The Product Breakfast Club

Jake and Jonathan finally get the recognition they deserve by the people at InVision---with an asterisk, though! Among other stuff, Jake & Jonathan discuss toilets (again!), how hospitality skills and working in a restaurant make you a better designer, and some boooooooks! Links: Book: Design Is How It Works: How the Smartest Companies Turn Products into Icons---Jay Greene---Amazon.com Ace Hotel Book: Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business Paperback --- Danny Meyer---Amazon.com Our 15 favorite design podcasts---InVision Blog Powell's Books Book: Recursion: A Novel Hardcover --- Blake Crouch---Amazon.com Book: Wool---Hugh Howey---Amazon.com Book: Bird Box: A Novel---Josh Malerman---Amazon.com Book: The Road---Cormac McCarthy---Amazon.com Book: Sprint by Jake Knapp Book: Make Time by Jake Knapp AJ&Smart + Jake Knapp Official Design Sprint Masterclass: ajsmart.com/masterclass

This episode is a re-release of previous episode. Chances are you haven't heard it because it's from ages ago. And even if you did, it's a really fun one and you probably already forgot all the good stuff that was in it. So listen again.

Jake interviews Braden Kowitz, product designer and startup founder, who co-authored Sprint alongside Jake and John Zeratsky. He's also the BEST interaction designer Jake has ever worked with!

Do you want to hang out with Jake and Jonathan on July 15 in SF..?! Sure you do! So make sure you keep an eye on Jonathan's Instagram and AJ&Smart's Instagram to get the details on the venue & time of the meetup!

Strap in for the longest intro ever---you're gonna love it! Jake & Jonathan eventually discuss Jony Ive's departure from Apple, but before that, they talk about being late, picking brains, career ladders, and other non-random stuff! Links: Why I'm Always Late---Wait But Why Inside the mind of a master procrastinator---Tim Urban---YouTube A few words of advice to brain pickers --- Signal v. Noise Students: Pretend I'm dead---Austin Kleon Career ladders, aka Canvas Strategy---Ryan Holiday Tim Brown---IDEO Jony Ive leaving Apple after nearly 30 years to start new design firm---The Verge Eli Schiff---Twitter Book: Sprint by Jake Knapp Book: Make Time by Jake Knapp AJ&Smart + Jake Knapp Official Design Sprint Masterclass:ajsmart.com/masterclass

Jake & Jonathan bombard Greg Maletic from Panic with questions about Panic's Playdate adorable little game console, Panic, Greg's background, and other juicy stuff! Links: Greg Maletic play.date Playdate (Twitter) Panic Firewatch Cabel Sasser Edge Teenage Engineering Dreamcast Book: Sprint by Jake Knapp Book: Make Time by Jake Knapp AJ&Smart + Jake Knapp Official Design Sprint Masterclass: ajsmart.com/masterclass

Jake interviews Liz Fosslien, co-author and illustrator of No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work. Links: Book: No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work fosslien.com Liz on Instagram Liz on Twitter Liz on LinkedIn Book: Sprint by Jake Knapp Book: Make Time by Jake Knapp AJ&Smart + Jake Knapp Official Design Sprint Masterclass: ajsmart.com/masterclass

Jake & Jonathan go over Facebook's new crypto announcements, how they feel about them, and where they think it's all going! Should people care about crypto now that Facebook's in the game? Then Jake & Jonathan shift gears in a seamless way to talk about some other stuff.

Jonathan is alone. Again! Because Jake couldn't record with him before Jonathan's bed time.

