![]() We’ve shown that good design creates real business values and better companies.Īnd as I look back at my time at Wunderlist, I realize how much I’ve learned and grown as a designer, leader and friend. So taking something that is typically boring and even daunting for many, and turning it around, creating something enjoyable to use, led to many users vocalizing their inability to live their lives without it. Productivity is typically full of negative emotion. With Wunderlist we’ve shown how design influences the relationship people have with the products they use every day. ![]() As a company, the way we design and build products people love has been the most rewarding achievement, and I’m grateful I was given the chance to play my part in that. What I’m most proud of though, is the culture we were able to create. We created signature design elements that were copied by our competition, created a “ding” sound that encouraged people to check off their to-dos just so they can hear it play, showed the rest of the world that wooden backgrounds can be in fashion (for a little too long sometimes) – and after all joined Microsoft to build great productivity services on scale. Over the years we made Wunderlist better, simpler, faster, easier, and more fun to use. Today, Wunderkit is long gone, and with great energy and a strong spirit we managed to build Wunderlist into the category-leading productivity platform we always envisioned. Today, I know it was one of the most important lessons I and we’ve ever been taught. Leading a team through the disappointment, shame and frustration that comes with such a moment is tough, as a team and individual. After almost a year of hard work, we ended up launching a product that didn’t seem to fly high and was unlikely to be the global success Wunderlist was. We had just launched the beta of our second product Wunderkit, and things weren’t looking so hot. When I joined a few months later, in February 2012, the team was in a difficult spot. Their enthusiasm and ambitions were infectious. Quite the opposite to what the competition was (and still is) doing. They believed fun is not the enemy of work, and that we could make productivity tools that are easy and a delight for everyone to use. It was an incredibly talented team, driven by a mission to reinvent productivity. When I met Christian and the (at that time) 11 Wunderkinder team in Summer 2011, I knew I had come to a special place. At the beginning of August, we’re going to move to New York where I’ll join the Outlook team as Director of Product Design for iOS, Android and Mac. Today, after four and a half years, I am officially saying goodbye to Wunderlist. Up until I started typing I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to write this post.
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