This interview between Scott Belsky & Lenny is a pure gem. Those are insights which I noted from this hour-long interview.
- The first mile is undervalued. AI will help build this experience better.
- Product = empathy. This is a never-ending source of inspiration and insight to build delight in your products.
- B2C needs network effect to grow sustainably. To do it well, you need amazing insight into users.
- Evolution from atomic apps to super apps, thanks to the users being more technologically literate.
- „Do half the things you want to do” to truly understand what is essential in whatever you are building. Killing features can improve key metrics.
- „One of the best product leaders that I’ve worked with, I do feel like they have this great […] minimalistic tendency by default […] they anchor themselves on the one thing they want people to do and do well, and they […] are […] pretty ruthless about everything else.”
- After tough decisions related to people or products, everything starts moving faster. Fewer people often are better for an organisation.
- AI could help us focus on flow rather than fixing friction in our work. Same resources, more products. Enable us to focus on „experience economy” with no-scalable work.
- AI will collapse the stack, one-man-armies/empowered people. PM do more data/design/engineering. Ingenuity will be the most important.
- Product leaders/designers do a lot of research before presenting options to their teams. AI will help with exploring possibilities faster & better.
- Cheat code for PMs – bringing designers faster on board during product development helps build better experiences.
- „Golden gut” – micro-decisions based on experiences & product intuition. Sign of a senior product leader.
- What to do with AI? Play with it & pursue your curiosity. The main risk is that you get stuck in your ways when you have more career experiences.
- Learning helps you years later, and some small piece of random wisdom can become a crucial idea for a problem you will be facing.
- Say ruthless no to most things.
- The messy middle – phase between starting and showing what you are building is tough. Human tendency is only to build something when constantly receiving affirmations that it makes sense. Fight back with micro-celebrations & micro-goals. Otherwise, people will go crazy from anxiety. Product leaders need to show progress to avoid that.
- Should you continue building? How much conviction do you have now after knowing what you know now – more or less? If better – continue. If not, pivot or leave.
- „Great founders absolutely know in their core that something needs to exist, and know it in their core, and they will be ruthless and relentless until it does.”
- Best startups – founders who listen & are motivated by their mission, no to founders who sugarcoat the hard truths. Optimistic about the future and pessimistic about the present.
- Best startups – product is straightforward & easy to understand, „How did I get here? What do I do now? What do I do next?”
- We are in a resource-constrained environment. We had a „put more resources to solve this problem” approach, and now we need to be smart & resourceful. This is a great opportunity – the best companies are built in eras like this.
- Exceptions are the rule. Listen to the lessons from others, but simultaneously you can be crazy or be onto something transformative/disruptive.