Key Takeaways

  • Max Schoening, from his work at Notion, defines “taste” not as subjective preference, but as a hard-won predictive ability: you can run a “virtual machine” in your head and forecast how a specific 'in-group' will react to a product idea.
  • This isn't innate talent; it’s a skill built through consistent, deliberate effort—Schoening says it takes a long time, much like “training a model” through repetition and feedback.
  • Founders looking to sharpen their design judgment should actively pursue side projects that demand end-to-end responsibility, forcing a holistic view of the product experience.
  • He recommends a surprising tactic: consciously surround yourself with high-quality, "tasteful" objects and designs. This creates a subconscious benchmark, making you acutely aware when your own work falls short.
  • These insights are distilled into a clear, actionable guide called Max Schoening's Method for Developing 'Taste' in Product Development.

The Max Schoening's Method for Developing 'Taste' in Product Development

This is a method for building the highly valuable, yet often misunderstood, skill of “taste” in product development.

  • Do Reps (Practice Iteration): You just have to do reps. It's almost like training a model.
  • Embrace Iterations with Feedback: The common thing I think is iterations with feedback. So it takes a really long time to build up taste in a specific domain.
  • Build Side Projects (Full Stack Responsibility): The designers that I think have at least in software design high taste are the ones that both have side projects that they build where they're responsible of the full thing in end.
  • Continuously Tinker with New Apps/Tools: They're also always tinkering with some new app. Like they're the annoying person that is like, 'Hey, what if we tried this in our team?'
  • Surround Yourself with Tasteful Things: It's also really important to surround yourself with tasteful things so that you feel like the thing you're making is lacking.

When This Works (and When It Doesn't)

Max Schoening points out that this method takes a substantial amount of time to build up taste within a specific domain, but once developed, it can often be extrapolated to other areas. This approach shines in product design, user experience, marketing, and any creative field where success depends on anticipating the desires and reactions of a defined audience. It's especially effective for founders who need to develop a keen sense of what their specific user base will value and reject.

Where it might not be the primary driver is in highly technical, backend engineering roles or scientific research where objective metrics and functional outcomes outweigh subjective appeal. While a general appreciation for good design never hurts, the intensive focus on subjective 'taste' as a predictive skill is less directly applicable there. It also requires a high tolerance for continuous feedback and iteration, which some might find creatively draining.

What to Do With This

As a 27-year-old founder building a mobile SaaS tool for indie creators, you can apply Schoening's method this week. First, Do Reps by dedicating 30 minutes daily to analyzing five competing apps in your niche. Identify specific UI patterns, onboarding flows, or monetization strategies that either hit or miss with your target creator community. Next, Embrace Iterations with Feedback by pushing a micro-feature (e.g., a new "share to social" button) to your top 20 beta users. Schedule brief calls to get brutal, direct feedback on their reaction, focusing on the emotional resonance of the change. Simultaneously, Build Side Projects by committing to building a small, public Figma template or a simple web component for creators over the next month, taking it from concept to launch yourself. Continuously Tinker by downloading three new AI-powered design tools or collaboration apps this week; actively experiment with them and note any fresh interaction patterns you could adapt. Finally, Surround Yourself with Tasteful Things by curating your social media feeds to follow five designers or product accounts whose work consistently impresses you and aligns with your target aesthetic, creating a constant, aspirational visual benchmark that makes your own current designs feel like they need more polish.