Time for a status update on my stay in Singapore. I have already entered the final three months of my time here. Time flies when you’re having fun eating everything in sight, it turns out.
On the work front I have indeed found the time to do some thinking about what my next big thing will be. Nothing has firmed up to the point where I feel like sharing it here but I am enjoying the conversations I am having with various people about it.
In the meantime, I have been keeping busy working with a local startup called ARTO. I have taken on the role of product designer and I am also responsible for product management of the user-facing parts of the thing we are building.
That “thing” is about art. There are many people who are interested in art but don’t know where to start when it comes to finding, enjoying and acquiring it. We’re building a mobile and TV app that should make that a whole lot more easy and fun.
When I say art I mean commercial, popular and contemporary art of the 2D variety. So painting, illustration, photography, etc. Things you might buy originals or prints of and put on your living room wall. Others are doing a fine job on the high end of the art market. We think there are parts remaining that have been underserved to date.
There are many moving parts to this product, ranging from a recommendation engine, content management system, mobile app, TV app and more so I am never bored. There is always something to figure out in terms of what to build and how it should work and look. For the past couple of years I was always too busy managing the studio to really get into the details of design but now I can totally focus on that and it really is a pleasure.
On the people side we have a small but growing team of brilliant individuals haling from various parts of the region including Vietnam, Myanmar and India. This lends an additional layer of fun challenge to the goings on as we constantly negotiate our differences but also discover the many commonalities afforded by the globalised tech industry. I also get to travel to Ho Chi Minh City regularly which is a nice change from the extreme order that is Singapore.
It is early days so I not only get to help shape the product from the very start but also the company itself. This includes figuring out and maintaining design and development processes. For this I find my Boydian explorations quite useful, paired with what is now more than 13 years of industry experience (how did that happen?) I have also conducted more hiring interviews in the past few months than I did in the ten years before.
In a month or two a first version of the product should be in the market. When we’ve gotten to that point I will do another of these updates. In the meantime just know I am up to my armpits in thinking-through-making about art discovery and enjoyment on screens small and large. If you have anything related to share, or would like to be one of the first to test-drive the thing when it arrives, let me know.