San Francisco

Nemath Ahmed

I’m a co-founder of Shifu Health. I’ve written on and off for a few years, and I’m trying to return to it because writing usually helps me understand what I actually think.

There isn’t a bigger plan for the writing. I want to keep track of what I’m learning, be honest about what I don’t know, and maybe help one or two people going through something similar see another perspective. That would be enough.

writing

  1. Graduating Georgia Tech
  2. What’s a data platform, anyway?
  3. The art of reading a research paper
  4. How AI-based fitness trackers work
all writing

working notes

Small things I’m trying to remember. They aren’t universal rules.

Go where the work happens.

Visiting medical facilities made the back office legible in a way another round of virtual outreach never could. Proximity changes the quality of the questions.

Build alongside people.

Collecting requirements once and disappearing to build is not customer discovery. Keep the feedback loop open while the product is still easy to change.

Work backwards from tonight.

When a problem expands, return to the deadline: if this needs to work tonight, what must happen right now? Urgency can be clarifying when the outcome is concrete.

Elsewhere: films, photographs, and music.