After being a musician and bass guitarist for 10 years, Tristan Kromer changed his career to working with tech startups, helping them build products fast. Although this conversation was originally broadcasted in episode 34 of the show, with careers and job descriptions changing fast, it’s worthy of a listen today.
Who is Tristan Kromer?
Tristan Kromer works with innovation teams and leaders to create amazing products and build startup ecosystems. He has worked with companies from early-stage startups with zero revenue to enterprise companies with > $1B revenue. (Swisscom, Pitney Bowes, Fujitsu, LinkedIn).
Tristan has worked with over 15 technology accelerator programs and ecosystem programs such as Innovation Norway, Vinnova (Sweden), Enterprise Ireland, NEST’up (Belgium), StartSmart (Estonia), and the Innovation Partnership Program (Vietnam-Finland) With his remaining hours, Tristan volunteers his time with Lean Startup Circle and blogs at GrasshopperHerder.com.
Why Should You Listen to Tristan?
Tristan, as I said, shifted careers from being a musician and a bass guitarist touring with a band to now helping technology startups build products fast. At the outset, that may simply sound ridiculous. Why would one do that?
The harder part though, is that it’s sometimes relatively easy to get a chance, but very hard to survive and thrive in a completely new job. Tristan breaks down the 3 key skills he picked from his career as a musician and tells us how it is helpful for creators at large.
What Does He Talk about in this Interview?
- Why is Tristan successful in his current role as a product consultant?
- What did he learn from music that he instantly started to use in his new avatar as a product consultant?
- How Tristan manages to stay productive?
- Tristan’s secrets in managing the balance between being productive and being creative
- What Tristan believes are the top 3 things a creator (someone who makes stuff that’s valuable to a set of people) should be good at
- Tristan’s view of how the notion of a “product” would change in the next 5 years
How Can You Listen?
Tristan Kromer’s interview is available in audio and video.
How to Get In Touch with Tristan Kromer?
- Tristan Kromer on Twitter – @TriKro
- Tristan’s
- blog – GrasshopperHerder
- company – TriKro
Download ebook
I want to let you know that my ebook 13 Skills and Mindsets for Creators and Makers is now available for download. During Season 1 of the show, I interviewed over 100 creators with a background in design, filmmaking, arts, creative entrepreneurship, and more. The goal was to understand what it takes to be successful and stand-out as a creator and maker. The outcome of that series of interviews is 13 skills, traits, and mindsets that I’ve now documented in this ebook.
If you are a creator or maker, no matter what background you are from – tech, non-tech, visual arts, filmmaking, or just any other background, you will find this valuable. Why?
- the list is made up of elements from across tech, business, filmmaking, media, visual, and performing arts.
- the ebook is written with the future in mind.
To download the book go to designyourthinking.com and click Learn More.
If you do get to read it, please feel free to share it with a friend or colleague.
Read the Manifesto
Season 2 of The Design Your Thinking Podcast is inspired by the DYT Manifesto. Do download a copy of the manifesto here (no email required).
