Happy new year. Lately I’ve been drawing a LOTTT.

They’re a bit silly, aren’t they? I’ve been enjoying making some silly music too. So last month, I decided to combine these two skills and make a silly storytime animation on Youtube.

It turns out I really enjoy the process. In this first video, I talk about the moment when I made some overly ambitious new year’s resolutions that led me quit my job back in the day.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

A few updates

To set an expectation, I will no longer talk about product design or software in this newsletter. Through this newsletter, I hope I can get in touch with you. Talk about life and art. A few updates:

• I paint now, I’ll post some reels on my Instagram - let’s connect!

• I kinda retired now (a.k.a pursuing my second career)

Okay. bye now.

I work on things I'm genuinely interested in.

It's energizing to work on passion projects. I'd love to talk about that.

I have no big success yet, but the past 10 months have taught me a few things:

• In my 20s, I took my work too seriously and gave my all to every role I held at each company I worked for. I didn't have time to explore my passion. Or even learn new things out of curiosity. (Regret)

• In contrast, I’m now learning things that I once thought were impossible — music, programming, Japanese, and animation.

• Last night, my app (Silk: Simple Invoicing) got approved on the App Store.

• When you work on a passion project, you start with an idea. Consider what small project you want to achieve. Then you'll have to learn new things along the way. In this condition, you learn new things because you're interested. It's more fun than learn new things with no real goal.

• It's necessary to trade your time for money when you're still young. But save that money. Have enough money, so you can have the freedom to do anything in your 30s or 40s.

• I don't think "retirement" is a good idea. I'd imagine myself getting bored for not doing anything.

• I do think having the freedom to make is wonderful. You can wake up and decide what to work on. You can dream up an idea, hone your skills, and make it happen.

• Enjoy the process of making it, rather than worrying about the output. Continue doing good work, and the results will follow.

By the way, if you need help or would like to discuss your career, feel free to reach out to me on Discord.

Budi
With a warm handshake.

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Personal note: Meet Silk—a simple invoicing software for freelancers. It just got approved on the App Store. Super excited about it. Here’s the download link. You can try it, and it comes with a one-time lifetime purchase.

In case you missed it: Today v1.4.0 is now available. My favorite feature is Quick Start. You can start a focus session anytime you want by pressing hotkeys, and this little thing will appear. Download on App Store.

On making enjoyable softwares

To many people, unboxing their first iPhone was delightful.

This year, I've been reflecting on how to make software enjoyable. When I build Today, I always face trade-offs. Sometimes, I need to invest extra time to create something fun, like this keyboard interaction. Other times, I have to prioritize speed and avoid overdesigning specific parts of the software. Otherwise, I might never ship an update.

For you who are passionate about making something delightful, here are some thoughts:

• Delightfulness doesn't guarantee that software will be successful. But the odds are better when people enjoy using your software. When I work with B2B startups, I often see crappy softwares. Not just how bad the looks, but the experience is clunky. Yet, to my surprise, many people will pay to use it. Isn't that interesting?

• Making something delightful costs you time, so timeboxing your development is critical. Ask yourself: How long do I want to spend on this? Then, do your best within that timebox.

• Mastery is important. If you have good knowledge and skills in animation, you’re more likely to implement it because speed is no longer a significant trade-off. So, always opt for mastery if you want to make enjoyable software.

• If you don't have mastery, you should at least be curious. I didn't know how to code last year, but now I know a little. Curiosity can help you grow if you follow through with discipline. You'll get better over time. Don't wait.

• Work with someone who has a similar taste, or better. If you work with software builders who don't care about delightfulness, you can't change them. You'll see them love to deprioritize what you think is essential. It's a philosophy. Make sure your partner has a similar taste or better taste!

• When you build consumer-facing software, you create for people with high expectations. People expect cross-platform, good design, and good performance. That is what would make your product enjoyable. Perhaps you should always be clear about what "enjoyable" means for your target audience. Each project would be different.

You can find me on X.

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Q: Hi Budi, I'm curious why you decided to go solo, why the team didn’t work, and would you recommend others to go solo as well?

Hello Gracia, thanks for asking that question.

