Lessons on product sense, AI, the first mile experience, and the messy middle | Scott Belsky (Adobe)

Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, author, investor, and currently Adobe’s Chief Strategy Officer and EVP of Design and Emerging Products. He founded Behance, an online platform for creative professionals to showcase and discover work, and served as CEO until its acquisition by Adobe. Scott is an early advisor and investor in several businesses at the intersection of technology and design, including Pinterest, Uber, Warby Parker, Airtable, and Flexport. He is also the author of two nationally bestselling books and founded 99U, a publication and conference focused on productivity in the creative world. In today’s episode, we discuss:
• How to strengthen your product sense
• Why you should only do half the things you want
• What it takes to build a successful consumer product
• Why you are probably underinvesting in onboarding
• The future of AI and how to prepare for it
• Advice for founders and PMs who are feeling stuck
• Why resourcefulness will take you further than resources
• Adobe’s current priorities and their exciting path ahead

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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Scott’s background
(04:50) Why Scott shifted roles at Adobe
(08:29) Advice for PMs looking to build product sense
(10:43) The first mile
(13:18) How to develop more empathy
(16:33) How to build consumer products that work
(20:42) Scott’s philosophy that you should “only do half the things you want to do”
(26:15) Scott’s optimism about how the world will look in five years with AI
(29:44) How AI will impact product teams
(32:55) How the PM role will change as a result of AI
(35:09) How Adobe is leveraging AI tools
(36:59) What the term “golden gut” means
(38:15) Advice for PMs to stay ahead of the new AI trends
(41:02) How to start writing more
(41:49) The messy middle
(47:03) What Scott looks for as an angel investor 
(50:16) Why resourcefulness will take you further than resources 
(52:41) Adobe’s current priorities and the path ahead
(54:58) Lightning round 

Referenced:

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

[gregbiggers]

The conversation at around 20:00 reminds me so strongly of the old adage from Benedict Evans about everything (at the macro level, especially in mobile apps) is either bundling or unbundling.

[rilwanj]

38:16 Scott’s description of the new ur to design process is exactly what my startup does, it’s product discovery software, it given PMs the full picture of what users experience, by mixed-method user research and then helps them ideate and prototype (leveraging the user research data)

[sibasishpatnaik]

Thank you Scott for sharing so much wisdom, the entire podcast is amazing. And Lenny for bringing this to the masses, and asking so impromptu & thoughtful questions!!!

[aj]

I think there is a difference in conviction in the problem and conviction in the solution to that problem, i believe Scott's first example is about the problem and not figuring out yet the solution but the later example is more about not really having found a problem that is valuable to solve or is too big to solve.