It is important for a product person to appreciate other good products. And it is not surprising that "tell me about products you love" is such a common interview question.

Here I share my favourite physical products. And I articulate how they make my life better, as well as how they can be improved.

Note: None of the product mentions below is sponsored. I'm just analyzing and sharing products I love.



Whiteboard

We naturally use our environment as an extension of our thinking. And a whiteboard is the most "frictionless" tool to externalize my thoughts. I bought a whiteboard on wheels for my home office for ~$160. And it has been a game-changer for my creative sessions.

Image: Thinking through my system of creating music



Job to be done:

I have used all sorts of productivity tools. And I even built my own ! But nothing comes close to having a whiteboard for free-form thinking — generating new ideas or fleshing out my understanding about a topic. Digital tools/apps are too rigid. Pen and paper are too limited in space.

And a whiteboard is great for collaboration. Once you draw out what you are thinking, you and your collaborators have a shared understanding sitting right in front of you.



How it can be better: 



Coca-Cola Freestyle

I'm talking about these guys:



It's been a pipe dream of mine since a young age to have all the soft drink flavours available on demand, with unlimited refills. So can imagine how excited I was when I first encountered a Coca-Cola Freestyle machine.

I have used these dozens of times since. And they never fail to bring me joy.

Through the touch screen UI, you select one of the familiar brands (e.g. Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta) or categories. And from there, the screen presents you with a wide array of flavours you would never think existed — orange vanilla, ginger lime, raspberry etc. And you get to select the option that works for your dietary needs — regular, diet, caffeine free. And then on top of that, you can mix and match multiple flavours together.



Job to be done:

Personalized enjoyment and novelty. A sense of wonder and feeling "you really can have it all".

You end up with a drink that is perfect for your taste. This was logistically impossible to achieve before. Because it is hard to mass produce and distribute so many variants ("SKUs"). And shelf space is expensive.

You can't just buy the more exotic flavours from a store. I remember back in college, one way to instantly make a new friend was to tell them where they could buy vanilla coke .

Some movie theatres have these Freestyle machines. And sometimes I get just as excited about these machines as I am about the movie itself.



How it can be better:



Lego

This product requires no introduction. Is there a product that embodies "creative play" more than Lego? Notice on the box it says it's suitable for ages 4-99. I don't think that's an exaggeration.



Job to be done:

As we get older, life gets harder and we get more serious. It is easy to forget how to play in the process of growing up. But Lego brings back the experience of imagining, exploring, and creating.

Lego bricks are like physical 3D pixels. They provide the materials that gives your imagination a concrete body. And they provide the constraints that make you exercise your abstract thinking and creativity.

Lego reminds you what it's like to feel like a kid again. And that learning should be fun.

Here's a 3-brick "duck" I made in a workshop:



How it can be better:



McDonald's Vanilla Cone



This is another product that needs no introduction. I have a soft spot for McDonald's soft serve. In fact, I would include this on the menu for my last meal on Earth. Product managers, you know you've made it when you can get your customer to say that.

I can only imagine the amount of engineering, food science, and logistics considerations and iterations that have gone into creating a product like this.



Job to be done:

It lets me revisit a perfect sensual experience of both stimulation and comfort. And it is always consistent, no matter where or when I get it.

It is always smooth and rich. The cold cream wakes up your senses and slowly releases the sweetness that lingers in your mouth. It takes you to the place just before the boundary of "too much", and lets you dwell there at the sweet spot.

And it comes with the "right" amount of guilt — 24g of sugar at just $2 a piece. You probably shouldn't enjoy it every day. But once in a while, it is totally OK.



How it can be improved:



Honourable Mentions

There are plenty more physical products that I love that didn't make the cut. In no particular order, they are:

The phone camera: It is portable, to help capture the beautiful moments in life. And its integration with cloud storage is convenient. On top of that, phone camera just keep getting better (in terms of both software and hardware)!

Mid-range noise-cancelling headphones: With good headphones, listening to music becomes an activity on its own, instead of just a background accompaniment. They afford a level of musical enjoyment that vastly surpasses what the most powerful kings/rulers could even dream of generations ago.

Drawing tablet: It gives much more control for digital drawing, but at a fraction of the cost of tablet computers. I personally use the XP Pen and love it.



Did any of this resonate? What are your favourite physical products and why? Let me know via email or on Twitter .