Let's go back to the late 2023. I wanted to bootstrap a small team. Independent from investors. Ideally, we can always build more products if the team is solid. Be profitable and have a good time.

Well, it was hard.

First, finding a great co-founder is extremely hard. A partner who shares similar values and motivation is rare. For example, one of the ex-co-founders always worries about failing. As a result, whenever we design a feature, he always wants to cut the scope. While I understand the importance of small MVP, sometimes you want to put effort into making the product loveable and stand out. This is just one example among many other issues I experienced.

As a result, we parted ways, and I spent 3 months with mild depression, looking for another new co-founder (haha). It was not fun. I was like: "Damn, I wish I live in Silicon Valley so that I can meet with great people." I was desperate.

Why did I decide to go solo? While looking for a new co-founder, I kept asking myself, "Why do I need this co-founder?" I always answered, "Well, because I can't code." 

Then, I decided to learn programming. I spent two months learning the fundamentals as a “full-time student.” I enjoyed it, which is why I decided to go solo.

To give you some context. I'm at a point where I don't need to work for money. Sure, I can always earn more, but I have enough savings invested to provide me enough. Also, my living costs are low ( under $800 per month).

I'm at a stage where I want to focus on doing something I genuinely like. My dream in the next 5 years is to build beautiful apps. At some point, I'd love to make a game as well. So, acquiring programming skills is a massive benefit.

With this context, I want to answer the last part of the question.

Would I recommend others go solo? I'm not sure. There were many moments when I wanted to give up. So it's not all rainbows and happy stars. Doubts will always appear out of nowhere: "Can I do this?"

I would say it's a lifestyle. Being a solo maker is a lifestyle choice.

All I can share is some pros of going solo:

• Creative freedom. You can make decisions without needing approval from others. I believe this allows you to create something unique. Look at Stardew Valley, a game that one person built. It's so unique because the developer has complete control.

• No meetings or debates. You avoid consensus decisions.

• No team management hassles. You can focus on your motivation

• Lower cost means there is no need to split revenue.

• You can pursue your passion.

• Skill development because you have to do everything yourself.

There are many ways to be successful. For example, Airbnb started with three co-founders. But because I couldn't find anyone, I chose this path. It fits with my personality and lifestyle. My happiness index is getting better too :)

Budi
with a warm handshake in thought

Links:

• Join Discord (random chats are welcome)

• Download Today on AppStore

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I made this timeboxing app

In the last 6 months, I have written code non-stop. Finally, now you can try my app. Yay. I call it Today. If you're on macOS 14.0+, use this link to test the beta version. You have to install TestFlight (it’s official from Apple to ensure my app is safe)

Today TestFlight

Working solo

Last year, I tried to build a small team to build Today, but it didn't work out, so I decided to work solo. I completely changed the direction of the product. Now, it's a simple timeboxing app. Today might be for you if you often work in front of a computer and get distracted easily.

Working as a solo maker has been fun because I can set a vision and create whatever I believe is right. I don't have to convince other people to build the product.

Also, I can achieve maximum creativity. I don't have to compromise about certain decisions. I can work hard for something that I believe is important, even if it is boring.

Anyway, I will write more things this month. For now, you can join me on Discord. This is a hangout server, you can drop memes :)

• Link to join discord: https://discord.gg/3J7u73RcuY

• Link to test beta: https://testflight.apple.com/join/3HhpECf5

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I want to focus on building my app. Last year, I tried to build a small team. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. I wanted to bootstrap and avoid dealing with investors, meaning we had no income as a team. So, everyone still holds onto their full-time jobs, which is understandable. But the development was super slow.

We have to disband the team.

Now, I’m going solo. I plan, design, and code myself. I’ve been re-building the app from the ground up, keeping the scope super simple. It’s been two months since I developed it. I am super excited about the learnings. I will share more when I’m ready to launch.

Meanwhile, you can enjoy some music that I composed and mixed:

With a warm shakehand,

Budi

There are many reasons for this.

The most obvious problem is that when you present your design, your team is "looking" at it instead of "using" it. To evaluate a software design, you should try it out and see if it feels intuitive. After all, you're not creating a banner for people to look at.

