The best teams I’ve worked with have shared one commonality. We had a strong opinion on what we are building – almost to an obnoxious level. A belief that what we are building is the correct solution for the problem. We knew what to do and how to do it, usually. And sure, when there was enough evidence to the contrary we course corrected and changed our opinions. But we always had an opinion.

Have you ever noticed that feedback is implicitly considered to be right, when it’s purely opinion? What someone thinks of something is their opinion. Feedback is rarely about facts, it’s about feel, which is great except when it’s taken as truth.

– Jason Fried

Conversely, I’ve worked on teams missing this opinionated approach. Where the team is stifled by indecision and relies on research or data to tell them their next move, no matter how small that may be. They can only react to what is in front of them and miss the capacity to interpret feedback that aligns with, or goes against the greater product direction. This is usually where good ideas go to die and the status quo wins out.

As a product designer myself I've always become bogged down in irrelevant details and options when designing my personal portfolio site. I’ll typically have a tonne of content ready to show the world, but get distracted by excessive options and indecision. I've had a need time and time again for a platform to easily allow me to showcase my work in a professional, content first approach with little visual cruft.

Traditional web platforms cater to everyone, and ultimately no-one. Onplace is not for everyone. We will be offering layout options for designers, architects, photographers and writers. That's it. This focus allows us to deliver presentation options that fit seamlessly with your work, and don’t distract from it.

Onplace is in an early stage, and we will be rolling out access as the product develops. Join the early access list.

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I worked with Floe in 2019 on designing the first version of their product. The app measures your physiological response to preprepared exercises and adapts real-time with visual and aural guides that help you achieve a focused, creative, or calm state of mind.

With use Floe tracks your results over time and adapts to serve more challenging and fulfilling exercises as your skill increases. In a team environment, administrators can set specific exercise schedules for employees, and get aggregated feedback.

A configurable dashboard allowed Floe administrators to track team progress over time, and view the impact on the team. Accuracy, usage, streaks, self-reported sentiment, mood and additional metrics could be cross referenced between departments, or groups of users.

After each exercise session, the participant can visually see their performance and compare with historical data.