Day 250

A blueprint becomes a house when it is formed into bricks and stones and glass and mortar.

The house becomes a home when it is booming with the voices of wandering souls.

In a roundabout, tao way, the idea of Mindful Productivity became my journey a few months back. That journey is now taking shape as an app with its features, designs, user journeys, and metrics.

I’m excited every day about turning a wild idea into a product, and I eagerly await seeing how others will use it to make better decisions in life.

The past 250 days of my work-life resemble a river flow rather than a six-lane speed highway.

Here’s what I mean…

Flow Over Checklists

I have freed myself completely from checklists, tasks, and to-dos. My day begins and ends driven by the desire to give my best to whatever I take up.

If I’m not feeling like working on the product, I’ll create pins on Pinterest; if I’m not in the zone to train AI, I usually find myself designing a user journey instead.

Each day, the desire is to immerse fully in the journey. And at the end of each day, the outcome feels like discovering a new jigsaw piece of the larger puzzle.

Writing as Ritual

Many days are also spent writing and publishing articles. This ritual connects me with like-minded individuals who resonate deeply with what I’m building (appealing to believers rather than the masses).

It also keeps me laser-focused on the ultimate goal. Every article reminds me that there are many ways to walk the journey, but all roads must lead to Rome.

Gratitude Journal

I’m deeply grateful to be at the right place and at the right time. Without AI, I doubt it would have been possible to build something that traverses psychology, mindfulness, and evolutionary biology, certainly not as efficiently or affordably.

AI As My Co-creator

The way AI has levelled the playing field is mind-boggling. “If trained well”, at a nominal fee of $20/month, it can become a world-class advisor, partner, and mentor available 24/7.

Crazy fact: Once, unable to sleep, I went for a walk and suddenly had an epiphany about a product workflow I’d been struggling with for over a month. Twenty minutes later, sitting on a sidewalk at midnight, ChatGPT and I hashed it out, and I had an end-to-end journey that unfurled like a flower at 10x speed.

Designing with AI

The last couple of weeks were spent doing what I enjoy most… building low-fidelity mock-ups.

Again, AI was undeniably helpful in co-creating these designs to ensure they look amazing (my KPI) while ensuring design and development costs are kept minimal (ChatGPT’s KPI).

Building an AI-First Product Company

The cost advantage AI brings is undeniable. From day one, I’ve taken an AI-first approach to what I build and how I make it.

Traditionally, a product manager’s role spanned three major acts:

Identifying customer needs
Aligning them with business priorities
Collaborating with design and engineering teams to ship the product

AI has significantly shifted the third act: translating requirements into designs and, ultimately, into specifications for engineers is undergoing a tidal transformation.

Instead of building assets for engineering teams to ship, product managers now have to build for AI to ship.

Tech teams will remain vital, but they’ll thrive only if they embrace this AI-first culture, shifting from architects to orchestrators, from coders to curators.

Hence, the desire and need to embrace AI in all its forms from day one.

Currently, every conversation, every requirement, and every workflow I’ve been designing is to be AI-collaborative, not just human-readable.

My primary goal here is to significantly reduce the development cost. Let’s see how far this can be made real!

Searching the Tech Pillar

I have also been speaking with friends/colleagues and looking to onboard a tech partner, the fourth leg of the stool (a metaphor I use to represent the company I’m building). Someone who wants to own the motor that drives better decisions.

I’m searching for someone who genuinely believes better decision-making is a necessity in today’s world.

If AI, encryption, data privacy, simplicity, and the nuts-and-bolts excitement of building an app from scratch energize you, let’s connect. Let’s see if our neural synapses spark when we talk about data pipelining from concept to execution.

Drinking My Own Medicine

As exciting as all of the above sounds, there are days when I’m swimming against the current with my mood at an ebb, making me feel miserable.

That’s when I reach for the STOP framework pill! Clarity usually kicks in within 10-15 minutes, and I’m back at the surface, swimming with renewed focus and intentionality.

The Four-Legged Stool Strengthens

If I had to highlight just one aspect from these past 250 days, it’s the realisation that the four-legged stool is more sturdier now with the second leg firmly added.

It feels good working alongside a co-partner who joined me because they wholeheartedly believe in the necessity of better decisions and bring along the energy, optimism, and skills required to bring this vision to life.

What’s Next?

It’s all about execution, searching for the right tech partner, and working on something that I don’t enjoy but have to do… forming the LLP.

Wish me well, fellow decision-makers!