Another problem with presentations is that designers often feel they need to "convince" others in the room. You may have heard the concept of getting buy-in. That mindset shifts the focus from making the best decisions to persuading others.

If you become aware of these problems, you can become a more effective product designer. You can still "present" your work, but you will do it in a way that focuses on making better decisions.

Despite these, some companies still ask designers to present designs. That being said, how should we present designs?

The first principle is to let the team "feel" your design. It's a productive way to spot weird user experiences.

Read more

The cost of grinding is usually your health. Staying up all night accumulates stress and strain on your body. You'll hit a limit where your body can't handle the stress. This is not a sustainable way to work hard.

Fundamentally, I believe working hard is critical if you want to make great things. When I work with someone who is not working hard, I can feel they're not putting effort into the work. They're not paying attention to the details. In building software, this can lead to subpar software with many bugs and bad designs around the corner.

This begs the question: How can we work hard without risking our health and life?

First, you should work on the right thing. I call this a targeted effort. In practice, you put most of your time and energy into one project. A project that you believe will lead you to your goal.

If you work in a company as an employee, you might make a bet to put your 100% effort into the company you work for. Or perhaps you put 50% effort into your side project to quit your job one day.

That sounds straightforward, but it's often difficult to decide on what to work on. It's critical to take your time to find this. My approach is to pick something and try it out, dropping it when I don't feel it's the right thing. Every day is a prototype.

Once you have chosen a project, the next step is to design your life to be efficient. Develop a schedule where you can dedicate at least 3 hours of deep work to the project. For me, waking up in the morning to do the work is usually the most productive time, so I would protect it. I find discussing my schedule with my wife helpful, as it allows us to schedule time together.

After experimenting with the schedule, you will slowly develop a routine. Many great people have routines. For example, Haruki Murakami's routine allows him to work hard in the morning, exercise, and then he would listen to some music or read a bit.

Another thing to watch out for is distraction. There are many kinds of distractions. Your phone is the biggest one, and maybe your social life. If you want to work hard, it's critical to curate how you use your time. Sometimes, you have to say no to people. Find what makes sense for you because, after all, it's your life.

Along the way, you will experience stress, and your body will feel tired from working super hard. The wise move here is to understand your limit. Keep track of how many hours in a day you can work. During those hours, you should be able to stay focused. Incorporate breaks in between those times so your brain has a chance to decompress.

If your body lacks the stamina to keep working, this will eventually affect your efficiency in the long term. You can consider going to the gym or doing some exercise. Take a few days off to learn how to build muscle and cardio strength. I like to measure the percentage of muscle mass and fat in my body to see progress along the way.

Another thing is sleep. Getting enough sleep is critical if you want to work hard. Usually, when you work hard, you must learn new things. Sleep actually helps your brain learn. Try to sleep 7-8 hours a day. For me, I use WHOOP to help me keep track of my sleep. It's a band that I put on my wrist that tracks my heart rate and sleep efficiency.

Finally, while working hard toward your goal, self-doubt will creep in. You will question yourself. This is a healthy part of the creative work. Even the most successful game designer of Stardew Valley constantly questions himself if the game is good enough throughout the process. Stardew Valley has sold over 30 million copies.

When I face doubts, I see paper and pen as my friends. I can list my concerns.

Thank you for reading. Consider subscribing or sharing this article to support this newsletter. Click here to see the Product Design OS series.

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Consensus decision-making is when multiple people must agree. You make a decision based on what the majority of the group agrees. This type of decision-making is ineffective simply because you need to “convince” the majority of the group. It usually involves long meetings.

Consensus decision-making makes the group feel like “we make the decision together.” While this might appear empowering, it is bad because no one is accountable for the decision. This means no one thinks hard about the consequences.

Autocratic decision-making is the opposite of consensus. One person is in charge, and this person must make the final call. It’s a hard job. If the team has a competent individual who can lead the initiative, it’s better to take this approach as long as this person has good critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Ideally, this person will think hard about the decision. Decisive enough. The question is: Does that person exist on your team? Usually, it’s really hard to have this high-quality operator on the team to make the call. So, most of the team fell back to the consensus decision-making.

