Brilliant work. And it makes me think - we produce tools, that are part of two phase spaces - the idea and the knowledge of how to create it. Firstly I simply would not have thought of it, "like button inflation" is a pretty off the wall concept. On top of which I don't know where to get an HN data feed or how to make a chrome extension etc.
Yesterday I was on a call with a collegue and the conversation turned to a useful feature we did not have (internal use) - and 30 minutes after the idea we had coded it up - because we had the knowledge but only lacked the idea till that moment.
Without that knowledge even the best idea moves the process from "yeah let's do it" to "I should schedule some time and make a project plan and ..."
The difference is important somehow. And most of our working lives would be better if we stopped with the project plans and just built useful stuff.
Edit: To try and clarify - exploring a new and uncharted phase space is exploration - it cannot be planned in advance, or driven in a particular direction. Sun-Tzu teaches that Climate, Landscape and doctrine all affect our success as much or more than mission and leadership - so we should stop trying to control and actually find the flow.
I think we search for product-market fit, we do not decide product market fit.
One tool I realise i have been trying to build on and off is a post-hoc reporting tool that makes it look like my exploratory development style was actually planned (it's always something like, I am going to explore this inferring hill over there, and just make sure the roadmap, docs and timesheets are up to date.) This way I don't get people bothering me so much. It works better than grumpy.
Without that knowledge even the best idea moves the process from "yeah let's do it" to "I should schedule some time and make a project plan and ..."
The difference is important somehow. And most of our working lives would be better if we stopped with the project plans and just built useful stuff.
Edit: To try and clarify - exploring a new and uncharted phase space is exploration - it cannot be planned in advance, or driven in a particular direction. Sun-Tzu teaches that Climate, Landscape and doctrine all affect our success as much or more than mission and leadership - so we should stop trying to control and actually find the flow.
I think we search for product-market fit, we do not decide product market fit.
One tool I realise i have been trying to build on and off is a post-hoc reporting tool that makes it look like my exploratory development style was actually planned (it's always something like, I am going to explore this inferring hill over there, and just make sure the roadmap, docs and timesheets are up to date.) This way I don't get people bothering me so much. It works better than grumpy.