In the world of product design, there's no such thing as a finished product.
There's just the current version and what you're learning from it.
Every product on the market right now is a prototype. The team that built it knows that. They're already collecting data for the next iteration.
So am I. So are you.
The meeting I thought I had in the bag
Early last year I had a meeting with a potential client. The meeting seemed straightforward on paper. Ideal client. The problem was in my wheelhouse. I could see exactly what was broken. I knew exactly what they needed.
So I did what I always did.
I started solutioning.
Over the course of three meetings, frameworks took shape in real time. A roadmap emerged from the conversations. By the end we had the bones of a strategy. They were energized. I was in my element.
They thanked me. Said it was the most clarity they'd had in months.
Then they left. No next step. No contract. No follow-up.
A few weeks later I was in my office debriefing with my business coach. I walked him through the three meetings. He let me finish. Then he said:
“After three meetings, that’s not discovery. That’s free consulting. Either move them to the friend zone or pivot and cut your losses.”
He was right. I never heard from them again.
I sat with that for a while before I saw it clearly.
I hadn't been in a sales conversation. I had been consulting. For free. For three meetings.
The skill was identical to the one that built my entire career. See the problem. Move fast to a solution. In my past, that was leadership. That was the game and I was excellent at it.
In my new reality as a business owner, solutioning in the room is giving away the product.
Same skill. Different context. I had never stopped to ask whether it still applied.
I kept running the same play even though the game had changed. Because it was what I knew. Because it had always worked. Because it was Version 1.0 and Version 1.0 was very good.
What design thinking taught me
Here's what design thinking teaches about prototypes.
A prototype is not a failed product. It's a product doing exactly what it's supposed to do, gathering information so the next version is better. The imperfection isn't the problem. The imperfection is the point.
You are not fixed. You were never meant to be.
Think about the version of you that got you this far. The skills that got you in the room. The title. The reputation. Whatever combination of skills made people trust you with hard things and made you the go-to person.
That version was excellent.
But it was built for a context that no longer exists.
Here's the question nobody asks when they leave a role, start a company, step into something new:
Which of my strengths were built for where I was and which ones transfer to where I'm going?
Not all of them do. Some of what made you exceptional in one context will actively slow you down in the next. Not because you've lost it.
Because you're running Version 1.0 software in a Version 2.0 environment.
I know this because I did it. I walked into founder life carrying skills that had worked for 25 years and never stopped to ask whether they still applied. It cost me. More than once.
The skill doesn't have to go. It needs to be updated. Iterated. Rebuilt for your new reality.
That's the prototype doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
The Fix
Name one strength from your last chapter that you've carried into this one without questioning it. Something you were genuinely excellent at.
Write it down. Then write this next to it: Was this built for where I was, or where I am?
If the answer is where you were, that's data. That's exactly what a prototype produces.
Now write what Version 2.0 of that skill looks like.
Ten minutes. One skill. Be honest.
You are not here to be finished. You are here to iterate.
Until next Tuesday.
Ceaneh
