readme.md

How to Work with Me

An operating manual for working with me. Written for anyone who works with me: my team, my peers, my boss.

Quickstart

When in doubt, ship. Momentum compounds. A v1 in front of a real user teaches us more in a week than a research doc does in a month, so my default is to ship and iterate.

Be radically candid. No walking on eggshells. I assume positive intent and I love direct feedback. Dial it up to 11.

I fold a lot of good hands. Prioritizing means passing on good ideas to bet on the best ones for the company and our users. A no is a read on the odds, not on you.

About Me

I live just outside Washington, DC with my wife Sarah, our son Andrejs, and our dog Rigo. Away from a screen it's the garden, the woodshop, or lately a camera. Anything that keeps my hands busy. I'm a 90s kid raised on dial-up and the golden age of PC gaming. StarCraft, Age of Empires, and strategy games in general are my jam.

I also played poker professionally for two years, which I like to think helps me make product bets.

Things I Care About

Ideas over job titles. I hold people in high regard who allow themselves to be vulnerable and want to learn from others. "Do not discount ideas from unexpected sources. Inspiration can, and does, come from anywhere" (Ed Catmull).
Treating people the way you want to be treated. The Greeks called it xenia and put Zeus himself in charge of enforcing it: "all strangers and beggars are from Zeus" (Homer, The Odyssey).
Agency. Take a real swing at the problem with your own faculties. It has never been easier to learn or attempt something on your own, and agency is a superpower.
Picking up the phone. It's agency too. People want to help those who are curious and sincere, yet most people never make the call. Simply asking makes all the difference.
Autonomy, not micromanagement. It makes no sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do (Steve Jobs).
Learning by building. Doing is the fastest test of our assumptions; shipping shows us what works and what doesn't, which earns the next iteration. It has never been easier to build, so why not? As Feynman put it, "what I cannot create, I do not understand."
Four thousand weeks. I'm intentional about what I build and work on, not just efficient at it. "Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed" (Oliver Burkeman).
Being wrong. Genuinely, it's the fastest way to being right.
Understanding complex systems and making them understandable for others
Fun bets. I'm competitive and always up for one.

How I Work & Make Decisions

Decision-making. I'd rather make a reversible decision today than a perfect one next month. I lean on data and customer evidence, but I'll make fast calls with incomplete data when waiting costs more than being wrong.

Discovery is continuous. Not a phase, not a research sprint. Talk to customers weekly so the relationship exists before you need it. And don't ask them what they want; understand their motivations and their jobs to be done. What they ask for is a clue, not a spec.

Working rhythm. Async written updates over long sync status meetings; save the sync time for what actually needs debate. Meetings are a tax on shipping, so I keep them rare and sharp.

Deep work. My days are scattered by design: meetings, customer calls, interruptions. That's not wrong, being available is part of the job, but it's not where hard thinking happens. My deep work happens in the evening, roughly 7pm to midnight. If you're waiting on a deliverable from me, that's probably when it gets done, and I'll do my best to share it in a time-zone appropriate way.

Prioritization. Some good ideas get a "not now." That's a statement about sequencing and focus, not about the idea or the person who brought it. The fewer things we say yes to, the faster the yeses ship.

Communication

Slack for anything quick or time-sensitive. Email works but takes me longer. Linear or Notion for ticket specifics. Anything with nuance or tension in it deserves a real conversation.
Text before you call. If I don't already have your number, I probably won't answer.
Assume I've read anything sent to me within 24 hours. I may not reply, but I've seen it. Slower on back-to-back meeting days or when I'm traveling.
If you need me to do something, say so or tag me. Otherwise I'll read it and move on.
If you're blocked on me and I haven't noticed, ping me again. You're not being annoying, you're doing me a favor.
I like agendas. No agenda, no meeting. Let's get the time back.

Feedback & Growth

Give it direct, candid, and as close to the event as possible. Don't wait for performance reviews. I'd much rather hear it early and ugly than late and polished.
If saying it to my face is hard, that's fine. Write it to me async, drop it in a doc, or route it through someone you trust. The feedback matters more than the format, and I know asking for candor is easier than giving it to someone senior to you.
When I mess up, tell me proactively. Don't sit on it.
If you're unsure about anything, ask. I value proactive questions far more than confident guesses.
If you feel like you messed something up, tell me. I value a culture of openness and learning, not perfection.

My Blind Spots

I sometimes speak over people. Interrupt me and call it out, I'll be glad you did.
I move fast and assume shared context that isn't actually shared. If I'm three steps ahead of the room, stop me.
My ambition can outrun the calendar. I'm aware of it and balancing, but if my estimate sounds too good to be true, push back.

References

Sources that shaped how I think about building product:

From Pivot Hell to $1.4 Billion Unicorn, James Hawkins with Y Combinator. The source of the thesis above: the speed at which you ship is the single most important thing to your startup being successful.
Inspired, Marty Cagan. The case for empowered product teams: continuous discovery, prototypes over specs, and outcomes over output.
The Mom Test, Rob Fitzpatrick. How to talk to customers without leading the witness. It's where "what they ask for is a clue, not a spec" comes from.
Continuous Discovery Habits, Teresa Torres. The playbook behind "discovery is continuous": weekly customer touchpoints as a habit, not a phase.
The Lean Startup, Eric Ries. The build, measure, learn loop: shipping is how assumptions get tested and the next iteration gets earned.
Creativity, Inc., Ed Catmull. Pixar's operating manual for creative culture: candor, ideas from anywhere, and low-ego collaboration.
Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman. Time management for mortals: finitude as the reason to choose deliberately, not a problem to optimize away.
High Agency in 30 Minutes, George Mack. The case for agency as the defining trait of this era: the bias to act, figure things out, and treat obstacles as solvable.