When the team splits
The fight about features is really about what the product is for.
Making things got cheap. Deciding what is worth making did not.
I help founders and small teams work out where AI changes their numbers, and where it doesn’t.
Right now I’m advising GrönLoop, a Swedish circular-economy startup.
I also teach and shape curriculum on the product design programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Currently building Jon and BTO, and doing an Executive MBA with AI at Arden University, UK.
I’m most drawn to work around wellness, education, equality, kids, and deep-tech.
Most products don’t fail at the build. They fail at a decision made long before it. That decision is where I help.
If one of these is your situation, tell me which one.
Before the build
You’re about to spend big, and nobody knows when it pays back.
When there is nobody to build it
You need a working version, not another document.
After it works
It works. Nobody can say why anyone would pay for it.
The product worked. Soon nobody would need it.
GrönLoop, a Swedish startup I advise, helps companies record and report their waste, as the law requires.
73
of 100 used it only to make their yearly waste report.
Don't build another platform people have to log into. Put an AI assistant at every pickup that does the paperwork by itself.
A dashboard is what AI now makes in minutes. The work at every pickup isn't.
I’m building my own.
For my Executive MBA I wanted to learn efficiently, with methods that research backs. So I’m building Jon, a learning tool where the AI never decides what you’ve learned. Six people now study with it on their own material.
Teach-back
I’m a curious student. Explain the concept to me in your own words, and I’ll ask questions.
Design theory
- Okay, “Contrast”. I keep hearing about it, but I don’t really get it yet.
- It’s when things look different from each other.
- But different how? If I make everything bold, is that contrast?
- Problem
- Research
- Decisions
- Build
- Testing with six people
Where my time goes right now.
I set up GrönLoop’s first MVP and ran the pilots that validated the basics.
- Product direction and positioning
- What to build now and what to leave manual
- A two-track plan for revenue and long-term position
- Revised targets and a pricing approach
- Which regulations and partners the product has to fit
BTO, Estonian Academy of Arts
Defence grading is usually a mess of paper sheets, private spreadsheets, and numbers reconciled after the fact. Evaluators can't see where the committee stands, aggregates are calculated by hand, and the reasoning behind a grade is gone the moment the session ends. BTO replaces that with a single live system, in use now and still being built out.
- Product definition and scope
- Interface and interaction design
- Built and shipped on my own
- Real-time grading for the whole committee
- In use at the Estonian Academy of Arts
Building something deliberately unglamorous. Not the work that looks impressive in a portfolio, but the work people actually need. It pulls together everything I already do, and it gives me the freedom to choose the rest.
Exploring what design education should be in the AI era. I build courses on the product design programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts and use them to test what holds. The research and the writing are where I work out which part of design survives the automation, and what has to change in how it is taught.
- Course design and curriculum
- Product design, portfolio and product management
- Admissions and thesis committees
- Mentoring
A product, a plan, or your next step. Let's talk.
Next opening: March 2027Business, strategy, building and mentoring. For founders, small teams and anyone finding their way.
