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How To Blog Posts

Apr 25, 2025 | 8:00 am
It starts with good intentions — a quick fix here, a shiny feature there — and suddenly, your product portfolio’s bursting at the seams. In this guide, Talke Hoppmann-Walton walks you through a “Product Kondo” exercise to declutter, realign, and spark some serious product joy for both your business and your customers.

Apr 24, 2025 | 7:49 am

In this post, Blackle Mori shows you a few of the hacks found while trying to push the limits of Cohost’s HTML support. Use these if you dare, lest you too get labelled a CSS criminal.


The Lost CSS Tricks of Cohost.org originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.


Apr 24, 2025 | 5:00 am
While it is clear that creativity is driven by both the left and right hemispheres, an important question remains: how can we boost creativity while keeping the process enjoyable? It may not be obvious, but non-design-related activities can, in fact, be an opportunity to enhance creativity.

Apr 23, 2025 | 1:04 pm

As a product builder over too many years to mention, I've lost count of the number of times I've seen promising ideas go from zero to hero in a few weeks, only to fizzle out within months.

Financial products, which is the field I work in, are no exception. With people’s real hard-earned money on the line, user expectations running high, and a crowded market, it's tempting to throw as many features at the wall as possible and hope something sticks. But this approach is a recipe for disaster. Here's why:

The pitfalls of feature-first development

When you start building a financial product from the ground up, or are migrating existing customer journeys from paper or telephony channels onto online banking or mobile apps, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of creating new features. You might think, "If I can just add one more thing that solves this particular user problem, they'll love me!" But what happens when you inevitably hit a roadblock because the narcs (your security team!) don’t like it? When a hard-fought feature isn't as popular as you thought, or it breaks due to unforeseen complexity?

This is where the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) comes in. Jason Fried's book Getting Real and his podcast Rework often touch on this idea, even if he doesn’t always call it that. An MVP is a product that provides just enough value to your users to keep them engaged, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming or difficult to maintain. It sounds like an easy concept but it requires a razor sharp eye, a ruthless edge and having the courage to stick by your opinion because it is easy to be seduced by “the Columbo Effect”… when there’s always “just one more thing…” that someone wants to add.

The problem with most finance apps, however, is that they often become a reflection of the internal politics of the business rather than an experience solely designed around the customer. This means that the focus is on delivering as many features and functionalities as possible to satisfy the needs and desires of competing internal departments, rather than providing a clear value proposition that is focused on what the people out there in the real world want. As a result, these products can very easily bloat to become a mixed bag of confusing, unrelated and ultimately unlovable customer experiences—a feature salad, you might say.

The importance of bedrock

So what's a better approach? How can we build products that are stable, user-friendly, and—most importantly—stick?

That's where the concept of "bedrock" comes in. Bedrock is the core element of your product that truly matters to users. It's the fundamental building block that provides value and stays relevant over time.

In the world of retail banking, which is where I work, the bedrock has got to be in and around the regular servicing journeys. People open their current account once in a blue moon but they look at it every day. They sign up for a credit card every year or two, but they check their balance and pay their bill at least once a month.

Identifying the core tasks that people want to do and then relentlessly striving to make them easy to do, dependable, and trustworthy is where the gravy’s at.

But how do you get to bedrock? By focusing on the "MVP" approach, prioritizing simplicity, and iterating towards a clear value proposition. This means cutting out unnecessary features and focusing on delivering real value to your users.

It also means having some guts, because your colleagues might not always instantly share your vision to start with. And controversially, sometimes it can even mean making it clear to customers that you’re not going to come to their house and make their dinner. The occasional “opinionated user interface design” (i.e. clunky workaround for edge cases) might sometimes be what you need to use to test a concept or buy you space to work on something more important.

Practical strategies for building financial products that stick

So what are the key strategies I've learned from my own experience and research?

