Insights
Ideas on product strategy, human-centered design, building businesses, and using new technology to solve old problems.
What Happens When AI Replaces the Middle Class?
If AI takes over office jobs, what will people do? Where will they work? The honest answer is nobody knows for sure — but restaurants might be part of it.
AI Won't Save You From Building the Wrong Thing
AI-powered lean teams are the new flex in Silicon Valley. But the real advantage isn't fewer people — it's faster learning.
The Interface Is Dead. Now What?
Why the companies closest to the problem will win the AI era — and why that might finally include yours.
Stop Waiting for the Super-App — Your Business Needs to Become One
The super-app isn't arriving as a single product from Silicon Valley. It's being assembled by every business willing to ask: where is the friction?
Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Fix
Restaurant owners are natural fixers. But jumping to a solution before you understand the real problem is how good operators waste time and money.
Stop Watching Your Competition
That new restaurant down the street is doing well. So what? Your guests will tell you more about how to grow your business than your competitors ever will.
How Your Guests Decide What to Pay For
Why will someone pay $18 for a burger at one restaurant and think $14 is too much at another? It comes down to how they feel, not just what's on the plate.
How to Think About Menu Pricing
Pricing your menu is one of the hardest parts of running a restaurant. Here's a simple way to think about it that goes beyond just food cost.
Who Actually Decides Where to Eat?
The person eating the meal and the person who picked the restaurant are often two different people. Understanding both changes how you market your place.
Your Regulars Are Your Best Advisors
The best feedback about your restaurant isn't on Yelp. It's in the heads of the people who come back every week.
Test Your Ideas Before You Bet on Them
The best restaurant operators don't just go with their gut. They test small, track what happens, and let the results tell them what to do next.
Too Many Choices Will Cost You Customers
When people can't decide, they don't decide. That's true at the grocery store, and it's true at your restaurant.
Measure Twice, Cut Once
The biggest mistakes in a restaurant usually happen when you make a big decision too fast with too little information. Here's how to make cheaper mistakes.
Listen Like Your Business Depends on It
The tech world calls it 'human-centered design.' In restaurants, it's simpler than that: pay attention to what your guests are telling you, and act on it.
The Psychology Behind Your Menu
Your guests don't make rational decisions about what to order. They follow patterns. Understanding those patterns can help you design a menu that works.
Not Every New Idea Is a Good Idea
Someone on your team has a great idea. Maybe it is great. But how do you know? Here's how to test new ideas without betting the business on them.
The Next Social Network
Where the next dominant social network will emerge — and why the current incumbents will probably miss it.
Simple Document Collaboration
The everyday problem nobody's solved well: simple, shared, threaded document collaboration that works for people who live in email.
Can Microsoft leverage LinkedIn's Platform?
Microsoft just bought LinkedIn. Whether that's a bargain or a boondoggle depends on something most acquirers ignore — the user experience.
You Can't Fake What Makes Your Restaurant Special
The best marketing for your restaurant isn't something you can buy. It's the real stories your guests tell when they leave.
Redesign our Design Thinking
Design thinking has drifted toward aesthetics. The case for redirecting it back to outcomes the user actually feels.
Lemonade
What every entrepreneur can learn from a kid's lemonade stand — and why you should always stop and buy a cup.
A Dangerous Groove
Find your line: why staying just outside the comfort zone is where the best work happens — and how a groove becomes a rut.
Jerk
On the loss of the personal web — and why authentic publishing on a site of your own still matters.
Presentation Tips
Practical advice for sharper, more memorable presentations — from a speaker who's done a lot of them.
Non-Disclosure Agreements
Why most NDAs are more friction than protection — and a simple, one-page alternative that actually works.
Swim Lanes
Two meters is much narrower than you think. Why disciplined focus — and respect for everyone else's — is how teams actually win.
Deposits
Why a deposit on professional services isn't negotiable — and what it says about a client who won't pay one.
User Feedback and Product Design
How much user feedback should shape product design — and when to seek it. Ask early, ask often, vary your audience.
A Place to Call Home
Why creative communities need a home of their own — and what it really takes to build one in a major city.
8 Days
A short note about why the Atlanta Web Design Group needed a home of its own — and how to build one.
Freelancer or Agency?
The line between freelancer and agency isn't as clean as it sounds — and the way you define yourself shapes how others define your work.
Design Corrosion
Software often gets worse as it gets bigger. The slow corrosion of design-by-committee, and how to keep your guideposts visible.
On Speaking
Without great speakers, you just have a trade show. A few thoughts for anyone organizing an event on a budget.
Renegade
Real change in stagnant industries comes from one of two places — and neither of them is the corner office.
40 in 240
Pragmatism kills more dreams than failure does. The case for following the voice of passion — even into a 'real' career.
Unlabel
Marc Ecko's hard-earned wisdom on building a brand that delivers on its promises — and why visions should start small.
The Upside of Failure
Most quitting happens in the mind before the muscles give out. Why pushing past your perceived limits is where real growth lives.
Lacerations
A bloody reminder that distraction has a real cost — and that clarity might be the cheapest, most valuable thing we can give ourselves.
Resolutions
Public accountability for a short list of resolutions: focus on the positive, listen, and never stop learning.
The Paradox of Easy
Making something easy on one side of a transaction usually makes it harder on the other. Why tipping the scale toward the customer is what pays off.
The Speed of Dreams
Why goals aren't the same as dreams — and what it costs to wait too long to chase the things that actually matter.
Don't Be Evil
Google's mantra is well known. As they collect more of our data, the question is whether their grip on privacy will hold under shareholder pressure.
Consider the Source
Every message we encounter came from an agenda. Why the source matters as much as the message itself.
Handle It Once
A simple framework for managing email and other incoming streams: every item gets handled to one of three resolutions before you move on.
Monotony Breeds Creativity
Why streamlining the small decisions frees up your best thinking for the things that actually matter.
TV is Changing Forever
How shifting distribution power on the web is reshaping the broadcast networks — and what happens when the old gatekeepers stop being gatekeepers.