What the Ottoman Empire Can Teach Product Teams Today

We often look to Silicon Valley or the latest product frameworks for guidance but sometimes, the most powerful lessons come from history.

I’ve been reading about the history of the Ottoman Empire, and I got so amazed that made compare with the European colonial era in Africa. Huge difference.

And got me wondering: What the Ottoman Empire Can Teach Product organization Today?

First of all let me say this: the next breakthrough in tech might come from a better understanding of history. We often talk about innovation like it’s something invented in the last 30 years but real innovation is centuries old.

Over 600 years, the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic world built vast networks of trade, education, medicine, and governance that reached into Africa and beyond. They created systems that were, in many ways, inclusive, adaptive, and sustainable.

Fast forward to the last 500 years, and European colonial powers imposed a very different approach in Africa: extractive, forceful, and often destructive. While they introduced infrastructure, schools, and modern medicine, many of these “contributions” were rooted in knowledge first developed in the Islamic world and were implemented in ways that destabilized local societies.

This historical contrast isn’t just academic. It’s a mirror for how we build products today.

Product Lessons from a 600-Year Empire

1. Build on What Exists - But Give Credit

• History: Europe borrowed scientific knowledge from Islamic scholars but rarely acknowledged it.
• Today: Innovation often comes from remixing what already works - Figma succeeded by building on familiar design patterns, browser-native tech, and cloud collaboration.
• Good example: Figma - integrated existing design workflows and web standards but gave power back to the user.
• Cautionary tale: Instagram Threads - launched as a Twitter clone without real innovation or community input. It lacked identity, because it didn’t respect or differentiate what came before.
• Takeaway: Respect the work that came before you, and add genuine value. Study what’s already working in other cultures, industries, or teams. adapt and evolve, don’t reinvent the wheel.

2. Design for Integration, Not Imposition

• History: The Ottomans adapted to local contexts; European colonizers imposed alien systems, Colonial models were extractive and short-term. They ignored the people they served.
• Today: Successful products adapt to user behavior, rather than forcing change.
• Good example: WhatsApp - thrived in markets like India, Brazil, and African countries because it worked on low bandwidth, used phone numbers (not email), and respected how people actually communicate.
• Bad example: Google Wave - ambitious, but too foreign to existing workflows. It confused instead of integrating.
• Takeaway: Know your users’ context. Build with them, not for them. Don’t build products that just extract value from users. Co-create with your users, and prioritize long-term relationships over short-term gains.

3. Don’t Just Extract - Create Shared Value

• History: European colonizers ignored African systems and imposed foreign structures. It caused damage that still exists today. The basically extracted resources and left instability.
• Today: Some platforms extract attention, data, or money and give little in return.
• Good example: Patreon - empowers creators to earn directly from fans, creating mutual value.
• Cautionary tale: Facebook Free Basics - pitched as a gift to emerging markets, specially in African markets , but limited users to Facebook’s version of the internet, the real Facebook experience.
• Takeaway: Ask “are we building a system that uplifts or exploits our users?” Understand your users’ cultural, social, and emotional context before shipping. A “one-size-fits-all” product often fails.

4. Empower, Don’t Control

• History: Ottomans allowed autonomy under a unified system; European colonizers centralized control.
• Today: Users want choice and freedom - not lock-ins and manipulative tactics.
• Good example: Notion — gives users flexibility to create what they want: docs, wikis, projects, or systems. It respects user agency.
• Bad example: Adobe’s subscription model - often criticized for making it hard to leave and locking users into expensive ecosystems.
• Takeaway: Empower users with flexibility, not fear of leaving. Treat user feedback, competitor insights, and team ideas as shared knowledge ecosystems.

5. Think About Legacy — Not Just Launch

• History: The Ottoman legal and education systems lasted centuries; European colonial systems often collapsed or caused conflict, left broken systems and artificial borders.
• Today: Great products think about sustainability, ethics, and long-term trust.
• Good example: Basecamp - opinionated, focused, and committed to product longevity over chasing trends. Ok, this is provocative but I’ll say it - Basecamp is way better than Slack.
• Cautionary tale: WeWork - rapid expansion with little long-term stability, eventually led to collapse.
• Takeaway: Don’t just ask “How do we grow?” Also ask “What will we leave behind?”. Are you enabling growth, or leaving behind technical debt and user frustration?

6. Innovation Is Global

• History: Baghdad, Cairo, Córdoba, Timbuktu - centers of science before Paris or London.
• Today: Innovation is happening in Lagos, Accra, Kigali, Bangalore, São Paulo, not just San Francisco.
• Good example: M-Pesa - revolutionized mobile payments years before Apple Pay, by solving a real local need.
• Bad example: Products that assume Western behaviors or global standard…
• Takeaway: Your next breakthrough might come from listening form your “neighbors”, not copying Silicon Valley. Look beyond your industry bubble. Learn from different regions, disciplines, and eras. Great ideas are everywhere.

History shows us that power used to control leads to collapse, but power used to connect, collaborate, and respect local wisdom can build something that lasts.

So as we build the next generation of products, let’s stop pretending we are inventing everything. Let’s start asking:

Who came before us? Who are we really serving? What legacy are we creating?

I always say this to my colleagues specially my team:

“YOU ARE NOT YOUR CUSTOMER”

Now chose to what’s best

User-Centered Design

• Ottoman Approach: Co-creates with users. Adapts to their real-world behaviors.
• Colonial Approach: Assumes what’s best for users. Imposes foreign workflows.

Product Vision

• Ottoman Approach: Long-term, culturally grounded, values sustainability.
• Colonial Approach: Short-term gains, quick expansion, exits or market dominance.

Innovation Ethos

• Ottoman Approach: Builds on existing knowledge with respect and integration.
• Colonial Approach: Reinvents existing solutions with disregard for context or origin.

Business Model

• Ottoman Approach: Focuses on shared value and sustainable growth.
• Colonial Approach: Extractive models: data harvesting, attention economy, ad-dependence.

Tech Stack Philosophy

• Ottoman Approach: Modular, flexible, built to integrate.
• Colonial Approach: Proprietary, closed ecosystems that create user lock-in.

Team Culture

• Ottoman Approach: Inclusive, context-aware, open to diverse thinking.
• Colonial Approach: Centralized decision-making, often disconnected from user realities.

Design Influence

• Ottoman Approach: Rooted in local behaviors (ex: USSD, mobile-first, community-driven).
• Colonial Approach: Assumes Western patterns apply globally (ex: email-first, cloud-first, high-end device-first).

Growth Strategy

• Ottoman Approach: Organic, trust-based, slow burn
• Colonial Approach: Viral growth, ad-driven, blitz scale or perish.

Legacy

• Ottoman Approach: Durable institutions, local empowerment.
• Colonial Approach: Broken ecosystems, cultural erasure, short-lived products.

“YOU ARE NOT YOUR CUSTOMER”