Product Design Singapore

At buUuk, a small studio in Singapore, we've built a culture where our own internal projects are a great channel to experiment, take a break & play around with new technology. We have, very intentionally, avoided putting the pressure of direct revenue generation on these projects.

I spoke at the Product Design Singapore meetup (as part of the Singapore Design Week) to share about why we make free apps & why you should be too!

Event details — https://new.designsingapore.org/sdw/modules/event/product-design-singapore

Transcript

1. Your studio should be making free apps
2. Hi. I’m Nav.
6. $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$
15. Cool! But how do you make money from these apps?” “
16. You should really charge for this app!” “
17. Yeah, but …
18. … why do we build these products?
20. Business Exploration
21. BRITISH COLONIAL RULE in INDIA a story…
23. THE COBRA EFFECT
24. “The cobra effect is where a solution to a problem could actually make it worse.”
25. We run a client servicing business. Clients come to us because of our experience & expertise. We work very hard to run a profitable business. But putting the pressure of earning money on our experiments might not be the best move.
26. Value •Best way to refresh between projects •Relevant marketing •Great portfolio pieces & client conversation starters
27. Pressure •High bar to just build something •Too much pressure to succeed (less on experimenting) •Maintenance, upgrades — hinders new experiments.
28. But … charge when •Audience is very focussed and you don’t need to compromise on quality or price •Running costs are too high •You get good traction externally as well as in-house
29. Internal projects ! " # ❤ ☮ ❤ " ! ☮ # ❤ ❤ ☮
30. We’ll be making more free apps!
31. www.buUuk.com/ helpustest @isnav