Prompt: Try to observe your team. Do you think they adopt the consensus or autocratic decision-making structure? What do you observe? What are the benefits or downsides?

While you can’t change the fundamental structure, observing and learning from it is useful. This can shape your leadership style one day. Take what you like and dislike from both. You don’t have to be extreme; you can take a hybrid approach when necessary.

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Personal note: Hi friends, it’s Budi. I’ve been recovering lately. But I’m getting better. This article is short because I want to warm up and gain momentum. Thanks for reading this one. You can send me questions by replying to this email.

If you find this article interesting, check out other articles.

• Personal development

• Office politics

• Develop your product sense with this product teardown exercise

• FAQ list to structure your mind

• 10 useful business concepts for designers

• See all Product Design OS articles

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• Personal growth?

• The driver = yourself

• 6 fundamental skills

• Operate in a high-impact way

• How to plan your personal development plan

Personal note: Hi friends. It’s Budi.. There are 3 upcoming workshops at Crafters. Available in English (yay). I know a lot of you have been requesting for it. Go to joincrafters.com and check them out.

Go to Crafters

Personal growth?

You're working as a product designer.

You want to make an impact. But you feel stuck.

Perhaps a personal growth plan can be helpful.

It's a plan you make to upgrade your skills. What to focus on this year? Why should I improve this skill? How to improve it? Everyone has a different path to take. You and I have a completely different background and interests. So, your plan on what to grow will be different from mine.

The driver = yourself

No one else cares as much as you about your growth.

You should not rely on your manager to guide you. They need to take care of their own things. This is a common mistake that I see many young designers make. They rely too much on the manager, or they don't have any plans at all.

Take the driver's seat.

Plan. Make a progress. Drip by drip. Little by little.

6 fundamentals skills

Here are six skills that I believe you should develop:

• Design craft: The core skill to make a design that feels and looks great.

• Product strategy: The strategic foundation to focus on the big impact work.

• Decision-making: The ability to focus on critical decisions

• Goal setting: The mechanic to set an ambitious goal and stay on track

• Collaboration: Harmonizing collective knowledge to make progress together.

• Technical literacy: The engineering mindset and knowledge about technology.

Operate in a high-impact way

If you disagree with the skills I mentioned above, it’s fine. That’s only my thesis on how you can operate in a high-impact way. If you feel another skill’s more important, you should go for it.

Remember, the goal is to make a positive impact.

How to plan your personal development

My suggestion is to look at the 6 areas I described above.

Think about those areas as a big umbrella. There are many small topics underneath it.

First, use your feelings. Which part is unfamiliar to you?

Consider learning about it. Write that down on the paper. Pick one area and geek out about it. For example, in 2012, I spent one year focusing only on icon design and then one year learning HTML/CSS.

Find one topic and focus on it. Go really deep. That's the only way you can make real growth. Below, I share a few pieces; use them to prompt your brain.

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Design craft

First, design craft. This is the heart of what you do. AI will be your friend and speed you up. AI can help you generate the design. But it's up to you to decide. Is this good? Is this intuitive for our specific users? Is this aligned with our brand direction?

Not only that, design craft is more than just producing the design.

It involves how you plan. When the team asks, "Hey, how much time do you need?" You can get back to them and say, here's the scope. We discussed this a lot in our workshops on Interface Design Planning. Even though it's not sexy, it will help you operate in a high-impact way.

Design exploration is also critical. You should be able to come up with different solutions and layouts. How do you organize your thinking while exploring all these different directions? Next month, I'm holding a new workshop about Effective Design Exploration. We'll learn how to think in low-fidelity.

Product Strategy

When you work, your team will make a new feature or product from scratch. How do you navigate this? This is where the strategic thinking will be critical.

Who's your target audience? What's their problem? How are you different than other solutions on the market? The business stuff. I like the book personalMBA. I also shared a lot about this in the Product Strategy workshop.

As you grow, you'll learn how to make a strategic direction. Why this problem? Why not that? It's a way to help your team move forward. Make a plan to reach the goal.

Goal setting

Where to go? Goals are like the north start. They guide you.

Define what you want. More user satisfaction? Higher engagement? Why?

