Eric Müller

Every product that I've ever worked on, we go into thinking we have all the budget in the world, and everyone has very lofty ideas, and you have that first round where you decide, what do we absolutely need to go live with? And that first pass at that early on in the project, I think is really critical, right?

Every product that I've ever worked on, we go into thinking we have all the budget in the world, and everyone has very lofty ideas, and you have that first round where you decide, what do we absolutely need to go live with? And that first pass at that early on in the project, I think is really critical, right?

Because you've got everyone together, everyone's very focused, everyone's very optimistic, And you can put the brakes on a little bit and say, let's do this thing, right? Let's think about it, but let's be realistic, right? What you're describing is not what you need for the first version. You're describing what you need, maybe five versions. This is 10 years from now. So that's my first pass.

Because you've got everyone together, everyone's very focused, everyone's very optimistic, And you can put the brakes on a little bit and say, let's do this thing, right? Let's think about it, but let's be realistic, right? What you're describing is not what you need for the first version. You're describing what you need, maybe five versions. This is 10 years from now. So that's my first pass.

Because you've got everyone together, everyone's very focused, everyone's very optimistic, And you can put the brakes on a little bit and say, let's do this thing, right? Let's think about it, but let's be realistic, right? What you're describing is not what you need for the first version. You're describing what you need, maybe five versions. This is 10 years from now. So that's my first pass.

And I love taking advantage of that because like I said, everyone's very optimistic. Everyone's very happy and very excited. And so it's very easy to rein people in because it's like, yeah, we can have that conversation. It's no big deal. And we can make trade-offs. And so you really want to take advantage of that.

And I love taking advantage of that because like I said, everyone's very optimistic. Everyone's very happy and very excited. And so it's very easy to rein people in because it's like, yeah, we can have that conversation. It's no big deal. And we can make trade-offs. And so you really want to take advantage of that.

And I love taking advantage of that because like I said, everyone's very optimistic. Everyone's very happy and very excited. And so it's very easy to rein people in because it's like, yeah, we can have that conversation. It's no big deal. And we can make trade-offs. And so you really want to take advantage of that.

Then there comes this moment in the middle of the project and people are trying to increase scope. There's always that opportunity, right? That's often someone deciding they want to impress their manager or they really have a feature they just really love and they don't want to let it go.

Then there comes this moment in the middle of the project and people are trying to increase scope. There's always that opportunity, right? That's often someone deciding they want to impress their manager or they really have a feature they just really love and they don't want to let it go.

Then there comes this moment in the middle of the project and people are trying to increase scope. There's always that opportunity, right? That's often someone deciding they want to impress their manager or they really have a feature they just really love and they don't want to let it go.

I always like to look at them and say, if I get a bad feeling around that decision, I look at them and I say, that's a great idea, but I'm concerned about its delivery. Is this something that you want to go to your CEO and say, we are late because of this feature? There's a lot of different ways to phrase it, but that's the bottom line question.

I always like to look at them and say, if I get a bad feeling around that decision, I look at them and I say, that's a great idea, but I'm concerned about its delivery. Is this something that you want to go to your CEO and say, we are late because of this feature? There's a lot of different ways to phrase it, but that's the bottom line question.

I always like to look at them and say, if I get a bad feeling around that decision, I look at them and I say, that's a great idea, but I'm concerned about its delivery. Is this something that you want to go to your CEO and say, we are late because of this feature? There's a lot of different ways to phrase it, but that's the bottom line question.

And you would be surprised, probably not, at how many people look up to the sky and scratch their head and go, we can wait until the second version of the product.

And you would be surprised, probably not, at how many people look up to the sky and scratch their head and go, we can wait until the second version of the product.

And you would be surprised, probably not, at how many people look up to the sky and scratch their head and go, we can wait until the second version of the product.

Our roadmap was very loose. We focused on finding very interesting work. When Jason founded the company, he was like, we're not going to be a designer. We can work with designers, and we're going to have people who are thoughtful about design on our technical staff, and we're going to have product managers and all that. We're going to think about design, but we're not a design firm.

Our roadmap was very loose. We focused on finding very interesting work. When Jason founded the company, he was like, we're not going to be a designer. We can work with designers, and we're going to have people who are thoughtful about design on our technical staff, and we're going to have product managers and all that. We're going to think about design, but we're not a design firm.

Our roadmap was very loose. We focused on finding very interesting work. When Jason founded the company, he was like, we're not going to be a designer. We can work with designers, and we're going to have people who are thoughtful about design on our technical staff, and we're going to have product managers and all that. We're going to think about design, but we're not a design firm.