Could we build a digital product studio in Seville and work with clients worldwide?
A decade later, it’s still hard to put into words what we’ve experienced: Awards, incredible partners, a world-class team, and, above all, a culture I’m deeply proud of.
We’re celebrating 10 years of remote-first, high-impact product building! 🎂
Can a small team of product #designers and #engineers in southern Spain become a trusted partner for top global #startups?
Z1’s story proves the answer is YES!
A thread on how we got here 🧵👇
Often, people attempt to validate ideas with very quick or hasty MVPs, and the response is either crickets or lukewarm meh. This doesn't necessarily mean the idea is bad, but rather that the execution is not good enough for people to even entertain the idea.
For startups with limited resources, this means you have to build a great core experience for a specific user group. You narrow the scope, build less but something better and different.
(* The asterisk here might pertain to AI/LLM categories where technology can enable some interesting and novel use cases, providing quick value such that the overall product experience is not that crucial (like Midjourney, which started as a Discord bot).
This also implies that if you discover a novel use case and execute it quickly, having generic AI/LLM capabilities also means that it's easy for others to replicate. This again starts the cycle wherein only great products succeed, and each subsequent product must again meet a higher bar than what came before.)
More in today's post: analyzing the scale of the problem, how and why OpenAI didn't predict the pollution issue originally, and why gen AI killing the internet fits the definition of a tragedy of the commons https://t.co/iSYtR1zFqZ
Momentum, Consolidation, and Breakout by @packyM.
Genuine piece that made me reflect on my own experience in 2023, and it applies to all kinds of businesses or creative initiatives.
"Momentum is intoxicating but impermanent. Consolidation is critical."
"Appreciate momentum for what it is. Enjoy it, but know that it’s fickle. Use the opportunities it provides to build something solid."
"Focus on getting better at the things you can control even when momentum could carry you so that you’re ready when it doesn’t."
"To keep “moving fast,” it's essential to allocate an equal number of people to focus on the foundational aspects that have brought the company to where it is now."
· Define values
· Refine and push the vision
· Fix the incentives
Written by @gk3, a former designer at Instagram, this is a great essay that explains why it’s hard to create quality at scale.
Sharing fav insights and notes ↓
https://t.co/ZBG2pL7Pdg
"It is really hard to keep things simple, especially if you have a product (or service) that people really like."
The main challenge when the companies grow is to keep leaders involved in every single decision.
Design is not an optional element anymore when building problem-solving products...
...and receiving an international award in this regard from external peers makes me feel that the extra design effort we make at @z1digitalstudio is worth it.
https://t.co/PJ9GXh9pRH
Design is not just about solving a problem.
Let's talk about extra polish. Let's talk about building trust. Let’s highlight the importance of design when crafting #FinTech products.
I'm not talking only about usability and accessibility.
I'm talking about delighting users.
Users perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more usable, even increasing tolerance of minor functional issues.
https://t.co/a38sqsvUfX