Britt Gage

Designing products for a single person

In business, there are countless examples of products invented for a single person that then became mass-marketable. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Baking soda —invented in the 1800s by British chemist Alfred Bird so that he could make bread for his wife, who was allergic to yeast.


• The typewriter —one of the

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I believe that anyone who has to work on a holiday should be paid double. I believe corn on the cob should be put on the grill in the husk. And I believe that fireworks are so fun to shoot off and also should be totally banned.

Your business exists in the context of a marketplace, but also in the context of your lived experience.

Defaulting to the norms of your industry will shape your business to be similar to the rest, where the best entrepreneurs zero-in on their self expression. Do you have an eye for good design? Inject design into a tasteless industry. Do you have a... See more

many of society’s most pressing challenges – such as climate change – require highly creative problem-solving that crosses multiple domains, and polymaths may be the best people to find those solutions.

“The obvious way to buy back your time is to pay someone to do something for you. Pay the mechanic to change your oil or a dry cleaner to press your suit.

The less obvious way to buy back your time is to say no. Passing on a promotion might “buy” you more time with family. Declining the dinner invite might “pay” for the time you need to exercise. We... See more

In my experience, the most useful approaches to AI are:

1. Ask clearly bounded questions, where you can easily inspect the results.


2. Don’t let AI make decisions for you. Instead, challenge it to broaden your options.


3. Take advantage of the fact that it doesn’t have feelings, and use its honesty to get useful feedback.

Don't decide too soon. Kids who know early what they want to do seem impressive, as if they got the answer to some math question before the other kids. They have an answer, certainly, but odds are it's wrong.

The teams are currently structured by function (product, R&D, design, business, etc.), and different teams think about different layers of the company and stack. But all energy is directed toward improving the core product. We design objectives that translate to common top-level metrics and improve the user experience holistically. For example, all... See more