Perspectives on Product
The Release
There comes a moment when the product is no longer yours. You ship it. You watch people interact with it. You realize that it's no longer just an idea in your head… it's something living in the hands and minds of others.
This is where the ego gets in the way of many founders. There's a temptation to control, to cling, to dictate how people should use what you've made. But products, like art, like music, like books, take on a life of their own. Your job isn't to resist that evolution. Your job is to watch, listen, and adjust.
The best products allow customers to become part of the ongoing creative process. The product will tell you what it needs to become next. Customers will offer feedback, and you, as the product's steward, must help determine which ideas will help the product develop to its highest potential. This reflects what psychologists recognize as co-regulation: the dynamic process through which relationships evolve and grow through mutual responsiveness and adaptation.
Here's where so many founders fall apart: They build something meaningful, and then they hide it. They feel uncomfortable promoting their work. They think marketing is somehow beneath them. They don't want their name attached to something that isn't "perfect." They worry about criticism from people whose opinions shouldn't matter.
They're afraid of failing publicly.
They don't talk about it. They don't market it. They let it sit in obscurity, waiting to be discovered, hoping that if it's good enough, people will magically find it.
But here's the truth… if you've put in the work, if you've co-created something that deserves to exist, then part of your responsibility is to let it be seen.
Marketing isn't self-promotion. It's not vanity. It's the final act of bringing a product to life. Just like an artist exhibits their work, just like a musician goes on tour, you owe it to your product to give it the space to reach its people. I distinctly recall before one of Microsoft's big press events, Panos Panay saying: The launch is the final phase of building the product.’ To launch properly is to honor both the product and the team that built it.
Tyler the Creator expressed a similar frustration: "You spent all this time recording, mixing, and mastering your album, and you put it on your IG story ONCE?!" You have to stand by the product you made. Don't abandon your creation the moment it's most vulnerable.
Branding, storytelling, and positioning… these aren't superficial concerns. They're how you create an invitation. They're how you say, "This is what I made. This is why it matters. This is who it's for."
In this way, the product completes its journey from the mystery of inspiration, through the discipline of development, to the generosity of sharing. Not a straight line of pure will, as Thiel might suggest, but a dance between receptivity and action, between listening and building, between holding on and letting go.
This circular path echoes Joseph Campbell's hero's journey: the departure into the unknown, the initiation through challenges, and the return bearing gifts. The product creator follows this archetypal pattern: receiving the call of inspiration, struggling through development, and ultimately sharing the creation with the community that awaits it. Through this process, both creator and creation are transformed.
Growing in a Spiral
In therapy, we talk about how healing happens in a spiral. You revisit the same wounds over and over in a way that initially feels irritating that you’re not “over it,” but each time it’s revisited you gain self-insight in a new way.
The product journey I've described is similar - it is not linear, but cyclical—a continuing spiral of receptivity and action, listening and building, surrender and choice. It stands in quiet rebellion against the dominant narrative of creation as conquest, offering instead a path of creation as communion.
This approach requires a certain courage—the courage to allow yourself to be changed by what you create, to hold your vision firmly while remaining open to surprise, to trust the unfolding process even when the path ahead isn't clear. It demands a willingness to embrace paradox: that the most impactful products emerge not from total control but from an exquisite balance between intention and receptivity.
I believe we're entering an era where this balanced approach to creation will become not just spiritually satisfying but strategically essential. In a world saturated with soulless products with copy-paste UIs, optimized only for metrics, people increasingly hunger for digital experiences that honor their full humanity—tools that serve not just efficiency but meaning, not just functionality but emotional resonance.
The most successful creators of our time understand this intuitively. They know that lasting impact comes not from imposing their will onto the world but from aligning their efforts with deeper currents of human need and aspiration. They approach their work not with the arrogance of conquerors but with the humility of gardeners—creating favorable conditions, removing obstacles, and trusting in the mysterious unfolding of what wants to grow.
This is the essence of the Tao of Product: not a methodology to master, but a relationship to nurture. Not a destination to reach, but a path to walk with awareness and care. Not a formula for control, but an invitation to co-creation.
