Prototypes, Products & Pride
How I think about the creation process from rough ideas to precise software
One of the questions I like to ask people is:
“What product have you shipped that you are proud of?”
People’s responses to this are revealing. Very few people create things. Even fewer actually ship them. A vanishingly small number of people are proud of what they have shipped. Even then, if they are proud, most of them should not be. Almost all software in the world is absolutely horrendous. It is so hard to create great software.
I have not shipped something I am proud of—yet.
It is one of the things I would like to do before I die.
With this backdrop, I want to share how I think about our work in the Safari Wallet community. It comes in 3 stages:
Prototypes - We made JankyMask in less than a week. We are rapidly iterating towards a basic iOS TestFlight distribution of Safari Wallet called Freedom. Our goal is to release something before ETHDenver in ~5 weeks. These are our community’s unaudited and undesigned prototypes.
Products - After we have a totally open source prototype in people’s hands, we will shift our focus to crafting a great product. This will take more time. Balance will be a designed distribution of Safari Wallet. It will need months of engineering, designing, auditing and supporting before we release it to the App Store.
Pride - I hope that at some point in the next few years, I can tap on an app that makes me proud. I hope everyone who contributes to it feels proud, too. Pride can be hugely destructive if it is misplaced. However, it can be enormously motivating when it is warranted. I want to feel proud of what I work on.
Designing Products for Protocols for People
I have been thinking about designing for blockchains on-and-off for almost 8 years and I still find it confusing. This was my first attempt a mark for blockchain:
At its core, we are trying to create products for people who want to access protocols. We believe that the Ethereum family of protocols built on its virtual machine (EVM) are the most promising. We also think that Safari is the best browser to access many of the other products that built on these protocols. We are focused on combining the best of Apple and Ethereum is a simple, native, open source product.
That focus is what steers us as in the Safari Wallet community.
Want to help us make something we are all proud of?
We are looking for engineers, designers, testers, marketers & supporters who can help us bring a great product to life. We would love to welcome you to our community:
What do you look for after the prototype stage to know you are ready for the product stage?