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Defining Cultural Infrastructure
One of my favourite quotes is, “Succesful products are 20% strategy, 30% execution and 50% culture” - (which I first heard from Shreyas Doshi , but later heard from numerous other sources). Despite my belief that culture is a significant factor, when discussing product with leadership teams, they typically either ignore, misunderstand or discount culture. This led me to explore if culture is as a significant factor as I believe by evaluating the cultural differences between technology-centric organisations and non-technology focused organisations. And lastly, prompted me to design a framework I am calling “cultural infrastructure”, to aid the assessment and improvement of organisational culture within product led organisations.
Top 10 Books of 2020
I set myself a challenge at the start of the year to read 20 books in 2020. This seemed reasonable at the time, but for very obvious reasons this year has been a roller-coaster year. My most productive reading time had always been flights and commuting to the office both of which ended at the start of the year. Thankfully, I managed to get back on track, so without further ado here are my top reads of 2020.
Understanding Digital Services - The Value of Curation
A few months ago, I wrote about Apple’s services focused growth strategy. I expressed a number of concerns. One is the potential cultural damage this shift could cause and the other, the long term viability of privacy-focused services strategy; as it lacks the ability to capture valuable user data. After taking some time to digest Apple’s latest (March 2019) keynote, I am far less concerned. Mainly due to a key aspect that I feel that I and many others missed, the importance of curation.
Logical induction - How insights from financial markets could play a role in making AI safer
One of the most interesting conversations taking place today is about the possibility of building a general AI; a machine that is capable of performing like humans in a wide range of tasks. A similarly driven group, have been passionately leading a discussion as to the safety of these systems. In the last year, these researchers have had a key breakthrough, uniquely inspired by financial markets.
Apple’s pivoting growth strategy
Earlier this month Apple announced to its investors that they were revising their guidance for Apple’s fiscal 2019 first quarter. This was followed by a financial report which showed a 10 billion fall in year on year revenue. While many have been quick to prophesy a bleak future for the tech giant. I believe that this announcement is simply the largest tremor from a shift in strategy that started years ago.
Making This Site Faster
People are notoriously impatient when online, with 53% of users abandoning sites if they take longer than 3 seconds to load. This problem is further exacerbated by the large number of users on slow/inconsistent mobile networks. I wanted to create a website that was a pleasant experience for everyone that visits it. One of the key metrics for this is speed.
Making This Site Accessible
I want to be able to share this website with everyone, no matter who they are, what device/software they’re using, or the speed/quality of the network they are on.
