i just finished my first month at Reducto last week, and it's the first new product i've worked on in over a year.
the early weeks on anything new mostly go to figuring out what the product is about underneath the surface of it. every product i've worked on comes down to a small number of things, and they're rarely written down. you find them sideways, by making a hundred small decisions and noticing what they all keep bending toward.
before you have them you can still move, but the work inherently stays shallow - those same small decisions pile up and start to matter in aggregate without cohering into a point of view.
what i want to get fast at is digging down to that layer, because that's where the creative range opens up. the faster you get there the more room you have to do anything interesting with the product and the people you put it in front of.
a month in i'm still digging but i have a better idea of what i'm digging toward now. and there's so much high-quality thinking happening around me that the digging itself has been really energizing.
my respect for people who work on conferences is HUGE.
the amount of construction, design, prep and organization is just mindblowing.
anyways if you’re going to be at snowflake, hit me and the @reductoai booth up!!