Do you read me, HAL?
Hello world

Introducing a series of articles about product management and product design at companies gigantic and tiny

THIS STUB IS standing in for an article that I plan to write about my perspective on agile, iterative product management and design, having seen these methods in practice at resource-rich technology companies such as Google, and having seen how slightly smaller and slightly less resource-rich startups do things. Large and small companies have a lot to learn from each other, and I hope this theme will make for a useful series of articles.

Please hang in there while i crank the arm of this Web engine. It should start up in a second or two…

Latest posts


Streamlined operations
Look for a manila envelope on your desk

*Group IV, The Ten Largest, No. 7, Adulthood (1907) by Hilma af Klint, Guggenheim Museum, New York City* WE HAD BEEN WORKING for almost two years on a...

Stefan Smagula, Dec 28, 2024
Big batch, waterfall, big bang
T-minus three, two, one...wait, what's going on?

TO FULLY GRASP this story, you'll need to have some idea of what the years 1999 to 2001 were like if you were working on Web sites. It...

Stefan Smagula, Dec 18, 2024
The browser project
He said "All you have to do now is just write the code"

MORTON GREETED ME with a conspiratorial smile, which was odd because we had just met. He was the C-level executive of a company, and I was just some...

Stefan Smagula, Dec 8, 2024
Distribution
What I learned from the first browser I worked on

*Group IX / SUW, No. 1, The Swan, No. 1, 1914-1915, by Hilma af Klint (1862-1944)* RIGHT BEFORE THE DOT COM boom blossomed into peak irrational exuberance I...

Stefan Smagula, Nov 30, 2024
Lard and felt
What Joseph Beuys can teach product managers and designers

IN AN EARLIER post, I wrote about the connections between research, product management, user experience design, product design, and prototyping. This post expands on the same theme: the...

Stefan Smagula, Oct 13, 2017

To 'Augment Human Intelligence'

My goal is to help create software that extends our hands and minds and improves people's lives

Curious about the world

I'm curious about the connections between disciplines, the places where radically different ideas get yoked together to create something new.

Product management and design

I research, validate, and prioritize efforts so teams can focus on highest value, lowest complexity work. My background is in UX and product design.

Spirit of invention

Douglas Englebart and Vannevar Bush demonstrated that software can extend our minds. It's this spirit of invention that inspires me.

Get in touch