Flatlander Studio

What We Mean When We Talk About Design Quality & Product Leadership

If you’re mired in meh and sensing that your app may not go “viral” like the CFO is planning, I might be the bearer of awkward truth here: Your digital product design is probably … [le sigh] … settling.  
 
Not because you necessarily want it to, but because the current system often pushes production that way. Product leadership might say the product design is going great merely because there is a satisfying list of checked boxes. As an industry, we are focused on the feature list. We prioritize the sprint. We optimize for the process. 
 
And in my squeaky opinion, we forget the soul. 

And when we forget the soul, we get a product that is, at best, functional. At worst, it’s just, as my co-founder Nate recently said, “another set of rounded corner boxes inside of a slightly larger rounded corner box.” 

That’s not what anyone wants. 

In the debut episode of The Flatlandery Show, we discuss chasing the obsessive mark of design quality and reaching the point where you have to climb off someone else’s ladder, especially when it isn’t leading you to a place you want to go. 

It Started With Sandwich Money 

We didn’t start Flatlander Studio because we needed a new job. 

We started it because we wanted to digital design to feel delightful again. Rather than a cog in the machine, we wanted to real people—not just “users”—to be the heartbeat of how an app launched. 

Years ago, Nate and I worked at a big agency, and one time … we received raises. We were pumped. We felt validated. We felt like we were climbing. 

Then we did the math. 

Divided out over the course of paychecks in a year, after taxes, it was enough money for one sandwich a week. Maybe. At the time, we were fans of Longboards. You should try it. Cabo beef is my recco.  

Our sandwich story is amusing. It’s also demoralizing. We were trading so much time and fire to produce something too ephemeral. We were the kind of creatives that wanted to make things that lasted. Things that people genuinely loved. 
 
This is v v interesting, even ironic, given the fact that digital things are farrrrr more ephemeral than traditional ad things. 

But the principle stuck. And now it’s the touchstone of our product leadership & design quality. We’re planning not for how many features are shipped, but how deeply a product resonates with people. We say the craft matters. I suppose it’s the difference between just another tool and a treasure. 

Gut Check: Are You Still Writing Your Own Posts?  

In the same way it seems volume and velocity are prioritized over value for creative teams, leadership looks like it’s feeling the pinch, too, especially when it comes to the trite term “thought leadership.”  
 
Listen, we know you’re know in the grind. You just gotta get something on the company blog or post on LinkedIn to stay in the game, to look smart, to be a part of the conversation (likely because your boss has given you a post quota, right?). At the same time, you’ve got a client preso at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow (because client is in New Jersey), you owe the team feedback on Big Important Concept #2, and you also have to start a deck on AI’s Great, Big, Beautiful Tomorrow topic. 
 
Speaking of our new buddy AI, you know the compromise you’re about to make.
 
And so do we. 
 
We see it everywhere, but particularly irritating these days are AI-generated LinkedIn posts. They’re technically sound but hollow, rampant and easy to spot.  
 
But it looks as if we’re pretending to go along with them? At least, that’s what I’m getting from the affirming comments: Very well written, Dave! 
 
But maybe the comment is just an automated response bot?? 

Here’s the thing: if a design leader is willing to outsource their voice trying to pass as something they aren’t, it’s difficult to trust other parts of their business sense. 

To me, integrity will always be de riguer. Listen, if we use AI, fine, but we shouldn’t act is if we didn’t. It’s the cheuginess of using the word cheugy. It’s the aggravation, the cheap shortcut, the lie, the ew.  
 
At the studio, we’re holding on to design integrity with everything we’ve got. We’re putting love at the center of our digital products. We jumped off someone else’s ladder, and we’re getting ready for a flight on Falkor. Hope you’ll come with us.   
 
Other things we discuss in E1: 
Todd McFarlane 
Jim Lee 
QuikTrip 
French Paper 
Grant Snider 
Fiona Apple 
Jay Schwedelson 
Inbound 
Pizza 

Watch the full debut episode of The Flatlandery Show and hear their entire origin story. The conversation on quality, craft and the $8 raise that fueled a friendship is just getting started. 

Or listen on the go: 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/…/the…/id1850975745

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0ZYGDkXnXX2QtDbaYz5lJ4