See what is not yet visible.
Look at a problem differently, examine assumptions and discover new possibilities.
Create Build Stories
I reveal possibilities and develop them into something that works.
I am Ruud Olijve. I like creating something that did not exist before: an idea, a product or a story. Especially when it starts with a problem people say cannot be solved.
Discover how I see thingsA different perspective
Possibilities emerge through connection.
In marketing and product development, I kept looking at the connection between three questions. By exploring them together rather than separately, possibilities appeared that had previously remained hidden.
- 01
Which people are we overlooking?
- 02
What is the product missing to be valuable to them?
- 03
Through which other route can we reach them?
A former Randstad director once described this as the ability to “engineer” a market.
I see it as looking carefully, examining assumptions and bringing existing parts together in a different way. Then the building begins: translating a possibility into something that works and a story people understand.
How I work
Create, build and tell stories.
Make the possibility tangible.
Translate a possibility into a product, approach or experiment that can work in practice.
Make it understandable.
Give meaning to what you create, so people recognise, understand and can use it.
From reading to doing
Choose where to begin.
Notebook →
Articles, notes and personal stories about product development, marketing, collaboration and different ways of seeing.
Canvases →
Practical models to organise your thoughts, reveal assumptions and determine a next step.
Concept builder
Explore a possibility and develop it into a coherent concept for a product, audience and distribution.
Product × Audience × Distribution
Why I share this
Knowledge gains value when someone can take it further.
Because of a brain tumour, I no longer work. On this website I share the knowledge, experiences and questions I want to pass on. About developing products, looking at problems differently and discovering where something gets stuck.
I write for curious people who want to understand how something works and how it might be different. My intention is that you find a thought here that helps you move forward.