SE-Trends wishes you happy holidays and a happy new year!
With this article, I bid you farewell from a turbulent year 2025. A lot has happened, including a lot of good things. I already wrote about last year's developments and what we can expect next year last week. But I would still like to wish you a happy festive season and give you a few thoughts to take with you.
In particular, my fundraising campaign is still running until the first week of January. If you subscribe to the SE-Trends newsletter now, you will be counted and increase the donation amount by 95 cents per subscriber.
Also some more information about my book Product Velocity, which will have two appearances at next year's ReConf.
Fundraising campaign for Ocean Cleanup
Once again this year, I am foregoing sending Christmas cards and instead supporting the non-profit organization The Ocean Cleanup Project. The organization, which was founded by Dutchman Boyan Slat, aims to remove plastic waste from the oceans and rivers.
Removing the immense amounts of plastic waste is a complex problem that requires a clear systems engineering approach to solve. The organization is pursuing a systematic approach by not only focusing on cleaning up the ocean, but also intercepting waste in rivers in order to tackle the problem at its root.
For every email newsletter subscriber registered with SE-Trends on January 1, 2026, 95 cents (the value of a postage stamp) will be donated to The Ocean Cleanup Project. You can increase the donation by inviting friends and colleagues to the newsletter.
Product Velocity: Develop physical products faster
In August 2025, I signed a contract with MIT Press to publish my new book Product Velocity - Build Physical Products at Software Speed. The manuscript is due to be completed in March 2026 and the book will be published at the end of 2026.
I am writing this book because I have been following for years how the complexity of products is increasing, but approaches such as agility or MBSE have not yet enabled a real breakthrough. At the same time, some companies, such as BYD, Xiaomi or SpaceX, are managing to drastically increase the speed of development.
The methods exist, but bringing them together holistically is a real challenge. Product Velocity bundles these approaches into a systematic framework that can be implemented in real organizations.
For me, the book is a contribution to bringing speed into the mainstream in the development of complex, mechatronic products.
Finally: Happy holidays
With that, I bid you farewell for the holidays. Thank you for your support, your feedback and the many conversations this year. I wish you a relaxing time, a good start to the new year and look forward to 2026: A year in which we learn, experiment and advance systems engineering together again.
