Today's guest is Adam Wiggins!
Adam is the GM of Platform at The Browser Company and co-founder of Heroku.
With Adam, we talked about innovating user experience in software and AI, we discussed what local-first software means and we explored the future of developer tools.
🎙️ Episode
You can watch the full episode on Youtube:
Or listen to it on Spotify, Apple, Overcast, or your podcast app of choice.
🥇 Interview Summary
If you are a 🔒 paid subscriber 🔒 you will find my own summary of the interview below.
It’s the 10-minute, handcrafted takeaways of what we talked about, with timestamps to the relevant video moments, for those who don’t have time to sit through the 1-hour chat.
Here is the agenda:
🚀 Adam's journey in tech (00:42)
🎨 Innovating user experience (10:31)
🤖 AI's impact on UX and development (14:59)
💾 Local-first software (25:00)
🛠️ The future of dev tools (37:43)
Let's dive in 👇
1) 🚀 Adam's Journey in Tech (00:42)
Adam has dedicated his career to improving computing for human creativity and productivity. His journey began in video games but quickly pivoted to business productivity software, where he found his true passion.
"I'm that rare and weird person who gets excited by things like spreadsheets and email and document editors and have devoted my career to that."
Adam's path led him to Silicon Valley in 2007, where he co-founded Heroku and discovered his love for developer tools. This experience sparked his interest in developer experience, bringing a product and UX mindset to an area traditionally lacking in design focus.
After Heroku, Adam founded Ink & Switch, an industrial research lab exploring human-computer interaction and knowledge tools. This venture led to projects like Muse, an infinite canvas for thinking, and eventually to his current role as GM of Platform at The Browser Company.
2) 🎨 Innovating User Experience (10:31)
For Adam, innovating on user experience is the driving force behind his work. He believes that technology should be a means to an end, aimed at improving people's lives through products.
"For me, it was always, I'm fascinated by technology and love programming and I love all the tinkering with the latest framework and all that sort of thing. But in the end, I'm here, it's a means to an end. It's a way to make someone's life better with your product."
Adam's approach to UX innovation is about three things:
