William Watson

org designer @theready, cofounder of @compasshq with @kumupowered, dad of 2, husband to @kerilbw.

[Aaron Dignan @aarondignan]

major life update: we are shutting down @useplumb

after several years of hustling on agentic workflow automation, we have decided to hang it up

what we got right:

✅ Agentic Workflows > Agents - determinism and the ability to debug still matter guys (even Open AI gets this with agent builder)

✅UX/UI - the hand feel of building in Plumb is what I’m going to miss the most, nothing else even comes close

✅Structured Output - exquisite JSON schema out of every step unlocks so many cool possibilities, agentic branching among them

✅HITL - being able to interact with agents/flows via SMS, email, and Slack is so important, and nodes like “collect input” (that inject responses downstream) are 🤌

what we got wrong:

❌ We invented workflow subscription (and a bunch of tech like MetaJSONSchema) BUT nobody asked us to, and nobody cared

❌ As a result of that decision ^ we couldn’t easily utilize MCP, iPaaS, webhooks, API triggers, etc. and that severely limited what you could build on Plumb

❌ We didn’t pick a vertical, function, or high value set of tasks to solve on day one - instead we spent way too long playing with “nice to have” flows that were technically interesting but not operationally valuable

If we did it all again, we’d do it differently. More learnings in a future post.

For now, we want to thank our investors, including @BenjLerer @asymmetric_vc @greenfield_cap @humanvc @galeforceVC @theready @scottbelsky @ericries and many many more - you won’t find a more supportive bunch out there. If you're raising, ask them.

🚨 Finally, we’re officially looking for a home for this team, so if you want to snap up an elite squad of applied AI nerds… my DMs are open

Please RT this for reach

bc this team hangs the moon 👉
@chaseadams @keyavadgama @petekp @tihalstead @abtweedy @sarashpit

And now for what's next...

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@normonics @vinamrsachdeva Just to say I’d also be interested if you were to do another cohort this year!

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@HiredThought You opposed to wifi connected sockets? I’ve done this with something like a wemo plug on a moccamaster

[Emma Goldberg @emmabgo]

went on the Brave New Work podcast @theready to talk about how companies have responded to the Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade https://t.co/QrW8moJeyS

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

A funny thing happens when you become better & better at getting through your to-do list: Your to-do list gets longer & longer 🙃

@theready + @oliverburkeman on why we seem stuck in an ongoing battle with time & how we can finally give up the fight

https://t.co/sAJFde8KNY

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@johncutlefish “In case you’re curious, I am solving market volatility and rising taxes by spamming you to give me your money. Let’s be friends!”

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

What’s a team's ideal size? Well...
How is it gathering?
Why is it gathering?
What skills does its work actually require?

The answers to these Qs can help determine if a team's too big, too small, or even a team at all 😬

@theready sizes up team size 👇 https://t.co/Zl2eyBeL7A

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@jrhusney Absolutely.

[Chase Chapman @chaserchapman]

DAOs need explicit, clear structures

We’ve developed this myth that ambiguity is good for decentralization

In reality, ambiguity centralizes power to those “in the know”

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@aarondignan @marco_eds @paulgreenjunior @yanche @theready Also curious about us too though @aarondignan !

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

If we want a more sustainable future, then the way we work needs to be more sustainable, too.

@theready's #podcast spoke with @Allbirds’ head of sustainability, Hana Kajimura, to learn more about the company’s forward-thinking products and practices 🌍 https://t.co/edsY9dunQl

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@markraheja @samspurlin Zen shorts has been one of my faves for years

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@dhtoomey Good for Covid times

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

Decision making processes going in circles and making you😩😡🙃? here's a good article by my frand @AlastairSteward from @theready. It's got 10 simple questions you can ask to make better decisions faster: https://t.co/6hBlV5iKD8

[The Ready @theready]

Seeing and feeling changes in an org's OS is one thing; measuring and quantifying that impact is quite another.

If you're nodding along *and* you're all about analytics, here's a heads-up: We're hiring!

Learn more about the freelance role 👇https://t.co/ZmSP7zQfXO

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@aarondignan @rodneyevans919 the problem is - it's never actual money

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@samspurlin @rodneyevans919 @AlastairSteward hahahaah

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@samspurlin you really are a beautiful human

[William Watson @watsonwilliamb]

@ii_barbieri @Stephen_Posner I’ve never done it but I’ve always wanted to! @ii_barbieri miss you and @Stephen_Posner both! Would love to come for a visit! Bar - you still in VT?

[Christina @cwodtke]

@johncutlefish Imagine how hard it is to be the Onion these days.