craig villamor

Product + design @tr3bellar. Former @google, @salesforce, @ebay, etc. Also @cvilly on Threads + Bsky. Chief Eating Officer at

[signüll @signulll]

the most underrated hire right now is a great product person.

when i say product person i'm def not talking about a product manager. perhaps i think there has to be somewhat of a new role. i don't have a good name for it yet but maybe something like "product thinker".. someone with an intuitive grasp of the product as it exists, where it's soft, where it sings, & how to iterate it toward something even sharper. in some sense, this person has to cohesively hold in their head where this product should be 2 years from now & work backwards from that.

i say this cuz when building was hard, engineering was the bottleneck & the status hierarchy often reflected that. building is no longer hard. which means the variance in outcomes has shifted almost entirely to judgment on what to build, how to sequence it, & how to talk about it.

& the story matters as much as the thing. internally, it organizes the team around a shared model of why. externally, it shapes the interpretive frame users bring to their first experience. you can't retrofit narrative onto a product & expect it to land, it has to be load bearing from the start.

the rarest version of this person sits at the intersection of culture & deep technology. someone genuinely bilingual. they know what's technically possible & they know which cultural currents are real vs. ephemeral. that combo is what separates products that feel inevitable from products that feel assembled.

before ppl clap back with this person has always been valuable, i know.. i am just saying now they might be the most *important* person in the room. their value compounds like never before.

[Adam Grant @AdamMGrant]

Hey managers: people can love a job without letting it take over their lives.

Detaching from work doesn’t reflect the absence of passion. It reveals the presence of other priorities.

Being plugged in 24/7 is a recipe for burnout. Setting boundaries is vital to well-being.

[craig villamor @cvilly]

@randwacker I went through Eero and Google Nest trials recently and didn’t love either (Google’s is flat-out garbage). Surprisingly, I took a risk on Deco which I thought of as kinda low-brow, but it’s working splendidly and it’s fast.

[craig villamor @cvilly]

Yesterday Lands End was too quiet. Today way too f*cking loud. Sounds like crap & feeding back. Hope they fix before ff. @sfoutsidelands

[craig villamor @cvilly]

Amazon:
“You haven’t ordered anything today. It would be a real shame if something were to happen to that shopping hand.”

[craig villamor @cvilly]

@diklein Now don’t get me started on Sonos. 🤬

[craig villamor @cvilly]

Google’s home devices and the Google Home app are almost unfathomably bad. They have absolutely shit the bed on all this stuff.

On a related note, def DO NOT buy the Nest Wifi Pro - 6E. Slow, buggy, and maddening to set up. Looks pretty but it’s expensive trash.

[craig villamor @cvilly]

@diklein Don’t buy the routers! 😉

[craig villamor @cvilly]

@diklein It’s unforgivable. I won’t buy any more google hardware. Only thing they are doing right is industrial design.

[craig villamor @cvilly]

@diklein Agreed. The thing is that google even fucked up their individual device experiences for the “greater good” of this mega app. Imagine if you had to use Apple Home to set up Apple TV. It would be a disaster. That disaster is reality for Google’s stuff.

[craig villamor @cvilly]

Mission Impossible:

“Look! I’m fighting!”

“Watch me, watch me! I’m running!”

“Hey! I’m really riding this dirt bike. Like everywhere! Look!!!”

“See? I’m on a parachute now! It’s me! See my face?!?”

“Still running! Look how far I can run!”

Best,
- Tom Cruise

[craig villamor @cvilly]

We don’t need to imagine the existential threat from AI. We’re already living with it. It’s called a public company and it’s optimized to collect “points” without regard to externalities.

[Diego Ferreiro Val @diervo]

I have some amazing good news to share!

We are thrilled to announce that we have successfully raised over ~$3.5M for our seed round at @tr3bellar! 🎉 I'm particularly proud of the remarkable group of people that joined our adventure.

[craig villamor @cvilly]

@lindadong Congratulations!!

[craig villamor @cvilly]

@yeeeerika Are you on threads yet? I need more funny people to follow.

[craig villamor @cvilly]

I’m only here because the Threads app stopped loading content.

[craig villamor @cvilly]

Looking for the good stuff.

[craig villamor @cvilly]

5+ hours without power. Finally back. Now back to sleep.

[craig villamor @cvilly]

Look at this amazing view I have at Stern Grove music festival. Priceless!