Consider learning frameworks like OKRs or goal-setting in general. In the beginning, you use this framework to help facilitate the discussion. For now, product designers are rarely the ones who set the goal and decide where to go next. But understanding this will be critical if you have to work with company leadership.

Decision making

Every decision counts. Why put this button here? Can we hide this information? There is technical decision-making for designers. You usually don't have all the data you need when you make decisions.

In practice, you usually set criteria. "This is my goal, this is the criteria. Then what are my options?" Then, you make an analysis. Do some deep thinking. Fun stuff.

Then, you will learn about budgeting your energy because when you have limited time and too many decisions to make, which one should you ignore? Which one should you focus on?

Collaboration

Building software is a team sport. Although you can technically build it yourself if you can code, market, build the brand, and design, collaboration is critical since most of you reading this newsletter are working in a company.

How do you communicate your opinion? What if you disagree? What do you do when the team runs in a circle and can't decide?

It's complicated stuff but critical. If you can help the team move forward, that's a high-impact area. Learning about workshop facilitation is going to be a game changer. You can read something like Design Sprint.

Technical literacy

Designers often neglect this. As a result, they can't make good design decisions. Learn about HTML/CSS/Javascript. That will be a huge aspect of your differentiation. You'll see how engineers will appreciate having you on their team.

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You don't have to be good at everything I listed here.

But perhaps you can start play around with them.

Pick one.

Go deep.

Have fun.

Budi

If you find this article interesting, check out other articles.

• Office politics

• Develop your product sense with this product teardown exercise

• FAQ list to structure your mind

• 10 useful business concepts for designers

• Most Important Task

• See all Product Design OS articles

• Why do office politics happen?

• Dancing with tension: Negative and positive tension

• Nobita, Giant, and Suneo: Politics since we were a kid

• Navigating the office politics: Practical tips

• Avoid me vs. you

• Maybe it's not a fit

Personal note: Hello friends! It’s Budi. I’ve been busy building the new version of Crafters. Hint: available for the English audience. I know a lot of you have been requesting for it. I’ll announce it more soon.

Why do office politics happen?

Office politics.

Probably not your favorite thing. But you can't escape it.

Imagine this. Jake and Kate. They have different goals. Then, the politics happen.

When you hear the word politics, it has a negative connotation. But that's not always the case. There are two types of tensions—the negative and positive tension.

Negative tension

When Jake's actions set back Kate's goals, then we have negative tension. Kate will see Jake as a blocker. As a result, their action could "harm" each other. When you dance with the negative tension, it's not fun. It feels like you have an enemy. You might call this a "conflict".

Positive tension

However, they could be allies even when Jake and Kate have different goals. This happens when their actions help each other reach their goals. This is a positive tension—a productive tension. You might call this a form of "alliance."

Nobita, Suneo, and Giant

If you have ever watched the anime Nobita, you have witnessed a form of politics. Giant (Takeshi) is a big and strong kid. Suneo is a rich and boastful kid who usually gets the latest toys. Nobita is a kind-hearted but lazy boy.

Giant and Suneo often ally. Giant uses his strength to intimidate Nobita. Suneo supports him by flattering and siding with him, which helps Suneo avoid being bullied.

After all, politics is not that complicated.

Common pitfall: me vs you

The common pitfall designers make is adopting this me vs. you mentality. I definitely fell into this trap in the past, too. It's common for me to see tension between a designer and a product manager. The designer on the team will say, "We should do research." But the product manager will say, "We don't have time." So, it creates negative tension.

Here's an example of how to handle that situation.

[Find the common ground] Our goal is to launch a successful game.
[Situation] Since we're designing a unique interface, we are not sure if it's intuitive. [Implication] If users don't know how to use this, the new users might quit and never really use the app. [question] While I understand the timeline is pretty tight, what do you think is the best way to navigate this?

Finding common ground and simply stating the situation creates a better starting point. You can have a discussion without creating any tension because you have the same goal: launch a successful game.

I'm not saying everything will be smooth just by doing this.

Politics is politics. You have to deal with it.

Find the best way to move forward as a team.

Perhaps, not a good fit

The most challenging time is when you can't find the common ground.

