid.
I love the idea of the end-of-year post. It's a great time to reflect on where you're at and where you're going. For me, 2013 was a turning point. I saw major growth in myself, my relationships and generally got much closer to my bigger goals.
I've written before on why it may be important to add a designer to your founding team. But how do you go about finding and vetting one?
Ever received a feature request from a customer? Maybe they were kind enough to include a solution or how they think the feature should work?
Like so many others, my first “real” startup had it’s fair share of train wrecks. Given the hundreds of small decisions you have to make each day you’re bound to mess up a few and choose the wrong track.
Some of the happiest (and often most ‘successful’) people I know are also the most focused and deliberate about how they spend their time and whom they surround themselves with.
A few days ago I had the chance to give a talk to the local Wellington Hackers & Founders meetup about some of the successes and failures I’ve had with 3 of my startups. Slides are embedded below for convenience.
Building a new app or product these days is considerably easier than it was just 10 years ago. Middleware, open source and forks are abound. But today, most developers, designers and entrepreneurs wouldn’t dream of building a new library, server foundation or core technology to create their next upcoming product.
It’s much easier for your customers and users to do nothing than it is to do something (damn you inertia!!!). This is a short guide on how I meanginfully affected customer behavoir (response rates) with the prinicle of reciprocity.
Design co-founders are getting a lot of love in the startup scene as of late. They are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but instead critical to the success of many companies. If you’re a technical co-founder, here's some thoughts on why you would want a designer on your founding team.