The Rule of Halves
by Scott Belsky • Chief Strategy Officer & EVP Design / Former CPO at Adobe
Scott Belsky is an executive at Adobe, overseeing strategy, design, and emerging products. He was the founder of Behance (acquired by Adobe), is an active angel investor (Uber, Pinterest, Airtable), and authored the book 'The Messy Middle'.
🎙️ Episode Context
Scott Belsky shares his deep product philosophy, focusing on the psychology of the 'First Mile' of user experience and the importance of editing features down to the essentials. He also discusses navigating the 'Messy Middle' of company building, how to maintain team morale through volatility, and provides a forward-looking perspective on how AI will collapse the organizational stack and empower product builders.
Problem It Solves
Feature bloat, diluted user attention, and lack of clarity in product direction.
Framework Overview
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.
🧠 Framework Structure
Optimize for 'Good Problems': It is b...
Kill to Accelerate: Removing secondar...
The 24-Hour Rule: When you remove a f...
When to Use
Defining MVP scope or when a mature product feels cluttered and metrics are stagnating.
Common Mistakes
Hedging your bets by building three different value propositions (e.g., community, tools, and marketplace) simultaneously.
Real World Example
Behance initially launched with Groups, Tip Exchange, and Portfolios. They killed 'Tip Exchange' and 'Groups'. Result: Project publishing (North Star Metric) skyrocketed because distraction was removed.
Optimize for the problems you want to have.
— Scott Belsky