Discoveries #2 | Building Great Products

Welcome to Edition 02 of Discoveries.
 Each week, I share inspiration on design, product building, and what's next.

Underrated Truths About Building Great Products

When it comes to building exceptional products, the advice we hear most often is also the most surface-level. Talk to customers. Run A/B tests. Follow your PM's lead. These aren’t wrong—but they’re only part of the story.

Some of the most impactful insights come from overlooked sources: your sales team’s daily conversations, a designer’s gut instinct, or an engineer who thinks like a strategist.

Here are three under-appreciated truths that can unlock better product building:

1. Your sales team will likely know your users better than anyone.

Doing tons of customer interviews feels great, but often a 10 minute conversation with your sales team can yield 90% of the feedback you could have received from customers.

Your sales team is likely talking to dozens of customers every day and can be a gold mine for customer insights.

2. Intuition often trumps A/B testing.

We've all been there—faced with a design dilemma, unable to choose between different options.“We can just A/B test it!” This sounds great, but it can become a crutch for decision-making.

Seasoned designers possess an innate sense of what works based on their experience. They've been down this road before and don't always need to rely heavily on A/B testing to make informed design decisions.

3. Empower designers and engineers to think like product managers.

To create a cohesive product that aligns with your company's overall strategy, it's crucial to empower your designers and engineers to wear the "PM" hat.

Encourage them to think deeply about how their work contributes to the broader goals of the company. Those who operate in isolation or simply follow a product manager's directives will never hit their full potential.

Product Inspiration

Next Gen Swiss Passport Design

I love when everyday objects get a thoughtful design upgrade. The new Swiss passport is a perfect example—celebrating "Swissness" while turning strict security requirements into a design feature. What a dream project.

Design firm, RETINAA, reimagined the new passport with the goal of making the document a brand ambassador for Switzerland abroad.

Under UV light, contour lines emerge to reveal topography of Switzerland.

Design reflects Swiss identity while integrating state-of-the-art security features.

In addition to increasing security and being counterfeit-proof, the design needed to create a document the holder can trust, identify with and be proud of.

The inner cover design is centered around an hydrological map of Switzerland, celebrating the fact that it provides 6% of all of Europe's fresh water.

(S/O to Leona for sharing this)

Space I Love

This cabin by Olson Kundig Architects is one of my favorite spaces of all time —half-machine, half-architecture.

The cabin's window wall acts as a giant garage door, tilting upward by a hand-powered crank connected to the door.

The owner wanted to get rid of the façade, while maintaining protection against the elements. The window wall was architect's answer to bridging this gap between the inside and outside world.

Other Finds

I always love a good Christopher Walken story:

Thanks for reading,


Blake

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