Maybe it's not a fit.

Try to re-evaluate your goal.

Try to see the bigger picture.

Question it. Is it ethical?

Listen to the opposing perspective. Listen.

If it's not a good fit, sometimes it's better to quit and find a different group of people.

Good luck.

Budi

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If you find this article interesting, check out other articles.

• Develop your product sense with this product teardown exercise

• FAQ list to structure your mind

• 10 useful business concepts for designers

• Most Important Task

• See all Product Design OS articles

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Think about when you open Gmail.

You might browse what's in your inbox.

Or you look for a specific item, perhaps searching for a receipt.

Next time you design a navigation or homepage, consider accommodating these two modes.

For example, users who want to locate a specific thing could use a search on the eCommerce site. Users who want to browse would look around the list of things.

Hi, I’m Budi. You just read a short note about a bigger series from Product Design OS. If you find this post interesting, consider subscribing or sharing 🙌

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They give you a research report. You read it. Great.

But here’s the problem: Many product designers and managers never talk to users or observe how they use the product. In our industry, there’s a tendency to delegate the research. As a result, we are not close to the ground truth.

If you don’t talk to users…
You can’t observe their emotions.
You don’t develop empathy toward the users.
As a result, it’s hard to make good decisions.

You have to join the research session. Talking to users helps you build intuition. For example, if you’ve observed people using your software, you will realize they are easily distracted. So you’ll make a wiser design decision with this knowledge.

Hi, I’m Budi. You just read a short note about a bigger series from Product Design OS.

If you find this post interesting, check out other short notes:

• Develop your product sense with this product teardown exercise

• FAQ list to structure your mind

• 10 useful business concepts for designers

• Most Important Task

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In practice, it's a skill to (1) discover user needs and (2) creatively develop solutions to address them. As a result, you can build a product that people want.

When someone has no product sense, they focus on the wrong things:

• Worrying about the timeline and launching it even though it's not valuable

• Ignoring small micro-interactions, so they fail to delight users

• Obsessing about the cool technology but not sure how it helps the users

Product designers should develop product sense. Here's how:

1. Pick one software you use the most (or popular product).

2. Find its competitor.

3. Do a product teardown exercise.

👋 Hi, I’m Budi. You’re reading a member-only edition🔒 from the Product Design OS series. It discusses tactics for building great software. Consider subscribing!

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Product teardown exercise

The goal of this exercise is to strengthen your product sense by using a product and analyzing it. Why some products work well, and others don't. It's an excellent opportunity to identify standard UX best practices and paradigms.

Let’s go through an example. I pick Duolingo and Memrise as a product teardown exercise. They’re in a similar category: to help people learn a new language.

#1: What’s the experience of getting started?

Observing how other products build momentum for new users when they start can help you design a good activation user journey.

Duolingo: My first experience with Duolingo was terrific. I noticed that Duolingo never asks me to sign up. I could instantly immerse myself in learning the new language. On top of that, there’s a fun character talking to me! That’s a moment of delight.

Memrise: With Memrise, I can see a real local person talking. That is great because I can start imitating how they talk. However, unlike Duolingo, the first-time experience in Memrise is more choppy. I must sign up, answer questions, and decide whether to subscribe to their pro plan.

Learnings: From this comparison exercise, I noticed that delaying sign-up as long as possible is valuable. The Apple Human Interface Guidelines also mention this. Additionally, I appreciate all the small animations that make me smile a little while using Duolingo. When we design software, we often are not intentional about what emotions we want our users to feel.

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I wake up at 4 a.m. and do deep work for 6 hours straight. I use Pomodoro for 1 hour to focus and 10 minutes of break.

It’s been amazing. I can stop working after lunch. My brain no longer thinks about work, and I can start my other activities (going to the gym, etc).

If interested, you can join the upcoming live and check my schedule. By joining the stream, you can focus on your work. We’ll be quiet during the focus session (1 hour) and probably chat a bit during the break.

Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life. — Haruki Murakami

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1 - Start small

Peter Thiel pointed out that you want an idea that becomes a monopoly. But you can't start a monopoly right away. You have to start small. Find a small market where you can get a monopoly and quickly expand. If you work in a startup, ask yourself: who are you targeting now?

