As a former Silicon Valley startup founder, I advise a select set of pre-Series C, B2B startups on how to build products that deliver world-class user experiences. I typically work with the Chief Product Officer and/or CEO of the company.
My product experience spans nearly 20 years of founding and working for some of the most recognizable brands and technology companies in the world, including Twingate, Dropbox, and Bloomberg. I believe that a product is at its best when the customer is least aware of it, and my specialty is building intuitive, thoughtfully-designed products that “just work” for users.
This experience is so rare in the software market that products that support, rather than frustrate, users’ needs are labeled as “magical” in their experience. Building these types of powerful experiences are the result of deep empathy with target customers, elevating design thinking to a high level of importance across engineering, product, and design, and having strong opinions on how you want your customers to experience you. Consistency in design ethos creates a unified experience across all aspects of the product.
Getting started
More fundamental than choosing what to prioritize and build is how you decide to build, which has wide-reaching impact on the perception of your product. Some questions that we might explore when getting started are:
- Are you happy with the level of customer satisfaction with your product? What do they love? What do they hate?
- Do you have established product values that guide how you make product decisions?
- What are your beliefs around how far you’re willing to go to make your product easy to use for customers?
- Are product, design, and engineering working together to your satisfaction?
- Do you encounter difficult choices prioritizing between different customer segments and channels?
- Are customers clear on your product vision? What about your employees?
- Are you satisfied with your product velocity overall?
With an understanding of the bigger picture, we’ll work together to focus on the highest impact changes to make in your approach to building product and move towards the outcome you desire.