Hi, I'm OJ. I lead product and engineering teams, and I build things.
I like figuring out what's worth building and what it would take to make it work. That usually means thinking about the business, how people will use it, the team building it, and the technology underneath.
A lot of what I build starts with a question or something I wish worked better. I'm interested in making it easier to turn ideas into something real, for myself and for other people. Sometimes that means building a product, giving a team better tools, or changing how the work gets done.
Lately, I've been spending a lot of time building with AI and exploring robotics. I also write about things I'm trying to understand.
This is where I share what I'm working on, what I'm exploring, and ideas I'm still thinking through.
Writing
All writing ↗
We need to kill more features
We want to take more bets, but keep asking teams to carry everything from the previous ones. I think removing features should be part of making room.
What changes for engineering leadership as decisions get cheaper?
As an engineering leader, I’m thinking about what changes when some decisions become cheaper to recover from, and where our judgment matters more.
Mental models
All models ↗Some of these describe things I already do but didn't know had names. Others are ideas I'm still learning and trying to use, so I keep them here to understand them better and share what I'm learning.
Stigmergy
People can work together with less chasing when what one person does helps the next person see what needs doing.
Principal-Agent Problem
Delegation gets risky when the person making the call knows more or wants something different from the person carrying the consequences.
The Cobra Effect
A reward can create more of the problem it was meant to solve when people are paid for the count instead of the outcome.
Jevons Paradox
When efficiency makes something cheaper or easier to use, demand can grow enough that total use rises instead of falling.
What I'm working on and exploring
Product and engineering
I build products, from working out the idea to designing the system, writing the code, and getting it into people’s hands. I get into the business as much as the technology, because who it’s for and why they’d use it shape what’s worth building. A lot of the work is figuring out what matters, what we can simplify, and what needs to happen first. I also build and lead teams, staying close to the details while giving people the context and ownership to make good decisions and get things done.
AI and agents
I'm building an agent setup that helps me take ideas through research, implementation, and checking whether the result actually works. I'm interested in how much of that work agents can take on, and what they need to do it well: the right context, access to the right tools, and ways to check their work against the real system. I'm also exploring how they can help run parts of a business, notice problems, and follow through without someone having to direct every step. My setup ↗
Robotics
I want to understand what it takes to build machines that can move around a home and do useful things. One question I keep coming back to is why a robot vacuum should need a second robot upstairs. Working through that means understanding how a machine moves, senses its surroundings, and handles stairs, different surfaces, and things left in its way. I'm early in this, so I'm still working out what to build first and what I need to learn to get there.
Things I've made public
All on GitHub ↗Working on something related?
I'd like to hear what you're trying and what you're learning.