How I think
How I think
A few principles I use to judge products, companies and change.
It always starts with the customer need
Understanding what someone really needs. To this day that is everything. Otherwise it is just playing with technology.
At Lexware Office we did nothing else for almost nine months.
The market decides what we do. We do not
Zaplive worked technically. The market was not ready, and the market is right, even when it is wrong.
That it works does not mean anyone needs it
It is great that it works, but if nobody needs it, it is of no use. That sentence cost me a company.
Autonomy needs a goal
Teams do not get better when you prescribe the path. They get better when the goal is clear and the path belongs to them.
At Blue Ocean that was the whole idea. In Das Lena Prinzip it is the same idea, only now it applies to an AI as well.
Told in L'Extra Mile, 9 December 2025.
Brand matters more as products become copyable
AI speeds up development. Features, code and channels end up the same everywhere. Trust, attitude and community do not.
Told in brand eins podcast, 1 May 2026.
Failure is information
I do not romanticise it. Zaplive failed, and the 16 after the launch of Lexware Office dragged me down for a week.
Both changed later decisions. That is the whole value of it.
Build something that can last
A track from 1997 that still plays. A product that gives evenings back. A piece of furniture that still holds after forty years. It is the same question.
Not everything lasts. But it is only worth it if it has a chance.
And one sentence of my own that holds all of it together: Innovation is no insurance.