  1. Start with a clear "why": What problem are you trying to solve? For whom? Make sure your mission is crystal clear before building anything. Make sure it aligns with your company’s objectives, too.
  2. Focus on a single, core feature and obsess on getting that right before moving on to something else: Resist the temptation to add too many features at once. Instead, choose one that delivers real value and iterate from there.
  3. Prioritize simplicity over complexity: Less is often more when it comes to financial products. Cut out unnecessary bells and whistles and keep the focus on what matters most.
  4. Embrace continuous iteration: Bedrock isn't a fixed destination—it's a dynamic process. Continuously gather user feedback, refine your product, and iterate towards that bedrock state.
  5. Stop, look and listen: Don't just test your product as part of your delivery process—test it repeatedly in the field. Use it yourself. Run A/B tests. Gather user feedback. Talk to people who use it, and refine accordingly.

The bedrock paradox

There's an interesting paradox at play here: building towards bedrock means sacrificing some short-term growth potential in favour of long-term stability. But the payoff is worth it—products built with a focus on bedrock will outlast and outperform their competitors, and deliver sustained value to users over time.

So, how do you start your journey towards bedrock? Take it one step at a time. Start by identifying those core elements that truly matter to your users. Focus on building and refining a single, powerful feature that delivers real value. And above all, test obsessively—for, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, Alan Kay, or Peter Drucker (whomever you believe!!), “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”


Apr 23, 2025 | 5:00 am
Poor internet connectivity doesn’t have to mean poor UX. With PWA technologies like `IndexedDB`, service workers, and the Background Sync API, you can build an offline-friendly image upload system that queues uploads and retries them automatically — so your users can upload stress-free, even when offline.

Apr 18, 2025 | 8:00 am
Keyboard navigation is a vital aspect of accessible web design, and a detail-oriented approach is crucial. Prioritizing keyboard navigation prioritizes the user experience for a diverse audience, extending your reach while simultaneously fostering a more inclusive web environment.

Apr 18, 2025 | 7:12 am

Yay, let's jump for text-wrap: pretty landing in Safari Technology Preview! But beware that it's different from how it works in Chromium browsers.


“Pretty” is in the eye of the beholder originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.


Apr 17, 2025 | 7:38 am

There was once upon a time when native CSS lacked many essential features, leaving developers to come up with all sorts of ways to make CSS easier to write over the years.


So, You Want to Give Up CSS Pre- and Post-Processors… originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.


Apr 17, 2025 | 3:00 am
While there’s no definitive playbook for building an accessibility culture, Dani shares lessons from his experience in shaping it through habits rather than mandates.

Apr 16, 2025 | 7:34 am

Tips and tricks on utilizing the CSS backdrop-filter property to style user interfaces. You’ll learn how to layer backdrop filters among multiple elements, and integrate them with other CSS graphical effects to create elaborate designs.


Using CSS backdrop-filter for UI Effects originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.


Apr 15, 2025 | 8:00 am
Dark mode isn’t just a trendy aesthetic. It’s a gateway to more inclusive digital experiences, but only if designed thoughtfully. Discover how to craft dark modes that don’t just look good but work for everyone, from those with light sensitivity to machine learning algorithms.

Apr 14, 2025 | 7:40 am

Custom cursors with CSS are great, but we can take things to the next level with JavaScript. Using JavaScript, we can transition between cursor states, place dynamic text within the cursor, apply complex animations, and apply filters.


Next Level CSS Styling for Cursors originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.


Apr 11, 2025 | 7:39 am

This CSS-Tricks update highlights significant progress in the Almanac, recent podcast appearances, a new CSS counters guide, and the addition of several new authors contributing valuable content.


CSS-Tricks Chronicles XLIII originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.


Apr 10, 2025 | 10:00 am
“Gilding the lily” isn’t always bad. In design, a touch of metaphorical gold — a subtle animated transition, a hint of color, or added depth in a drop shadow — can help communicate a level of care and attention that builds trust. But first? You need a lily. Nail the fundamentals. Then, gild it carefully.

Apr 10, 2025 | 7:39 am

Most of the time, people showcase Tailwind's @apply feature with one of Tailwind's single-property utilities (which changes a single CSS declaration). When showcased this way, @apply doesn't sound promising at all. So obviously, nobody wants to use it. Personally, I think Tailwind's @apply feature is better than described.


Tailwind’s @apply Feature is Better Than it Sounds originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.