What comes next…

I don’t often post about my work. But things have gotten interesting.

A little over a year ago Radiant Photo got runner up at the photo industry’s Lucie Awards. It’s the AI-powered image editor I’ve helped shape while working with my colleagues. We focus on truly natural images. Not making fake pixels. It’s a bootstrapped project meaning we can't even pay ourselves yet. But it’s growing nicely.

Last week I found out Mylio Photos was named runner-up for best Photo Software by Digital Camera magazine. This is published by Future in the UK. The world’s largest publisher of photo magazines and news (as well as a cool conference).

Why do I tell you this?

I’m pretty competitive with myself (sure there’s some interesting psychology in there). Why am I proud to be number two?

In both cases, these apps are made by small teams. Radiant is about a dozen folks. Mylio a little over two dozen.

I’m the product manager for each. My job is to study the market, talk to people, look at the tech, and rally the teams behind a vision (with some research and marketing thrown in).

We made Radiant Photo to help make imaging easier and raise the quality for all people. We partnered with the folks at Perfectly Clear to build a new product based on their industry-standard printing tech. We’re also doing a lot of stuff around natural beauty and prioritizing all skin tones to look their best.

Mylio Photos is a project started by the former CTO of Microsoft. It ships with most Seagate hard drives and it creates a network between all your devices. I’ve worked with a great team to create a tool that’s extremely fast. Making it easy to find your images as well as providing many layers of protection. It also can run without the cloud and provides encryption for privacy.

But let me step back for a second.

One project is to make it easy so everyone has great photos. We’re working on tech for every phone and every camera. A way to make everyone have photos that are more lovable.

The other project has partnered with familysearch.org to help people create online family history archives. Seagate to reduce cloud storage risk and environmental impact. And multiple groups focused on history, metadata, and photo preservation.

I’m proud of both teams. I’ve been able to take all the things I’ve learned about helping people with creativity and software and turn it into something that can empower more people than I could ever teach.

“Losing” to Adobe

In both cases, we “lost” to Adobe. Frame.io and then Firefly. Both products I use (the first a lot and truly respect). You might not be familiar with Adobe but let’s just say this isn’t even remotely close to a David and Goliath thing. They're an amazing innovator and a long-term collaborator. I have many friends and people I deeply respect who work there.

A few years back I got turned down to be the Adobe Premiere Pro product manager. Was an honor to even be considered. This year I got “let go” from Adobe Max to make room for “new (younger) voices.”

I don’t really care about fame. But after having my team at the last software company I worked for imploded over shareholder arguments. It feels pretty damn good.

You see I’ve been able to work with two teams and helped guide two truly helpful products. And both products are deeply ethical with bigger purposes than just sales.

My family

I spend a lot of time on the road, away from my family. It’s hard. I owe a lot to my amazing wife - I am blessed. Thank you for making this possible.

My wife and I are wrapping up a trip to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We’ve been touring Morocco and it’s been eye opening in many ways and good for our relationship. Last month my son and I attended SXSW together. When I get back my daughter and I head to the NAB (broadcasting) conference. I get to speak, she gets to learn, and we also plan to have some fun.

My focus

I am grateful for my life and the trust these teams have placed in me. I am proud of the products we are building.

When I get back I need to make some adjustments. One is an amazing new project. One or even two are the closings of some long-term businesses. Or at least some giant pivots. And I need to take better care of myself and my loved ones.

My brain can’t do only one thing. As it needs constant challenges. For those amazing brands and teams, I get to collaborate with - I thank you. And to my family, you complete me.

Here’s to an amazing year ahead.

Some new classes to record and teach.

New places to visit.

New people to collaborate with.

New problems to solve.

Special thanks to some of the folks who’ve been there for the journey. And forgiveness if my jet-lagged brain forgets to say thank you more often.