Learn, Make, Learn

A question from a previous guest sparks this episode: Do we go “pro” in every product category or do we eschew the spec arms race & embrace “good enough”? We interrogate our own behaviors & share implications for people in the business of making products. INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 02:51 Starbucks Follow-Up with Zoran Svetlicic Generative AI x Product with Anmol Anubhai What McDonald’s is RE...

We get the inside scoop on The Brand Studios master’s program at CU Boulder from its co-directors, Parisa Tashakori & Jeff Gillette. Unique in its accelerated 12-month span & remit across both experience design and creative advertising, the program welcomes those with a passion to “put your weird to work.” Is it right for you? INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 00:55 Why is Design So Boring? with Na...

We're joined by Zoran Svetlicic for this fast follow-up to our previous episode on Starbucks’ struggles. A strategist & builder with deep expertise in brand and food & beverage, Zoran pulls no punches in his diagnosis of Starbucks’ ills. And, along the way, schools us on positioning, brand architecture & natural wine. INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 00:39 Starbucks’ Struggles and Lessons...

What can product people learn from Starbucks’ recent struggles, and how are these lessons linked to a venerable British book retailer, an upstart French running brand, and a barmy Japanese watchmaker? INTRO & FOLLOW-UPS – 02:47 Starbucks closing stores SPVs, Credit, and AI Datacenters This is How the AI Bubble Will Pop Neue Klasse – 60 Years of the BMW 1500 World Premiere of the new BMW iX3 BM...

Ernest & Joachim go deep on Raymond Loewy’s MAYA Principle: what it is & why it matters, with real world examples of MAYA in action, and what can happen when product teams fail to take the principle to heart. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:00 Toolbox: How “Jobs To Be Done” Can Help You Make, Better Fortis Marinemaster A BRIEF INTRO TO RAYMOND LOEWY – 06:04 MoMA on Raymond Loewy 60 Minutes: Raymond Loewy,...

E & J return from a spring hiatus to discuss a range of topics, from WWDC 2025 to the Era of the Business Idiot, and more. WATCHES & WONDERS – 04:09 Don DeLillo: Cosmopolis IWC Presents A Plethora Of New Ingenieur Watches How The Pursuit Of Status Shapes Our Aesthetics The Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer NOMOS Lounge, New York City TAG Heuer Formula 1 - They got it wrong! SLATE AUTO –...

We return from hibernation to talk AI nonsense, critique the review industrial complex, promote a return to RSS, and share a raft of recommendations! JOACHIM ON AI NONSENSE – 01:52 Previous Discussion of Humane AI (starts at 18:34) Humane Set to Brick $700 ‘AI Pins’ I outsourced my memory to an AI pin and all I got was fanfiction Ben Thompson: DeepSeek FAQ Previous Discussion on LLMs & Constra...

Ernest’s experience with a boundary-breaking headphone sparks a discussion on caveat emptor, or buyer beware, and just how much risk we, as product creators, should expect buyers to bear. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:15 MKBHD, Panels & Pricing WTF Happened in 2024?! I Love You, Man: The Male Friendship Recession Why Are Boys and Men in Trouble? CAVEAT EMPTOR? – 06:36 Caveat emptor An ode to open-back headp...

A conversation triggered by MKBHD’s Panels app gets really interesting when we dig into pricing & lessons for people in the business of making products. FOLLOW-UPS – 02:23 Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive? How gamification took over the world Can't Play, Won't Play An Interview with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth Meta Connect Keynote 2024 Meta’s big tease MKBHD, PANELS & PRICING...

We dive into our titular question with Nate Grubbs, who, unlike us, is a professional designer with strong views borne of decades of experience across UX, visual & product design. MEET NATE – 01:18 THE AGE OF AVERAGE – 04:19 Alex Murrell: The age of average The tyranny of the algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same How Khruangbin’s Sound Became the New Mood Music (paywall) SOUL, FLASH...

We go off-the-cuff again, sharing product learnings from Miele vacuums, Snow Peak’s modular IGT system & Ableton’s singular vision for music creation. OFF-THE-CUFF – 00:59 JOACHIM RECOMMENDS: MIELE C3 VACUUM – 01:38 Miele Complete C3 Calima PowerLine Behind Dyson’s cyclone Dyson Stick Vacuums Lose CR Recommendation We’ve Recommended Miele Canister Vacuums for Almost a Decade My Middle-Aged Mie...

In another short(er) format episode, we examine Apple’s recent “Glowtime” event. Please do let us know what you think of this new format at LearnMakeLearn@gmail.com or @LearnMakeLearnShow on Threads . OPENING – 00:00 Suttle Lake Suttle Lodge HELP US NAME THIS NEW FORMAT! – 03:12 APPLE’S ‘GLOWTIME’ EVENT – 05:08 Apple Event The Verge: iPhone 16 event in 16 minutes John Gruber describes his feelings...

