Built for the Everyday

Most products are bought for the exception and judged in everyday use. You buy the car for the big trip and drive it to work. You buy the tool for the big project and use it for the small one. The decision is made on the other days, the ordinary ones, in everything that comes after the purchase.

That's exactly where product development looks least. It optimises the moment of decision, the spec sheet, the comparison, the showroom. What matters on the commute, in the fortieth repetition of the same action, appears in no specification. And that's exactly what decides whether someone stays or quietly switches to the next thing.

This series is about that gap. Not about electric cars, even if the examples often come from there, because it's the market I know most closely. It's about products in general, about how you build what holds up in everyday use, and about the tools for seeing that before the customer shows it to you.

Most people design reasons to buy. I'm interested in reasons to stay.