Live in it

We recently bought a home.

There were a few things we did before moving in that we felt strongly about. 

A fresh coat of paint. 

Ripping out carpets. 

Refinishing some hardwood.

But there were many, many more things that we were tempted to do, and didn’t.

One thing Spencer suggested we do with the house is “live in it” before deciding on major purchases like furniture, art, rugs, etc.

It turned out to be great advice. It turned out that being in a space isn’t the same as living in a space.

Being in a space inspires you to imagine all the cool things you can do with it.

Living in a space gives you clarity about what’s actually missing, and what you really want or need that fits into how you use the space.

It saved me a lot of stress and money buying things, only to discover later that they didn’t work in the house at all, or were completely unnecessary.

I didn’t connect the dots when he said it, but now I realize that Spencer’s advice isn’t just for decorating a house.

It’s how we’ve been building product at Podia since the beginning.

You can build every bell and whistle imaginable for a new feature before you release it, and you’ll end up spending a lot of your time on things that turn out to be dead weight. Either users don’t care about it, or it just doesn’t work the way you envisioned when you tried, starting from scratch, to put all of the pieces together in your head.

Or you can do the things you feel strongly about — get the bones right — and then just live in it. 

The important stuff will be clear soon enough.