Rubber ducking, the exercise of explaining something to a rubber duck, is an easy way to get out of your own head and gain clarity by explaining your thoughts out loud.

Another excellent technique is called question burst. You explain your problem in 2 minutes and then others ask questions for 4 minutes.

Question bursts force you to create a high-level explanation quickly and then benefit from external perspectives through thoughtful questions.

When you want to change habits you need to identify the triggers. These are the seemingly small things that determine whether you take a run before breakfast or hit breakfast first.

I’m not a training junkie by any measure, but I know that if I want to exercise in the morning I need to put out my clothes the night before.

That small trigger change is all that is needed.

If you don’t know the triggers, you will not change the habits.

When acquiring new things focus on what makes your life an x.0 upgrade rather than just a 0.x improvement.

Upgrading from mobile phone version 14 to 15 might not make sense if the benefits are minuscule.

Remember that “1.0” is just branding. Look beyond the marketing to determine if something truly represents a significant upgrade for your specific needs.

There are two common paths to building products that matter.

One: create a copy of existing products then add your standout features.
The other: focus solely on your core vision of what makes you unique.

One takes time. The other needs courage.

Think of the first iPhone. It was revolutionary, yet lacked many features that already existed in the market.

When customers buy your products they aim for three things beyond function: social status, positive emotions or saving money. If you build products focused on status or emotions you’re golden. Focus on saving money and you’re in a race to the bottom.

Your product isn’t just features. It’s what those features deliver.

We might have strong feelings about the products we build, but as soon as those products hit customers we have facts.

What we are left with are opinions on how to look at those facts.

One of the greatest strengths is not what you know, but the ability to collect brilliant ideas from everyone.

Remix them, create something new and lavishly praise the people that came up with the ideas.

I’ve been running Design Sprints for years since the method was first introduced as a book.

One practice that really stuck with me is “Always Be Capturing”.

The concept is simple: as the facilitator, you capture ideas on post-its or whiteboards the moment people share them. This small practice has some great side-effects. It saves the in-the-moment discussions and thoughts, shows the participants their ideas are important, it creates a visual summary that we can use as a “was this what you meant?” and probably the best part is that it creates a collection of ideas that we can organise later.

I use this during conversations, while listening to audiobooks, or podcasts. I’ve set up a quick shortcut on my phone that opens a text area and saves notes directly to my favorite note-taking app.

The beauty of this system is its simplicity. Capture first, then group, filter, and remix later.

No field has stayed unchanged in the face of new technology. It either transforms or eliminates jobs.

Don’t wait for perfect to start.