The products that emerge from this approach don't just solve problems—they become companions on our human journey. They don't just disrupt markets—they elevate experiences.
They don't just drive metrics—they foster moments of genuine connection, clarity, and joy.
In bringing such products into the world, we participate in something larger than ourselves—a continuing conversation between human creativity and human need, between what technology makes possible and what humanity makes meaningful. This is work worth doing with our full presence, our deepest attention, and our open hearts.
The Tao of Product isn't just about building better products. It's about becoming better creators. And perhaps, in the process, better humans.
The Difference Between Good and Beloved
A product can be good without being beloved. What makes something beloved? Detail. Thoughtfulness. The thousand tiny, invisible decisions that transform a functional experience into a felt one. Opinions that come from deep listening.
And yet, importantly: not perfectionism.
People fall in love with things that make them feel seen. This is why UX isn't just interface design. It's intimacy. It's the slight delay in an animation that makes an interaction feel smooth, rather than rushed. It's the microcopy that acknowledges what the user is probably thinking. It's the branding that not only looks good but also feels right. It's the emotional experience you're helping facilitate through the app. It's building a world that feels coherent and purposeful.
This speaks to our fundamental psychological need for attunement—that profound experience of feeling recognized and understood that begins in our earliest relationships and remains essential throughout life. When a product achieves this level of attunement, it creates a resonance that transcends mere functionality to become a genuine relationship.
But it's not perfectionism.
Perfectionism is rooted in fear and shame.
Perfectionism actually never even ships a product because it's never "good enough."
Apple, Pixar, Glossier… these brands obsess over details. Not because they're chasing an impossible ideal of perfection but because they understand that when something is designed with reverence for the user's experience, people can feel it.
Reverence - details - yet, knowing when to ship. This balance is crucial, and it's what separates the theoretical from the actual, the idea from the product.
The Art of Unexpected Reference
At the heart of creating resonance lies a practice that may seem counterintuitive: drawing inspiration from realms that seem unrelated to your product.
My own design practice involves a deliberate expansion of vision: seeking references horizontally across disciplines rather than vertically within a single industry.
For a health technology application, I might find myself drawn to the structural elegance of Balmain, the understated luxury of Loro Piana, and the vibrant cultural fusion of Aimé Leon Dore. These references aren't arbitrary aesthetic preferences; they're resonant patterns that speak to deeper emotional and psychological qualities the product aims to embody. Perhaps confidence, enduring value, or dignity at any age.
A beauty tech platform might find its visual identity influenced by Pedro Almodóvar's signature red (a color that pulses with life, passion, and transformation) combined with elements drawn from fruit packaging or artisanal food labels that evoke sensory richness and natural abundance.
This practice of cross-pollination requires presence in the world. Walking through neighborhoods to observe wild postings, maintaining a daily practice of scrolling through diverse feeds, and consuming art and culture across media and genres. It means reading countless newsletters, following creators whose work feels alive, and collecting impressions that might initially seem disconnected from your explicit purpose.
The goal isn't derivative aesthetics but genuine synthesis: connecting dots between indie film, luxury fashion, architecture, food packaging, and local culture in ways that create something genuinely novel. When done with integrity, this approach doesn't result in appropriation but in translation, taking the emotional essence of inspiration and allowing it to express itself in a new context.
This practice stands in opposition to the closed loop of many digital design approaches, where apps reference other apps in an increasingly self-referential spiral.
The most vibrant products emerge when their creators spend less time looking at screens and more time engaging in activities such as dancing, painting, conversing with elders, or simply walking with awareness through the world around them.
Great design doesn't come from staring at what others have designed; it comes from developing the capacity to see what others have missed.
on Creative Devotion
Building something great isn't about brute force. It's not about imposing your will onto an idea until it bends to your version of what's best. At least, not if you want people to love it.
Rick Rubin talks about making a musical album as a kind of spiritual devotion… an artist's job is not to manufacture the music, but to clear the conditions so that it can emerge in its highest form.
Product design follows this same pattern. Your job isn't to dictate. Your job is to listen deeply.
