Read this book for work today. It’s from 2006, but a decent amount is still applicable. Some notes I took along the way:
- the majority of your day should be working on things that excite you. (with tools that do too.) if not, find something that does. if you’re a lead, make sure your team is all working on things that excite them. otherwise, it’ll be obvious.
- you don’t need more than ~3 people to make a first version of something. if you do, you have the wrong people or its too big of a scope. if you’re a lead: check in on your people, assign them to exciting work that helps them grow, don’t make them do a bunch of admin work, and make sure you have the right people on your team.
- be personable and friendly. at work, on your site, in your product. write like a human! (write your own words!) enough with the ai slop and the marketing-speak. good writing is good design. blog.
- sweat over the details, but not from day one. spiraling about tiny stuff too early in the process delays progress.
- don’t plan so far ahead. only define a very slimmed down mvp to see if you gain traction. you might not need to expand past that.
- consistency is good, but don’t let it come at the expense of context. what makes sense in one place doesn’t necessarily make sense in another.
- try this out before launching a new product: share a teaser first, then a preview of features, then ship it. (not sure i’ve ever done this.)
