This week has been a proper rollercoaster, to say the least. If I had to sum it up in one phrase, it would be “killing your darlings.”
We started the week with high energy, diving deep into the architecture of the new AI homepage. My vision—and what we spent hours refining—was a fully modular, widget-based dashboard. The idea was brilliant: users could customise their feed with dynamic cards for their daily stories, upcoming schedules, spinal health stats, and project updates. We spent days nailing down the interaction logic, figuring out how the “Daily Story” would pull in data and how the calendar permissions would sync seamlessly with the system. I even mapped out the “newbie village” strategy to ensure the dashboard didn’t look empty for first-time users. It felt solid. It felt complete.
However, the reality of product management is rarely just about what looks good in a design file.
During the final review with the department head, the decision came down hard: the widget system is too heavy for the Phase 1 launch. To ensure stability and meet our timeline, we have to strip it back.
I won’t lie, I’m absolutely gutted. Seeing weeks of logic flows, component designs, and interaction specs effectively put on the shelf—or “deprioritised to V2,” which often feels like the same thing—is a tough pill to swallow. We are reverting to a much simpler, static list structure. It’s cleaner, yes, and safer for development, but it lacks the soul and customisability I was championing.
That said, the show must go on.
While the dashboard took a hit, we made significant progress on the backend and logic side of things. We spent a lot of time sorting out the “invisible” parts of the product. We locked down the logic for notification forwarding, specifically how to handle message queuing so we don’t bombard the user’s eyes when they put the glasses on after a break. We also hammered out the nitty-gritty of data permissions, server selection for GDPR compliance, and how we handle log uploads for feedback without freezing the user interface.
It wasn’t all dry technical talks, though. We had some interesting debates about whether we should support replying to messages directly from the device. The consensus is shifting towards “no” for now—the interaction cost is just too high for the hardware we have. It’s better to do a great notification experience than a clumsy reply experience.
So, as I wrap up this week, I’m feeling a mix of exhaustion and resignation. The product is leaner, sharper, and definitely more shippable, but I’m still mourning the loss of my widgets. I guess that’s the job—sometimes you have to cut the features you love the most to get the product out the door.
On to the next sprint. Hopefully, with fewer cuts next time.
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