scott belsky @scottbelsky Twitter profile | Pikagi

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scott belsky

@scottbelsky

130,547

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1,630

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876

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helping the creative world make ideas happen. founder @behance , strategy/product/design @adobe , author, angel in startups the world needs. product obsessive.

NY/Etc

https://t.co/uQ4m1NJ9jr

Joined August 2008

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

You know that iconic scene, at the end of The Matrix when Neo suddenly “gets it” and picks bullets out of thin air as if they are cute and curious little things? Been thinking: what’s the equivalent of “seeing the matrix” for product leaders? 10+ Realizations that come to mind:

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 years

behold the power of "neural filters" 😂 #AdobeMAX

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

1 year

Generative Fill, a new superpower integrated throughout Photoshop, launching in beta today. Powered by Firefly, our generative AI family of models, Photoshop now let’s you summon new objects and augment creations layer by layer. Saves time, increases possibility, and pretty 🤯

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

1 year

uncomfortable realization as Quora, Notion, GitHub, and other legendary stores of content launch their own AI-powered chat experiences: in the age of AI, if you don’t own the query interface, you’re just assembling training data for those who do.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

1 year

what do we have here? still digging in, but seems like a fascinating application of AI for education: start a chat with any historical figure to learn and converse based on their full history. “Historical Figures” 🤯

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

“how do people make money if they’re just using zoom all day?” - my 6 year old 🤷‍♂️

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

the best designers i've worked with go rogue at least 10% of the time in every project, and that's how the product ends up better than anyone expected.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

6 years

a lot of the magic i’ve observed in teams over the years happens when the talent stack is collapsed - when a designer also codes, when an engineer has a growth hack skill set, when a product leader is great at copy.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

ironic that the most critical skill of great ceos (and what I think is most highly correlated skill w/ success) is one of the least respected and glamorized: sales. they don’t even teach it in b school, yet it’s the bridge to the best hires, customers and investors.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 years

If you want to better understand what you do and why you’re doing it, write about it. writing is such an underrated form of discovery.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

only way to be an expert is to remain a student

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 years

Came across this photo of Apple launching iPhone SDK in ‘08 (Jobs, Schiller, Forstall on stage - and a ton of empty seats). Seems key moments for the future seldom have an audience. And if you’re fortunate enough to be there, don’t expect fanfare or validation...yet.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

6 years

Proud and anxious to share, after ~5yrs of obsession w/ the topic + interviews w/ an eclectic group of makers and leaders + lessons learned the hard way, a collection of insights for traversing THE MESSY MIDDLE.

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Navigating The Messy Middle

I’m excited and super-f’n-anxious to share a 5+ year obsession/project nearing the finish line (and now available for pre-order!). THE…

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 years

Luck favors decisiveness. When you’re decisive, people want to help you. There's a gravity to it. Dots connect faster, possibilities gain resolution, and your mental energy becomes focused on making circumstances work for you (vs. just thinking about them).

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

thinking: no skill more essential than knowing how to spend more energy on the stuff that matters and less on the stuff that doesn’t. the seduction to do the opposite only increases over time.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

2 years

today is a big day for both @Adobe and @figma . our teams are excited by the new possibilities and recognize both the opportunity and responsibility as we share our intent to come together. 🧵

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

wouldn't be surprised if the next gen, especially in their 20's, spends a decade of their lives living between a set of Airbnb's around the world, working remotely, immersing themselves in communities and cultures. a nomadic life where you feel at home everywhere.

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Eric Feng

3 years

"Airbnb is no longer just a travel company" The continued shift towards long term stays is a fascinating consumer behavior change. Very bullish on the post-covid future for @Airbnb .

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

10 months

Collapse the talent stack every chance you get. As I reflect on the teams I’ve led and hundreds of start-ups I’ve worked with, there is a consistent unfair competitive advantage i’ve witnessed when the talent stack was collapsed - when the lead designer was also the product…

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

first time seeing a reader in nyc subway. “that book any good?” i asked. (noticed he was towards the end, a good sign). “some good stuff...really like the product insights...but guy made it too long.” 😧

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 years

new formats can be a forcing function for new ideas. here are a few behind-the-scenes producing #AdobeMAX , airing tomorrow. brought a few friends into the mix, and unveiling some incredible features & products - tomorrow! 😬

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 months

taste > skills taste seems more scarce these days, and increasingly differentiating in the age of AI where so much of skills-based productivity is offloaded to compute. makes me think about the development of taste, and how we nurture taste for the next gen of humans.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

8 months

the greatest loss here is not math skills, but developing the tolerance for struggle. a huge degree of homework, school...is gaining comfort with "not knowing" and committing to the struggle of learning. humanity needs to preserve friction, if only to retain our tolerance for it.

@petergyang

Peter Yang

8 months

Kids will never do homework again.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

7 months

We talk a lot about how AI will transform products, industries, and everyday work and life, but what about business models in particular? From dating apps, music streaming, time-based disciplines, and the sway of brands that command higher margins...this is the focus of this…

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

6 months

there are going to be a lot of microagents. like, a lot a lot. microagents are deeply specialized narrowly focused natural language interactive experts. I suspect every book, kitchen appliance, menu, and document could have a microagent to chat with.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

never bet against memes. they are state-of-the-art mechanisms for compression of knowledge and meaning that efficiently hack culture and pierce straight through rationality. 🤯

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

thinking: extraordinary outcomes seldom result from an ordinary path. And yet, we still obsessively look for patterns and leverage proven playbooks. Beware of too much confidence from familiarity...