We introduce a new, shorter, more off-the-cuff format focused on recommendations that we hope you’ll enjoy. Also, our apologies for the audio getting a bit crunchy in spots—we’re working hard to improve our audio quality. Please do let us know what you think of this new format at LearnMakeLearn@gmail.com or on Threads @LearnMakeLearnShow . ONE MILLION CHECKBOXES – 03:20 Are You a Checker or an Unc...

Generative AI: step change or snake oil du jour? We enter this mire with Anmol Anubhai as our guide & insight into the future of GenAI x product creation as our destination. Join us for a refreshingly grounded conversation on a topic that’s typically full of hype. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:42 The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N Manual Mode Changes Performance EVs Forever WTF is a Product Manager? Dare Obasanjo on Pro...

The pressure to repeat history, as in the previous year’s sales for a given product, can be pernicious. We share ideas for unshackling yourself from this weight so that you can avoid, as Marshall McLuhan put it, marching backwards into the future. FOLLOW-UPS – 00:43 Humane is looking for a buyer Coffeezilla on the Rabbit R1 NOMOS at Watches & Wonders NOMOS: The icon in 31 color compositions No...

The concept of fan service, which originated in anime and is now common across media, has pervaded the world of product creation as well. We discuss what it is & why it’s vital to serve your customers without pandering to them. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:11 Progressive Complexity (aka Progressive Disclosure) THE PERILS OF FAN SERVICE – 03:50 Star Wars: Fired Solo Directors Didn't Want Movie To Just...

When it comes to products and product innovation, in our new era of higher-for-longer interest rates, enough *is* enough. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:23 iOS spacebar meme Windup Watch Fair San Francisco Steven Pinker is wrong about violence and war ERA OF EASY MONEY IS OVER – 12:02 The Era of Easy Money Is Over. That’s a Good Thing. The Price of Time CASE STUDIES: BAD & GOOD — 18:34 The Worst Product I&ap...

Daniel Kahneman, credited as a grandfather of behavioral economics, passed away in March, and we devote this episode to an unfiltered discussion of his legacy through a product lens. KAHNEMAN’S LEGACY: THE BULL CASE – 01:55 NY Times obituary of Daniel Kahneman KAHNEMAN’S LEGACY: THE BEAR CASE – 03:40 The “Nudge” of the Obama Era Was Always Neoliberal Nonsense Nudge economics: has push come to shov...

A decade ago, design thinking was all the rage across the corporate world. But, today, it's widely derided as a failed experiment. Is there still a place for design thinking or is it an idea whose time has passed? FOLLOW-UPS – 01:56 Time to Learn Hublot at Watches & Wonders 2024 Cartier Santos-Dumont Rewind JLC at Watches & Wonders 2024 Should Products be Political? Bobbie Bobbie for...

Apologies for our delay this week! In this episode, with the Watches & Wonders show around the corner, we talk watches & the broader lessons we can draw from a product category rooted entirely in emotion. WRIST CHECK – 02:16 IWC Pilot’s Watch Chrono Top Gun Ming 37.07 Halios Raven In-House vs. Off-the-Shelf Movements Idris Elba Wears a $500 Watch JOACHIM’S 👍 – 11:39 IWC IWC and Carl Jung...

This week, we tackle a thorny topic: Should products be political? And to be clear, we don't mean brand messaging. Instead, our focus is products, and whether makers should intentionally imbue their products with their politics. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:15 Eno —a groundbreaking generative film by Gary Hustwit Apple Vision Pros & Cons Hugo Barra on Apple Vision Pro SHOULD PRODUCTS BE POLITICAL – 05...

Musician Brian Eno defined a scenius as “the intelligence of a whole operation or group of people,” in contrast to the classic archetype of the lone genius. We debate scenius vs. genius in the context of product—is one more conducive to innovation than the other? FOLLOW-UPS – 01:42 The Mentats in Dune McDonald's ordering system suffers McFlurry of tech troubles How Apple Sank About $1 Billion...

This week, we talk restomods. It’s a concept born of the automotive world—extending the life of a classic car by modernizing it—but we discuss the potential to apply this idea to categories beyond cars. With sustainability now a must-have in product creation, we believe the restomod concept is ripe for mainstream adoption. FOLLOW-UPS – 01:24 Behind Apple’s Doomed Car Project RIP Apple Car. This Is...

This week, we discuss the tension between integrated in-car UX platforms vs Apple’s CarPlay & Android Auto. When, if ever, does it make sense to give up control of your product experience? FOLLOW-UPS – 02:21 Tesler’s Law, aka Conservation of Complexity Theodore Leavitt on Marketing Myopia @geoffbaron: The difference between PMs & developers @tr3v: No one was ever inspired by a KPI CARPLAY...

This week, we dive into Ernest's career as a product manager/product marketer and discuss what a product manager does, how to sift meaningful insights from the noise, how to enter the field & much more. FOLLOW-UPS – 02:25 Surprised by the Hot Hand Fallacy? Imagined Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption I placed too much faith in underpowered studies WTF IS A PRODUCT MANAGER? – 07:24 Erne...