CrossFade 01: The Abstract Painter's Product Mind

I’ve been an abstract painter for longer than I’ve been a product designer.
One of the coolest things about painting is that I rarely know exactly where the piece will take me.

Sometimes I have a vibe in mind, something I saw on the street. I may have ideas about composition, tension, color, or scale. It goes something like “Just feeling big and green today” (I love those days)

As I paint, the painting changes the problem.

And something accidental becomes the most important part of the canvas. Or I realize I’ve spent two hours carefully protecting the thing that’s actually holding the piece back.

Product strategy works surprisingly similarly.

We love to treat strategy as something we figure out first and execute second:
Research → insight → strategy → roadmap → build.
But the interesting problems don’t behave that politely (ask any UX designer). A strong strategy gives you direction and constraints. Then you put something into the world and pay attention to what happens.
New behavior appears. An assumption collapses. Something “seemed” small turns out to matter enormously. The feature everyone loved in Zoom meetings turns out to be completely expendable.
The skill isn’t predicting all of this correctly. It’s recognizing what the new information means, and being willing to change the composition. Being willing to let your customers help shape the product. Like really. Really. (no REALLY)
Painting taught me that commitment matters. But attachment is dangerous.
You have to know the difference.

Crossfade is a series about the useful connections between things that don’t appear to have much to do with each other.