About

Dave's Research Co. was founded in Porto, in 2020.

I've spent most of my professional career trying to figure out how smart people on product teams end up doing not-smart things.

In 2010, I began building research programs into product and design orgs in San Francisco. In isolation, research could be 'solved', but the interesting problems kept recurring outside the scope of research. Even with great research and researchers in place, some of the product teams around me seemed to be stepping forward erratically or without clear intent.

My own research turned back inside the organization: what information do product teams operate on, and what shapes how they choose to play? I had circled around it for years already, you can't build a research program into a product organization without attempting to reshape how product work flows. I could see that timescale boundaries, incentive misalignment, differing functional perspectives, and abstract instantiations of strategy all worked to fragment reality.

I wanted to learn how to improve that mess, and get closer to the shaping of product work itself. In 2020 I moved to Porto and began to consult independently as Dave's Research Company. The name began as a joke from a friend, and now serves as a nod to where I started, and a forward look at my own exploration into an enduring problem: it's quite hard for people to work together and make good things.

I work with a few clients each year, and I leave a trail of what I'm learning in my Monday newsletter, The Product Game.

Influence and impetus

My work and thinking pulls on an academic background of cognitive science and Human-Computer Interaction, the arduous and gratifying process of learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu (I'm currently at brown belt, training no-gi), wide-ranging reading, and the architect Christopher Alexander's structural approach to complexity.

With the tradeoff of certainty, consulting offers another benefit I was unable to achieve in-house: discretionary time. Each year I take a 4–6 week sabbatical like the wine harvest, sake season, or a very long walk. Since starting DRC in Porto, I've walked four Caminos de Santiago: the Portuguese, the Primitivo, the Invierno, and the del Norte (~800km, ~5.5 weeks.)

Problems and questions

If you have a product problem in an interesting shape, or you need a wine recommendation, drop me a line: dave@davesresearch.com.

Talk and Workshop Index:

Chanterelles: apply heat and butter

Great! You’ve successfully signed up.

Welcome back! You've successfully signed in.

You've successfully subscribed to Dave's Research Co..

Your link has expired.

Success! Check your email for magic link to sign-in.

Success! Your billing info has been updated.

Your billing was not updated.