I know this sounds incredibly woo-woo in a business context, but remember: human beings are not logical creatures with occasional emotions, but emotional beings with occasional logic. We design primarily for emotional experience. The mind and heart are not separate territories but integrated aspects of a unified human experience, what psychologists recognize as the inseparability of cognitive and affective processes, what poets call the intelligence of the heart.
A level of ease and predictability is absolutely required when using an app, but that doesn't mean creating something derivative or soulless. It means:
Having the discipline to show up daily to do the work and finish the project, but not imposing artificial deadlines created from false urgency. Don't launch a shitty product just to have it be “done.” Take it to its highest expression.
Recognizing what the product inherently is and what it needs. Resisting the urge to pile on features just because you "should." Attune to the product as if it were your child, revealing what they're naturally drawn to and who they're becoming.
Understanding that great UX is felt more than it's seen. Imagine the app's emotional impact and facilitate your users' desired emotional experience. This mirrors what psychologists call "affect regulation,” creating environments that help people maintain optimal emotional states.
Letting the product tell you what it wants to be, not the other way around. This part is essential. The product has its own integrity. You have to let it breathe. You have to let it become its own thing. The Buddhist principle of non-attachment offers wisdom here, holding your vision with conviction while remaining unattached to specific manifestations.
People can sense when something has been crafted with care versus manufactured for efficiency. It's the difference between a meal cooked by someone who loves to cook and a plate of food optimized for margins. One tastes like presence… the other tastes like obligation. The Japanese concept of kokoro captures this distinction perfectly: the quality of heart-mind unity that infuses objects made with full presence and integrity.
The Product Finds You
Every breakthrough product begins with an unexpected convergence. That moment when an idea crystallizes, often during routine activities when our analytical minds are occupied elsewhere. You're commuting, exercising, or transitioning between tasks, and suddenly: clarity. A complete concept materializes, feeling both surprising and inevitable.
This phenomenon aligns with established research on creative cognition. Csikszentmihalyi's work on incubation periods demonstrates how breakthrough insights emerge during mental downtime, when subconscious processing can form novel connections without conscious interference.
Key insight: The best ideas feel less like inventions and more like discoveries, as if they were waiting to be recognized rather than created from scratch.
Beyond the "Force of Will" Paradigm
Silicon Valley's dominant narrative emphasizes individual determination and analytical problem-solving as the primary drivers of innovation. While discipline and strategic thinking are essential, this framework misses a critical component: the receptive capacity to recognize genuinely transformative opportunities.
Traditional Approach:
Market analysis → Problem identification → Solution engineering
Linear progression from research to product
Innovation as purely analytical exercise
Alternative Framework:
Lived experience → Intuitive recognition → Collaborative development
Organic emergence through authentic engagement
Innovation as synthesis of analysis and intuition
The Practice of Productive Attention
Across creative disciplines, practitioners describe similar processes: maintaining heightened awareness while allowing space for unexpected patterns to emerge. This requires:
Structured Receptivity:
Consistent engagement with problem domains
Regular exposure to user contexts and feedback
Systematic documentation of observations and insights
Protected time for reflection and synthesis
Authentic Foundation: Founders who develop products addressing problems they've personally experienced bring irreplaceable contextual understanding. This lived knowledge provides intuitive validation that pure market research cannot replicate.
Implementation Framework
Phase 1: Recognition Create conditions for genuine insight emergence through sustained engagement with problem contexts rather than abstract market analysis.
Phase 2: Validation Test initial concepts through deep user dialogue, prioritizing understanding over confirmation bias.
Phase 3: Collaborative Development Maintain openness to product evolution through ongoing user relationships while preserving core vision integrity.
Practical Applications
This approach doesn't eliminate analytical rigor—it integrates analytical tools with intuitive recognition. Successful implementation requires:
Personal Investment: Founders maintaining authentic connection to problem domains
User Partnership: Development as ongoing conversation rather than unilateral creation
Adaptive Structure: Systematic processes that remain responsive to emerging insights
Next Steps
For teams interested in incorporating these principles:
Workshop Topic: "Founder-Problem Alignment Assessment"
Evaluate authentic connection to problem domains
Identify areas where market analysis might be supplementing rather than replacing lived experience
Develop protocols for maintaining user relationship depth throughout development cycles
Discussion Questions:
What problems do you solve in your own life that might benefit others?
