Narrative

It's wild out there.

Scaling a business is hard. Scaling one with human-made technology? Even harder. You need a plan that doesn’t compromise your business, your team, or your soul.

This work is challenging.

Product design is often a catch-all term for solving complex business problems. Consultants vary widely, and many people aren’t sure what they actually do. But at its core, successful product design relies on relationships, trust, transparency, and intimacy.

The Landscape

  • Agencies
    Teams of strategists, coders, designers, and account executives. They can deliver, but their business model often doesn’t serve the client. Talent turnover leads to diluted quality, resulting in products that look and feel the same.
  • Management Consultants
    They provide analyses to please investors, often imposing systems that don’t fit. They’re not makers and typically don’t offer creative or branding services.
  • UX Consultants
    Hired to check off deliverables. The high demand and low supply of experienced talent allow many under-qualified practitioners to persist. Few have proper consulting experience, and most don’t design or develop.
  • Freelancers
    Independent workers who execute specific tasks. They’re not integrated into teams, leading to unclear dynamics and limited bandwidth.

Enter Thought Merchants

An intimate relationship with experience you can’t hire. A hands-on, agile approach with a collaborator who is your peer.

Technically, we could be considered product consultants. But there’s a key difference…

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Steve Berry — Product Designer.

Which really means: maker, designer, founder, thinker, coach, artist, strategist.

  • Founder — Understands, empathizes, earns trust
  • Maker — Designs, builds, ships, learns, iterates
  • Peer — Listens, builds intimacy, champions the team, is invested

People are the core of tech and design.

This means coaching, training, teamwork, advocacy, efficient processes, shipping, and fostering a healthy work environment.

I love this work.

I’m here to build a team and create a process that builds the product—not as a faceless organization aiming to change your company, but as a dedicated partner committed to making a meaningful impact.

Thought Merchants

People. Process. Product.

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Serving Emerging and High-Growth Companies

  • Casper: Developed a high-performance checkout experience.
  • Harry’s: Designed the first men’s shave plan.
  • STX: Designed an ice hockey stick—so fun.
  • Chainlink: Branding for the 12th most valuable blockchain globally.
  • Code Climate: Co-founded and reinvented the product multiple times over six years.
  • Riot Games: Contributed to League of Legends, one of the world’s most popular games.

A Favorite Email

Steve, what’s up?

Hope you’re doing well. It’s been too long; we need to catch up soon. In the meantime, meet Philip Krim—a great guy who recently started a company called Casper. They’ve had an amazing launch and are looking for help to continue building out their web product. Naturally, I thought of you.

Philip, as mentioned, Steve’s awesome.

— Jeff Raider, HARRY’S
Narrative