Jonathan does a solo deep dive on all the new announcements from Apple that came out of WWDC 2019! Links: How To Run & Sell Design Sprints Like A Pro (Featuring Jake Knapp!) watchOS 6 Preview iOS 13 Preview iPadOS Preview Mac Pro Pro Display XDR macOS Catalina Preview Vlad Savov Mark Gurman Joshua Topolsky Matthew Panzarino Book: Sprint by Jake Knapp Book: Make Time by Jake Knapp AJ&Smart + Jake Knapp Official Design Sprint Masterclass:ajsmart.com/masterclass

Jake & Jonathan go on a Play Date, literally not figuratively. Jonathan likes products that are made by teenagers---if they are also engineers. What is Withered Technology and how can you use it in your next meeting? Also, Jonathan asks Jake some totally relevant product questions.  Links: Play.date Cabel Sasser (Twitter) Panic Transmit Edge Magazine The Playdate Is A Boutique Gaming Handheld With A Crank---Wired Teenage Engineering OP-1 Mark Zuckerberg apparently tried to buy Panic, the creator of Playdate---Engadget Teehan+Lax IDEO Ueno Pentagram Accenture Nintendo's Little-Known Product Philosophy: Lateral Thinking with Withered ("Weathered") Technology---Medium Wii---Wikipedia iPod Shuffle---Wikipedia So Cards Guy Walks Into Giant Bear While Texting---YouTube Book: Sprint by Jake Knapp Book: Make Time by Jake Knapp AJ&Smart + Jake Knapp Official Design Sprint Masterclass:ajsmart.com/masterclass

Strap in for silly one! If you love Jake & Jonathan rambling about nothing in particular, this one is for you! Reviews make Jake cry. Jonathan doesn't like being misunderstood. Jake has no ego. Jonathan gets a bad coffee rating. Jake has a fancy toaster.

Tim & Amr are filling in for Jake & Jonathan this week—which means you'll actually get to listen to an episode related to the product world (shots fired)! They talk about how you shouldn't aim for empathy in design. And how books don't work. Links: Tim on Twitter Amr on Twitter Amr on Instagram Why I Don't Believe in Empathic Design---Don Norman---Adobe Blog Book: The Design of Everyday Things Book: Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice Jobs-to-be-Done Book: Rework Jason Fried DHH Mike Matas Andy Matuschak Why books don't work---Andy Matuschak Quantum Country Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects---Coursera Book: Buy Sprint!

Jake & Amr talk about some books. Jake talks about books that influenced the idea that would later be part of the Design Sprint. How non-design books can help product designers. Facebook's redesign. Email. Distractions. Stuff! Links: Book: Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days Book: Hacking Growth Book: Radical Candor Book: The Lean Startup Book: Power of Moments Book: Getting Real Book: Getting Things Done The Checklist---Atul Gawande---The New Yorker Book: The Checklist Manifesto Book: Decisive Book: Made to Stick Book: The Design of Everyday Things Book: Fooled by Randomness Book: Fooled by Randomness---Audible Facebook is redesigning its core app around the two parts people actually like to use---The Verge The 5 biggest announcements from Facebook's F8 developer conference keynote---The Verge The Innovation Hackers group on Facebook Cluster Ben Thompson's Stratechery Simplify for Gmail Inbox by Gmail Google Talk Priority Inbox Cal Newport Jake's workshops Jake's newsl

Jake & Jonathan talk about the messiness of gigantic projects in the design world and how they're set up to fail from the start, all in the context of the recent scandal with Accenture.  Links: Hertz Sues Accenture for Breach of Contract Over 'Seriously Deficient' Web Design Work---Adweek Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz: Car hire biz demands $32m+ for 'defective' cyber-revamp --- The Register Accenture Fjord Baba Is You Edge Trüberbrook BTF Stardew Valley Game jam Book: Buy Sprint!

