Want to Build Rad Shit Together?
Who is this guy? I’m Trond Wuellner, a Product Director at Google Labs. I’ve spent 18+ years building 0-to-1 products—Google WiFi, YouTube Create, Pixelbook, and now AI products like Doppl and MusicFX. This newsletter is where I share what I’m learning while I build.
What You’ll Get
The Big Leap — Why AI demos dazzle but shipped products often disappoint. I work on this problem every day. Real lessons from translating research into things people actually use.
Builder’s Notes — Stories from founding products at Google. What worked, what didn’t, what I’d do differently. Not corporate retrospectives—real talk.
Experiments & Learning — I build a lot of random stuff. Apps with my kids. Open-source tools. Film photography projects. Half-baked experiments where the magic happens.
The Craft of PM — I’ve hired and mentored a lot of PMs. I have opinions about what makes great product people. Some of them are probably wrong.
Why Subscribe?
I’ve written thousands of pages of internal docs at Google. Strategy memos, product specs, postmortems. Maybe a few dozen people read them.
I want to write for a wider audience now—not to build a brand, but because I learn better when I write for others. If you’re a builder, a PM, or just curious about how products actually get made, you’ll find something useful here.
New posts drop roughly once a week. Subscribe and they’ll hit your inbox directly.
About Trond
Product Director at Google Labs working on AI. Founded Google WiFi (now in millions of homes) and YouTube Create. Previously led Pixelbook and was an early PM on ChromeOS.
Nights and weekends: I build apps with my kids, shoot film on a Leica M6 and Hasselblad 503C, and make prints in a darkroom. Angel investor via Hustle Fund and Vitalstage Ventures. Currently a freshman at Foothill College working on an associates degree in photography.
MIT Sloan MBA. Northwestern CS, where I studied neural networks in the late ‘90s before most people knew what they were.
Find me: @trondw on X
Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.
Stay up-to-date
Never miss an update—every new post is sent directly to your email inbox. For a spam-free, ad-free reading experience, plus audio and community features, get the Substack app.
Join the crew
Be part of a community of people who share your interests. Participate in the comments section, or support this work with a subscription.
To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.
