Wearing Many Hats As a Designer for a Software Startup with Andrew Berkowitz

Andrew Berkowitz (@TheWitzCarlton) is the Head of Product for Tradeversity, a buying-and-selling platform for university students. After gaining experience in a large corporate setting, Andrew has jumped in to startup life, enjoying the struggles along the way.

In this conversation, Andrew shares some of the workflows required in a young, small, and nimble company, as well as his experiences testing personal productivity methods and morning routines.

Catch up with Andrew on his own show, The Global Startup Movement

 

Show Notes & Links

• Andrew is “Head of Product” for Tradeversity
• Early stage startups require the wearing of many hats 

"Design is the question of taking what's in the mind and manifesting them into reality."

—Andrew Berkowitz

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• Tradeversity is exclusive to higher education students
• Andrew graduated from Virginia Tech
• .edu, .ac.uk — educational TLDs
• Sharepoint, and other internal marketplaces within corporations are rather outdated 

"Product Design is more like being an inventor than a designer."

—Prescott Perez-Fox

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"The most important aspect of building a product is gaining empathy for users."

—Andrew Berkowitz

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• Ideo
• Design Thinking can mean different things
• 5 elements of D-Thinking: gain empathy → define problem → ideation → prototype → test & iterate
• Andrew worked at a large bank before joining a startup
• Scrum Master (in Agile Project Management) 

"The speed at which a project is moving is directly proportional to the energy involved."

—Prescott Perez-Fox

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"Innovation comes from failure; Having the freedom to fail allows us to innovate."

—Andrew Berkowitz

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• Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson on Amazon and on Audible
  
• Andrew runs his own podcast, The Global Startup Movement
• Nootropics, cogntive-enhancing pills
• Nootrobox
• Andreessen Horowitz, Venture Capital firm
• “Sprint Pills” as an alternative to coffee 

"The culture and the habits are more important than the tools."

—Andrew Berkowitz

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"The tool you use should reflect the system you've set up, and the mindset behind that."

—Prescott Perez-Fox

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• The 1800 Exercise
• Tradeversity was launched from a content award — $20k and a year’s worth of office space
• Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill on Amazon and on Audible
  
• Conspiracy, from the Latin conspiratare, meaning “to breathe the same air”
• Virtually Reality, and opportunities for collaboration
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline on Amazon and on Audible
  

"A Virtual Reality device is an empathy machine."

—Andrew Berkowitz

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• Marie Poulin, not part of the “cult of 5:00am”
• Entrepreneur on Fire
• Andreesson Horowitz Podcast
• The Tim Ferriss Show
• Amazon Kindle
• Audible
• Gadgets have to fit “The Three B’s”: Beach, Bed, Bath
• Millennials read more than Baby Boomers
• Amazon opens brick-and-mortar book stores
•  The Global Startup Movement
•  Andrew Berkowitz on Twitter
•  Andrew Berkowitz on Facebook
•  Andrew Berkowitz on LinkedIn

Tools

• Tradeversity
• Walletpop
• Craig’s List
• Agile Development
• Whiteboards
• Trello
• Nootropics

Techniques

• Understand the emotions of your users. This will bring insight.
• Employ Design Thinking; bring in real people and get your hands dirty
• Experiment with “packaged services”
• From a corporate setting, the thing you can learn most is working with diverse teams
• The 1800 Exercise: describe how projects get done in the year 1800 (using only parchment & quill) 

Habits

• Keep Trello tidy; not started → in-progress → done
• Have regular Sprint-planning and Retrospective meetings
• Wake up around 6:00am for yoga, weightlifting, or running
• Feed your subsconscious mind until it takes over

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