The podcast is back to normal this week. Which means there’s a whole lot of rambling and very little structure. Jonathan gives a few updates on his company (AJ&Smart) and mentions he’s looking to hire a few people. Then the boys talk VR and some book recommendations. Links: Simplify for Gmail There new open positions at AJ&Smart Jonathan had a great time at the INDUSTRY: The Product Conference Jonathan thinks the Nintendo VR is really cute Facebook VR avatar—Wired Book: Neuromancer—William Gibson—Amazon.com Book: The Fifth Science—Exurb1a—Amazon.com Book: Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell—Eric Schmidt—Amazon.com Book: Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!—Robert T. Kiyosaki—Amazon.com Book: Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition—Kerry Patterson—Amazon.com Book: Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent—Ryan Holiday—Amazon.com Ryan Holida

Jake interviews ex-Googler Xander Pollock—one of the first people to run sell Design Sprints outside Google. They cover a bunch of topics, such as: Starting a company Raising funding  How Google made the decision to buy Xander’s company Building relationships, no ego, directness Salary negotiations & making career decisions based on money Going independent  Links designsprintpro.com Xander on LinkedIn, Medium, Twitter Tim Ferriss Marissa Mayer Paul Graham  Punchd Fivestars Inbox by Gmail—Wikipedia Design Thinking—Wikipedia McKinsey  Bain Book: Million Dollar Consulting—Alan Weiss—Amazon.com Book: Buy Sprint!

Jonathan's not here this week. So Jake is joined by Amr from AJ&Smart. Deja vu, anyone? Here’s a peek at the topics discussed in this episode: 01:00—Amr's journey to becoming a designer 19:20—Apple & VR 31:20—Snap's new Snap Kit 45:40—Pinterest's approach to growth 51:50—The moral & ethical implications of design Links: Amr Khalifeh on Instagram Amr Khalifeh on Twitter Amr’s master studies: Usability Engineering, M.Sc. — Hochschule Rhein-Waal Apple has reportedly hired Arthur van Hoff, a founding executive of the Disney-backed VR startup Jaunt, as a senior architect—Variety Segway—Wikipedia Book: Ready Player One—Ernest Cline—Amazon.com Bird Lime Design Sprint—YouTube AirPods Google Glass—Wikipedia M.G. Siegler’s Newsletter Snap Kit To stop copycats, Snapchat shares itself—TechCrunch The anti-Facebook: Inside Pinterest’s slow and quiet rise—CNN Hippocratic Oath—Wikipedia Don’t be evil — Google — Wikipedia Book: Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It—Mi

Jake’s not here this week. So Jonathan is joined by Amr from AJ&Smart to talk about a little more about Apple (since they had their media event a couple weeks back); compare Apple’s leadership with Microsoft’s; and how to approach working on a “boring” product. Here’s a peek at the topics discussed in this episode: Innovators vs executors Has Apple become boring?  Who’s running product at Apple? How Steve Ballmer ran Microsoft How success can set you up to be disrupted  Microsoft is interesting now..?! Companies should focus on doing boring well How do you pitch a boring product? Innovation is overrated  The importance of framing in product design Links Amr Khalifeh on Instagram Amr Khalifeh on Twitter Daring Fireball Book: The Four Steps to the Epiphany—Steve Blank Book: The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses—Eric Ries Appl Still Hasn’t Fixd Its MacBook Kyboad Problm—Joanna Stern—The Wall Street Journal Apple apologizes for contin

Jake & Jonathan finally discuss Apple on the podcast for the FIRST TIME EVER! It’s weird how they’ve never covered Apple before—given Apple’s importance in the product space. But anyway, it’s here now! Enjoy! Here’s a peek at the topics discussed in this episode: Understanding Apple's rececnt announcements How Google Stadia is related to YouTube watch time  Apple Arcade and Jonathan’s predication about it Critiquing Apple’s marketing pages Apple’s relationship with gaming Explaining why Apple’s lineup doesn’t make sense at times How Jake uses his iPad Pro Is Twitter better than Instagram for product designers? Links Apple unveils Apple TV+, the new home for the world’s most creative storytellers—Apple.com Apple introduces Apple Arcade — the world’s first game subscription service for mobile, desktop and the living room—Apple.com Introducing Apple Card, a new kind of credit card created by Apple—Apple.com Apple launches Apple News+, an immersive magazine and news reading experience—Apple.com AirPods, the