Alex Rainert

Alex Rainert

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I'm working on making this little site my new home on the internet. It's been awhile since I felt compelled to put in the effort to build - and maintain - a presence on the web again. Over the past 15+ years I've poured a lot (too much) of my

(From the archives) I’m joining The New York Times

(From the archives) I’m joining The New York Times

The past year working at Nucleus has been an amazing experience for me. I joined the team in March of last year with the goal of having our product on store shelves the first week in August. After having worked at a hardware startup that sadly never made it to

(From the archives) My 10 Favorite Products & Experiences of 2016

(From the archives) My 10 Favorite Products & Experiences of 2016

If Oprah can have a list of her favorite things, why can’t we all? Over the holidays, as I was drinking wine and lamenting the dumpster fire of a year 2016 was, I thought it would be good to try and think about the products and experiences that stood

(From the archives) My first visit to Facebook in over a year was also my last. On to the next.

(From the archives) My first visit to Facebook in over a year was also my last. On to the next.

I hadn’t logged onto Facebook since December 2014. Back then, I decided the effort — and data, oh that sweet sweet data — I was putting into the service wasn’t coming close to being matched by the value I was getting out of it. This was in stark contrast to

(From the archives) I’m off to build a platform to help bring people closer.

(From the archives) I’m off to build a platform to help bring people closer.

After 9 great months working with many startups, I’m joining one. Over the past nine months I’ve been working as an independent product consultant, collaborating with companies in a variety of capacities — product design, product & company strategy, process & org design and a little bit of coaching along the

(From the archives) Reflections on 7 months of product consulting

As 2015 came to an end, I realized I’ve been working as a consultant since June and I thought it would be useful for me (and hopefully others) to reflect on how it’s gone, what I’ve learned, what I’ve changed, now that I have a decent

(From the archives) When one door closes...

(From the archives) When one door closes...

Back in May, after a little over a year, the company I’d been working with, Sum, closed its doors. The vision — to take wearables beyond data for data’s sake and empower people with the insight necessary to make meaningful improvements to their long term health — was a big

(From the archives) My thoughts after a little over a month with the Apple Watch

I’d started gathering notes on my experience with the Watch on the weekend it was released (a little over a month ago) but quickly realized that the device fit into such a new place in my life that hot takes wouldn’t cut it. Below is the result of

(From the archives) A Runner’s Hope for the Apple Watch

(From the archives) A Runner’s Hope for the Apple Watch

This past weekend I ran my best half marathon ever by ~3 minutes and I owe most of it to the Garmin running watch above that I borrowed from my wife. Over the years, I’ve been a heavy user of the Nike Running and Runkeeper apps and while the

(From the archives) Can you walk the walk when it comes to editing your product?

(From the archives) Can you walk the walk when it comes to editing your product?

My overwhelming use case (>80 %) for Pinterest is to save something, usually an image/screenshot from my desktop or camera roll or via an extension (both iOS and Chrome). The other 20% is to find something I know I’ve previously saved to one of my boards. Every time I

(From the archives) Hot take: Medium makes its first big changes

I’ve been longing for something “between Twitter and Medium” and in some respects today’s Medium changes look to be just that. That said, I’m honestly still a little mindfreaked by them and am struggling to get my thoughts in order. Here’s a quick stab: * A few

(From the archives) The value of establishing one keystone habit

(From the archives) The value of establishing one keystone habit

A look back at 2014 and forward to 2015 Most years as December winds down, I resolve to change 5–10 things that fall roughly into the categories you’d expect: lose some weight, be more active, sleep better, read more, etc. Before articulating what I’m planning to work

(From the archives) How I use The Hype Machine for music discovery

(From the archives) How I use The Hype Machine for music discovery

Over the past year, I’ve found myself discovering more and more new, great music thanks to The Hype Machine. You can do a whole lot more on the service but I tend to stick to a pretty simple workflow that yields a lot of value with minimal effort (always

(From the archives) If Twitter has the guts, it could improve the service with a few counterintuitive tweaks

(From the archives) If Twitter has the guts, it could improve the service with a few counterintuitive tweaks

Good post outlining some of the hurdles Twitter faces and touches on something I’ve felt for a long time. While there are certainly services that benefit from pure network effects (where more connections directly translate to a better experience), I’d argue that many of the most popular feed-based

(From the archives) Diving Back In

(From the archives) Diving Back In

Note: This post originally aired in February 2014 on Tumblr but was moved to Medium in October 2014. Over the past few months I’ve gotten to slow down a bit, spend some more time with my kids and enjoy a lot of coffees with a wide variety of people

(From the archives) Be productively constructive

(From the archives) Be productively constructive

People who are negative tend to want to demean people’s ideas. They say what they don’t like, but they don’t really say what they want to do. And it’s very hard to have ideas. It’s very hard to put yourself out there. It’s very

(From the archives) You are what you value

(From the archives) You are what you value

The importance of defining your company’s values early on “If there’s one piece of advice I can give early stage founders, it is to take the time to write down who you are, and who you want to be.” This quote is from a good post from Reece

(From the archives) The power of solving a real problem and making your users feel smarter

(From the archives) The power of solving a real problem and making your users feel smarter

How I’ve learned to rely on (and love) Waze During the month of December my wife and I made our regular trips to and from family members’ houses to celebrate the various holidays. Over the past year (especially since we moved outside of the city) Waze has become a

(From the archives) Getting through 2013 & looking forward to 2014

(From the archives) Getting through 2013 & looking forward to 2014

Getting excited about the unknown 2013 was as eventful a year as I can remember. We sold our apartment in Brooklyn and bought a house in Westchester. We added a new member to our family, Oliver, in June and moved the whole family up north 3 weeks later to the