2 - Three money questions

Mark Cuban often says that there are three basic questions when starting a business: What are your costs? How much can you sell it for? Can you make a profit? This may seem simplified, but ultimately, the business should care about that. Think about how you can save costs or increase profit. Cost, price, and profit.

3 - Selling is helping, not convincing

This is probably my favorite concept I've learned from Mark Cuban. Have you ever dealt with a salesperson who tries to sell you something? They never listen to what you need. So, if you are building a landing page or a marketing campaign, think about how to help the people you seek to serve.

4 - Five parts of every business

Every business must 1) create and deliver some value, 2) that other people want or need, 3) at a price they're willing to pay, 4) in a way that satisfies customers'’ needs and expectations, 5) so that the business can stay to operate and continue its mission.

5 - Attention is limited

We are good at filtering. We filter out what's not useful to us. To be noticed, you need to find a way to be more interesting or useful than your competition. When you build a product, think about why people should care. When you send that push notification, what's in it for them?

6 - Level of awareness

Sometimes, your prospect is not aware of the problem. So when you offer them a solution, they don't get it. There are four levels of awareness. 1) unaware, 2) problem awareness, 3) solution awareness, 4) full awareness. Full awareness is when the prospect is convinced that your offer is a good solution to their need.

7 - Expectation effect

Customers have their own perception of your product quality. After they purchase your product, the performance of the offering must surpass their expectations for the customer to be satisfied. Quality = performance—expectations.

8 - Hard to copy

One of Netflix's product strategies is to make its products hard to copy. The algorithm, the in-house film you can only watch on Netflix, and its branding are all hard to copy.

9 - Allowable Acquisition Cost (AAC)

If you spend more money on marketing than your sales, that's not good. Mark Cuban often says, "Don't buy your sales." So, the concept of AAC is useful because your business can calculate the lowest amount to spend on advertising to increase sales.

10 - Good-fit customers

Some customers are bad. They make a lot of requests, and they don't necessarily appreciate your business. You need to find good-fit customers, the ones who love your product. They usually understand your mission and are willing to pay for your product because it solves their pain point.

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Thanks for reading. If you like this article, check out my other posts:

1. How big consumer apps use modern authentication technology

2. Product designers should test the code

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• I publish a new article every Wednesday.

• Every month, there will be 1 free article and 3 paid articles.

• Paid subscribers can send me one question per month, and I’ll reply to it and be as helpful as possible. I’ll do this until I can’t handle the volume.

Context: I’ve been writing and sharing for 5 years. I want most of my work to be free, but I also need income to produce high-quality content to help you learn and grow as a product designer.

Since 2023, I’ve been building my own business and no longer get any steady income. Whenever I want to research and write an article, I hesitate because I could’ve done something else.

I almost decided to quit and stop this newsletter. But I love writing. Occasionally, some of you reach out and ask some questions. So, I feel it’s a bummer if I stop writing.

If you noticed, I’ve been experimenting with a new format for researching industry trends, such as how big consumer apps use modern authentication tech. Lots of you found it useful. I felt excited when I wrote that because I can do deeper research and share that with you.

Surprisingly, I got 40+ new paid subscribers to support me last month alone. This leads me to think: Maybe I should serve my supporters. I will keep writing but putting more content behind the paywall.

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Budi

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Now I have 2 cats! Anyways. I’ve been regularly walking and trying to hit 10,000 steps. I realized it’s therapeutic, considering I sit a lot due to my work.

If you find this post valuable, check out some of my other posts:

1. Design strategy for MVP

2. Essential skills to enter Product Design

3. About designing an onboarding experience

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Q: What authentication technology do big consumer apps use?

Passwords are no longer a reliable way to keep users secure. Many new and rising authentication technologies are available. I’ve been digging this topic and I’d love to share my findings, which could be useful for product designers and builders.

Method 1: Magic links (sign up and login)

Magic links are a passwordless way to authenticate users. After signing up, you’ll get an email with a link where you can click to authenticate yourself. Some companies like Slack, by default, don’t ask users to put in a password. This way, the company has less liability for making your password secure.

