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Scott Belsky

Episode #261

Chief Strategy Officer & EVP Design / Former CPO

Adobe

🔍User Research🎯Product Strategy👥Team & Culture⚡Execution

📝Full Transcript

11,781 words
Scott Belsky (00:00:00): Yeah. I've had this conversation quite a few times over the years with founders and friends who were running a company going sideways or worse and have had this question, "Should I continue or not?" I always have the same answer. I basically say, "How much conviction do you have in the solution you're building?" I know in the beginning, before you knew all you know now, you had tons of conviction. That's what caused you to leave your job. Now knowing all you know, do you have more or less conviction in the problem and the solution you're building? (00:00:31): And I'll tell you, I get different answers. Some people are like, "Oh, Scott, I mean, I have more conviction. All that I've learned, all the validation I've received from customers, we just haven't figured it out yet. It's driving me crazy. We've tried three times, and it's still like each product fails. But I have more conviction than ever before." And for those people, I'm like, "You know what? You're just in the messy middle. Stick with it. This is par for the course." But oftentimes, I'll hear, "Honestly, if I knew then what I know now, I would not have done this. Holy shit." (00:01:01): I'm like, "Then, quit. Your life is short. You have a great team. Pivot. Do something completely different." If you've lost conviction, you should not be doing what you're doing in the world of entrepreneurship. Lenny (00:01:15): Welcome to Lenny's Podcast where I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts to learn from their hard one experiences building and growing today's most successful products. Today, my guest is Scott Belsky. Scott is an absolute product legend. He's a former founder, starting a company called Behance that he sold to Adobe where he worked up the ranks to chief product officer, and more recently, to chief strategy officer and executive vice president of design and emerging products. He's also an author of the beloved book, The Messy Middle. He's also an angel ...

💡 Key Takeaways

  • 1Users are lazy, vain, and selfish in the first 30 seconds; build for this psychology.
  • 2Optimize for the problems you want to have (users asking for features) rather than building everything upfront.
  • 3Kill features to increase velocity on the core metric (The Behance Example).
  • 4To survive the 'Messy Middle', short-circuit the reward system with micro-milestones.
  • 5Product sense = Empathy + Psychological understanding of human tendencies.
  • 6AI will allow PMs and designers to explore 10x the surface area of possibilities.
  • 7Great product UX answers three questions: How did I get here? What do I do now? Where do I go next?

📚Methodologies (4)

🔍 User Research

Product teams often spend 90% of effort on the 'final mile' features, but users never get there if the 'first mile' (first 30 seconds) fails. You must accept that new users have zero tolerance for learning curves.

Core Principles

  • 1.Acknowledge the Trinity: In the first 30 seconds, users are lazy (want it easy), vain (want to look good), and selfish (want immediate value).
  • 2.Defaults over Choices: Don't make users configure settings; use presumptuous defaults to reduce cognitive load.
  • 3.Re-evaluate for New Cohorts: Early adopters are forgiving; later cohorts are pragmatists who require an even smoother first mile.

"In the first 30 seconds of using a new product, you are lazy, vain, and selfish."

#'lazy,#vain,#selfish'
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The Rule of Halves

by Scott Belsky

🎯 Product Strategy

Most teams build too much. You should build half the features you think you need. By focusing the product on one core utility, you drive the primary metric significantly harder than by offering options.

Core Principles

  • 1.Optimize for 'Good Problems': It is better to have users complaining that a feature is missing than to have users churning because they are confused.
  • 2.Kill to Accelerate: Removing secondary features often increases the usage of the primary feature (the 'Core Crank').
  • 3.The 24-Hour Rule: When you remove a feature, expect backlash for 24 hours, then silence and improved metrics.

"Optimize for the problems you want to have."

#halves#strategy#product
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👥 Team & Culture

The middle of any journey is volatile. Biology demands constant rewards, which startups rarely provide naturally. Leaders must manufacture momentum to keep the team engaged.

Core Principles

  • 1.Short-Circuit the Reward System: Create artificial micro-milestones and celebrate them aggressively to hack the brain's need for dopamine.
  • 2.Merchandise Progress: The team is in the backseat with blacked-out windows; the leader must constantly narrate that the car is moving forward.
  • 3.The Conviction Audit: Ask yourself: 'Do I have more or less conviction now than when I started?' If less, pivot or quit.

"If they don't receive the narrative, they will go stir-crazy."

#navigating#messy#middle
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⚡ Execution

A framework to evaluate the structural integrity of a product's design. It ensures users always maintain their orientation within the application.

Core Principles

  • 1.Question 1: How did I get here? (Clear breadcrumbs/origin)
  • 2.Question 2: What do I do now? (Clear primary action/CTA)
  • 3.Question 3: Where do I go next? (Clear exit paths/progression)

"I look for an object model way of thinking... clear breadcrumbs."

#object#execution#process
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