How do you balance analytical validation with intuitive recognition?
Where might your current processes be optimizing for speed over depth of understanding?
Quick thought: The most successful products I've encountered feel like they were inevitable once you see them—not because they were obvious, but because they solve problems in ways that feel deeply right. That "rightness" usually comes from founders who've lived with the problem long enough to understand it from the inside out.
The Tao of Product
Something that's been on my mind lately is the whole "move fast and break things" mentality that's dominated tech for years. Don't get me wrong, speed matters, but I'm seeing a pattern here that's worth discussing.
The Problem with Pure Hustle Culture
We're surrounded by stories of the brilliant solo founder who pulls all-nighters, pivots seventeen times, and somehow emerges victorious through sheer determination. It's a compelling narrative, but here's what I've observed after years in this space:
The best products don't come from conquest – they come from conversation.
What Actually Works: The Relationship Approach
Instead of forcing solutions onto markets, the successful founders I work with tend to approach product development differently:
They start with genuine problems they've lived through
They listen more than they pitch
They build relationships before they build features
Key insight: Technical excellence alone doesn't create beloved products. There's something more subtle at play – a quality of understanding and connection that goes beyond functionality.
The Founder-Problem Fit That Actually Matters
Here's what I've noticed consistently works:
Authentic Connection > Market Analysis
The most successful founders I encounter aren't just solving problems they've researched – they're solving problems they've experienced. There's an unmistakable difference between someone who's identified a market opportunity and someone who carries the solution in their bones.
Next Steps: A Different Approach
In upcoming posts, I'll share practical frameworks for:
Building products as ongoing conversations with users
Balancing structured development with organic discovery
Creating conditions for authentic innovation to emerge
This isn't about throwing out business discipline – it's about combining rigor with intuition, metrics with meaning.
The Bottom Line
Products that people love aren't just functional tools – they become trusted companions in people's lives. Getting there requires a different approach than the standard "build-scale-exit" playbook.
What's your experience? Are you building something you genuinely care about, or chasing what you think the market wants?
P.S. If you're working on something that feels more like calling than just a business opportunity, I'd love to connect. These are the conversations that energize me most.
Introducing Luminique: A Fresh Spin on App Design & Development
Today marks an exciting milestone as we officially launch Luminique—your new partner in crafting exceptional digital experiences. We’re not just another app design and development agency; we’re here to reimagine how brands connect with their audiences through innovative, beautifully crafted apps.
Our Vision
At Luminique, we believe that great design is more than just aesthetics—it’s about creating meaningful interactions that resonate with users. Our vision is simple: fuse creativity with cutting-edge technology to develop apps that are not only visually stunning but also intuitive and user-friendly. We see a future where digital solutions empower businesses to tell their stories in fresh, engaging ways.
Our Angle
We take a holistic approach to app development. Instead of offering one-size-fits-all solutions, our team dives deep into understanding your brand’s unique identity and goals. By blending the art of design with technical expertise, we create digital experiences that are both innovative and impactful. Our process is collaborative and transparent, ensuring that every step of the journey reflects our commitment to quality and creativity.
What We Bring to the Table
Creative Excellence: Our design philosophy centers on simplicity and elegance, ensuring that every interface feels as intuitive as it is beautiful.
Technical Innovation: With a robust team of developers, we build apps that are scalable, secure, and built to adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape.
User-Centric Focus: We put your users first. By understanding their behaviors and needs, we craft experiences that keep them coming back.
Collaborative Spirit: At Luminique, we see every project as a partnership. Your vision is our mission, and together, we’ll create something truly extraordinary.
Join Us on the Journey
We’re excited to start this adventure and invite you to join us as we push the boundaries of what’s possible in the digital space. Whether you’re a startup looking to make a splash or an established brand aiming to reinvent your digital presence, Luminique is here to light the way.
Thank you for being part of our launch. Stay tuned for more updates, insights, and stories as we continue to innovate and inspire in the world of app design and development.
Welcome to Luminique—where your vision meets our creativity, and together, we illuminate the future of digital experiences.