product - Justin Paterno

How to raise money by selling NFT's of paperclips and bananas

In the last decade of tech blogging there's everything else that has been written, and then there is what Chris Dixon has written. I can't think of another person who has such a great hit rate both in prescience and memorability. Yesterday he wrote "NFTs and a Thousand True Fans"

startups

If You Were Starting from Scratch Today...

Note: Today's post is a bit of a ramble that I wrote in pieces as I got a free 10 minutes throughout the day. I could have sent it to the draft bin to live the rest of it's days next to such unfinished gems as "Web 2.0 Redux"

product

PM Software and Minimum Viable Process

I'm in the early days co-founding a new company and I've been very focused on early process, culture, and how things get built. While exciting at first over the years, I am now allergic to processes such as Agile and software that serves them. I love the concept of agile

tech

All of a sudden, Twitter is Doing Many Things

As someone who built a product that started off on Twitter, I follow what they do quite closely. Often times at Stocktwits we would see our roadmaps be eerily similar as both companies shared a core set of similar problems to solve. After years of focusing on improving the core

game design

GameStop and Bartle Player Types

I've written in the past that I'm very interested in Game Design as a lens for Product Design and a trend we will see really catch on in the coming years. Now that it's mostly over I thought it would be fun to look at the GameStop trade under such

product

What I've Learned so far in Product and Management Vol 2

Over the past year I've reflected a bunch on what I've learned, mistakes I've made, and slowly put together a long list of thoughts that I'm going to blog about in chunks. These are mostly about product management but many apply to all management. I published the first volume a

product

An Ode to No Code

One of the tech trends that excite me the most is No Code platforms, which allow those with little to no programming expertise to build applications. Perhaps the best example of a No Code platform is Shopify ($SHOP) - which has enabled entrepreneurs to quickly set up digital storefronts and

product

The Next Wave of Consumer Social Apps and Related Miscellany

A theme I've seen people getting behind is the idea that 2020 was the start of a new trend in social apps. As someone who spent most of his career building social products and really enjoy using them, it's been something on my mind. I coupled it with a couple

game design

Build the Toy First

Last week I wrote about how most teams build really bad MVP's. One alternative to Minimum Viable Product, I've heard mentioned by some people is Minimum Delightful Product. I don't hate that. Most teams when they set out to build an MVP forget that the goal is still to delight

management

What I've Learned So Far in Product and Management (Vol. 1)

Taking a break during the pandemic gave me plenty of time to clear my head and reflect. Over the past 9 months, I put together a running list of thoughts of things I've learned and/or mistakes I've made. Most of these are related to product management and startups, but

life

Spotify is Other Music delivered at Scale

I love music and I'm a heavy user of Spotify. Like many others, I really enjoy their annual "Wrapped" feature where they produce a personalized summary of my year using their service. For the music lover in me, it is rewarding and fun to see what I've listened to from

product

Analog and Digital Junk Drawers and the Beauty of Roam Research

Today I was straightening up the kitchen, and noticed that a bunch of random stuff was accumulating on top of a bench by the window. I was trying to figure out where to put the various items when it occurred to me - we never designated a junk drawer after

life

Attention to Detail Shock

I played varsity golf in high school and a little bit of club golf at college, but haven't played competitive golf since - nearly 20 years. In fact I haven't played much golf at all since then - each year playing less and less until last year, when I only

finance

The Stock Market Game

As I've been furnishing my home office, I've been picking out cool stuff to hang on the walls. One item I came across is this patent from 1950 for a Stock Market Game, filed by Parker Brothers. I had never heard of it but it looks like this game did