• User flow: Sign up/login → get a link on email → click the link → done

• Ideal for: sign up and sign in.

• Key benefit: users don’t store any passwords on your database. Less liability.

• Companies that use this method: Medium, Slack, Notion

Method 2: Passkey to login without password (login)

I noticed Google and GitHub have been pushing this new passkey technology recently. It’s a simple and secure alternative to passwords. When you sign in to your account, Google will ask you to scan your face or fingerprint on your other devices to confirm that you are who you say you are. This is another form of two-factor authentication. KAYAK claimed they’d improved their security after implementing passkey (link).

• User flow: sign in → verify using fingerprint or face ID → done

• Ideal for: sign-in, preventing phishing

• Key benefit: login without password, but verify using another device

• Keyword to look: passkey, passwordless

Method 3: Biometrics authentication instead of PIN (Open app)

In the past, many banking or fintech apps required users to enter PINs for extra security. But now biometrics like face ID and fingerprints have become a default way to “open the app.”

• User flow: open the app → face ID / fingerprint → done

• Ideal for banking, financial services, healthcare, or apps requiring extra security before users can open them. Apps like banking usually store sensitive information.

• Key security benefit: users can open the app quickly—better experience for users, but still have extra security.

• Companies who use this: Apple, Samsung, GoTrade, Wise, PayPal

Method 4: Phone number as an identifier (Sign up and login)

Many apps uses phone number as the unique identifier. WhatsApp is the first one popularize this approach. The obvious benefit is non-tech savvy people don’t have to remember usernames or passwords.

• Observation: all communication apps are using phone number as the only unique identifier.

• Key security benefit: Phone numbers are difficult to steal, unlike emails. When people noticed their phones are stolen, they can take action. So a lot of consumer apps these days utilizing this as the authentication method.

• Companies who use this: WhatsApp, Telegram, Wise, Tinder, Clubhouse

On two-factor authentication

A lot of apps has already integrated two-factor authentication. This is widely adopted authentication method. So I’m not gonna talk about it.

Bonus: 3D captcha for bot prevention

While researching, I found that Twitter and GitHub have been implementing this new captcha type. My guess is they’re trying to prevent the bots. It’s interesting because you need to solve the puzzles 3 times before creating an account.

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In summary

New and uprising authentication methods:

• Magic links: Allow users login or sign up without password. Magic links is the most convenient in term of the user experience, not many apps are using this but we’re seeing it in rising.

• One time code: Allow users login or sign up without password

• Passkey: Allow users to login using another device to verify

• Biometrics: Allow users to quickly open the app with sensitive info

• Phone number as unique identifier, friendly for mass audience with non-tech savvy users (example: WhatsApp)

• Almost all big consumer apps using two-factor authentication as an extra layers. Preventing identity theft.

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Each industry has unique concepts.

In fitness, there are concepts like training to fail or the keto diet.

In productivity, there are concepts like ADHD or Pomodoro.

You’ll find yourself researching some of these concepts when working on a project. You have to understand how people do things. That way, you can make a design decision.

This means two things.

One. You have to be good at Googling. Or ask good questions to AI.

Two. You have to collect that information and organize it. It can become complex. So here’s the trick: Make the FAQ list. Structure it in this simple format: question then answer. Here’s an example.

How do people download this app when we launch it?
Since we’re targeting the existing users, we will send them an email. In addition, we will make an announcement on our website. We will evaluate the % of users downloaded our app.

Some questions you might want to ask:

• What is (product name)?

• Why will this excite customers?

• Who can access this, and who can’t?

• How do we measure success on this project?

• How will we onboard new users?

So, make this list next time you’re doing your desk research. So you don’t get overwhelmed. Always come back to it and add more knowledge.

PS. I’m opening the first Product Design Fundamentals workshop. This is great if you want to learn the basics, and it is for people who want to switch careers to Product Design.

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If you’re not a paid subscriber, here are the things you missed:

• Design strategy for MVP (Part 0): Mindset when building MVP

• Design strategy for MPV (Part 1): Defining core use case

• Design strategy for MPV (Part 2): Defining core UX (Airbnb has no checkout)

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