Personal
On fatherhood, football, routines, and the personal threads woven through the work.
What Football Taught Me About Building
Thirty years of supporting Nottingham Forest - through relegations, near-extinction, and a miraculous return. The parallels with building products are everywhere.
Read PersonalHot Chocolate, Not Coffee: Against Productivity Culture
A manifesto against hustle culture. I don't drink coffee. I drink hot chocolate. And I ship 14 products.
Read PersonalThe Nottingham-to-London Pipeline
Growing up in Nottingham, moving to London, and how that journey shaped a worldview. Small city hunger meets big city opportunity.
Read PersonalWhat My Son Taught Me About UX
Watching toddlers use iPads is a masterclass in intuitive design. If a 3-year-old can't figure it out, neither can your user.
Read PersonalBuild What You Actually Need
The strongest products come from solving your own problems. When the builder is the user, every decision is grounded in real need, not hypothetical demand.
Read PersonalForty and Building - On Starting Late and Starting Right
On starting to build things at an age when you're supposed to have it figured out. Starting later means starting with taste, experience, and audience intuition.
Read PersonalThe Walk Test - Why the Best Ideas Happen Away From Screens
How walking unlocks creative thinking. The best product ideas, strategy frameworks, and design solutions come when you close the laptop and go outside.
Read PersonalThe Morning Scroll - My Daily Information Ritual
The first thing I do each morning: Twitter/X. A love letter to the morning scroll and a defence of being Very Online.
Read PersonalThe Observer Who Started Building - On Watching vs Making
I've always been the person in the room noticing things - the fonts, the lighting, the vibe. But observing isn't enough anymore. The vulnerability of putting your taste on display.
Read PersonalThe Silent Builder Economy
Millions of people are building real products in the gaps between their day jobs. The silent builder economy is reshaping who gets to make things.
Read PersonalThe Recommender in Chief - Why I Cannot Stop Sending Links
The most Mike thing ever: always recommending things. Sending articles, products, albums to anyone who will listen. Why recommending is a love language.
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