About Zukini

Primarily, Zukini is a system and product design blog. The focus points to “healthy” products and software design, explaining some reasoning to their formulation, layout, and operation. These are ideas that I think can and perhaps should exist, and I put them as a way to practise my reasoning and developing my own design philosophy. In putting them out on the internet, I hope that I can refine my communication through discussion and feedback, and allow myself to hone the design and further practise the communication.

My main objective is to be authentic and not LARP about being a software “company” or be building “products” that don’t “launch” - I write these out publicly in a way to document my progress and also to permit myself to fail. What I fail in design, I’ll make up for in learning.

My mind goes 40 new ideas a week, and I very often catch onto and get excited by a number of them. If you were to look at “how to build a product” online, you’ll see articles about building the minimum viable product first, then tweaking based off customer satisfaction, finding “market fit” and profitability, which usually involves just sticking ads on it or selling off data. Somewhere along the journey you get investor money, and live the dream of always being on the hook if something fails while you sleep.

Top down design, not MVP-iterate

I’m not attracted to the MVP process; I understand it completely as a foot-in-the-door selling process, but for the type of ideas that I think of: it’s the system as a whole which provides the benefit I intend. Naturally, any startup that sets out to build “the whole system” at the start is bound to burn through all investor money and have little to show for it; But I want to do something different.

I want to start with the grand idea of the system as a whole: where it fits in and how it operates, then gradually build downwards, filling in how each of the components work. This will be how i learn the system design process, receiving feedback on individual components and refining it.

Only once everything has been spelled out to the letter, might I attempt to build an application in earnest. But it’s the process that I’m really here for.

Existing on paper, a basis for discussion

In reality: I’m excited for this change in process. I don’t want to MVP, i want my ideas to exist. Anyone else is free to implement them if they so want. I also want feedback so I can learn about what might work and what might not work, separate from the pressure of finances.

Hopefully, the content in this blog might inspire you as well. For entirely selfish reasons, I’d hope to inspire you to contend with my ideas, or even try to implement them. At the very least, I hope that you get inspired to share your own ideas and start your own “open-design” blog.

Getting involved and putting food on the table

I currently work full time for my employer, so I’m in no need for money, and I work on Zukini when I get a chance or am particularly inspired. If you like what I post, feel free to drop in a message at [email protected], or better yet, have a go of implementing what I’m talking about and tell me about it. Those are the best ways you can get involved in zukini.

One day I might try and find a monetisation strategy that works for me and for this project, in which i’ll be able to support myself and do this full time.

Taking it slow

The whole purpose of this open design format,this blog, and what I’m doing; is to create my ideas without financial pressure, and without time pressure. If anything, the main take-away is to do it slow; and so that is how these posts and projects will come about. Feel free to message if you want an update or recent developments.