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

9 months

some sunday thoughts on running. 🏃‍♂️ was never a good athlete or particularly enjoyed running...but started a couple miles at a time ~5 years ago, then more. this activity has brought much more to my life, work, and how I make things than I ever expected. 10 realizations: (1)…

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 years

In-depth exploration of possible direction for iconography as we try to reconcile skeuomorphism, flat design, and the rise of neumorphism. Interesting anchor for some of the coming trends, "Stateramorphism." 🤔

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

“AIM is the godfather of social networking.” - said in a pitch the other day. Agree.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

8 years

Thoughts on accommodating new types of new users, and defying a sad product lifecycle...

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

6 months

Loving, whenever in Tokyo, the sensation of so many highly crafted experiences - from eight seat restaurants and tiny bars to owl cafes and artisanal cotton candy shops. Why aren’t there 1000x more of these experiences in all societies? And especially in the USA, what prompted…

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

2 years

if you're building something new and VCs tell you "well, [big company who owns platform] could just do that themselves," remind them of a common truth: incumbent's execution risk > startup's platform risk.

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scott belsky

4 years

I admire Zoom, the product simplicity/focus, and the staggering daily usage right now. But we’re in the Prodigy/Compuserve era of remote work, and the gravity of video as THE product will be transcended by some massive rethinks of colllab as we know it.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

most underestimated skills of product leaders: 1) writing/storytelling (for teams, investors, and sales), 2) psychology (humanizing product) 3) rapid prototyping (to align ppl via show vs. tell) 4) debate skills (to advocate for something unpopular/non-obvious) …what else?

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scott belsky

4 years

the signature of great talent is brevity

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scott belsky

5 years

Remote working in USA up to 9% now. What’s the group of companies fueling this most? Slack, Zoom, Airtable, modern creativity/productivity tools that are collaborative by nature (Google Docs, Adobe XD 😉 ), what else?

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scott belsky

4 years

thinking: one thing we have lost in the world of remote work and endless back-to-back zooms: cognitive transitions. the short walk between meetings - or few minutes as ppl shift in and out of a room - served as a cognitive reset. The skill of context switching is critical.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 months

one of the best performing startups in my portfolio includes a metrics section in every update that is essentially the one below (#'s redacted). it's surprising how few do, and it's revealing which metrics are omitted by some companies. so important for metrics to serve truth,…

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

6 years

one of the top paid apps at the moment, and reminder that constraints fuel creativity and connection in the wildest of ways.

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scott belsky

6 years

One of the most value-add things a leader can do is stop conversations as soon as there are diminishing returns.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 years

When you make an investment based on who else is investing, you're regressing to the mean. Same applies for adding a feature to your product based on the competition, vs. conviction for where world is going. when charting new terrain, internal conviction > external consensus

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scott belsky

2 years

rare and damn impressive: when startups (or new product pitches) feature a “what could go wrong” slide in their deck that outlines the largest points of potential failure and how they will approach each. such grounding and pragmatic insight is its own rare superpower

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

7 years

amazing how much a competitive advantage is just persistence and patience.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

1 year

Our team is debuting Adobe Firefly today, a family of generative models w/ a focus on novel use cases (generative text, vectors, etc), trained responsibly (not scraping), integrated deeply in our products - and incorporating content credentials.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

That a prototype is worth a hundred meetings, and almost all product meetings that aren’t grounded with a prototype are a waste of time (or worse). A prototype immediately surfaces gaps in logic or business concerns. It is the fastest way to drive alignment.

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scott belsky

4 years

just saw an email one of my portfolio startups got from a customer - full of detailed feedback, ideas...and so much energy for their product. when your customers start acting like owners, you know you’re onto something.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

7 months

when it comes to nailing product-market fit, empathy > passion. too many builders are motivated by vision as opposed to understanding what their customers are actually struggling with (often nuanced, psychological, and surprising). passion is the red herring of product - often…

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scott belsky

7 years

I would still rather make (and live with) my typos on Twitter than have the world's leaders be able to retroactively edit their tweets.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

2 years

in startup/VC phase, you need one person to say yes. for innovation in big cos, often feels like you need to find nobody that says no. explains why “ask for forgiveness, not permission” is such a mantra, and why a culture of experimentation + empowerment is so critical.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

the faster a space is moving, the more you need to bet on the people than the product

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

6 years

So much of building a successful product is just sticking together long enough to figure it out.

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Naval

6 years

Persistence is paramount on the long road to product-market fit. Partners disappoint. Customers delay. Growth stalls. Passions fade. Loyalty to each other gets the team to the other side.

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scott belsky

2 years

A friend recently advised “don’t say yes to anything you don’t want to do tomorrow” - and this really stuck with me. too often we say yes to something that is months away only because it is months away.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

becoming more convinced that disconnection, whether forced (no wifi/reception) or planned (scheduled windows on non-stimulation) is becoming a competitive advantage in this hyper-connected age.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 years

imagine implications for creativity if every open mind got 5-10% more cognitive capacity free’d up, alongside 50% less fear & daily distraction. pretty damn hopeful for the next few years of innovation & creativity allocated to building the future vs. dealing w/ the present.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

9 months

august is the sunday of summer. still summer, but you know what’s coming.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

7 years

The more credit you need the less influence you’ll have.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

new @twitter campaign in nyc subways 👌🏼💥

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scott belsky

3 years

another day another email exchange ending with my passionate "let's not cancel new tech based on its first generation of use" plea.

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scott belsky

8 years

When you see TIDAL & HBO NOW jump into top 5, you remember that all mediums are forever at the mercy of the content.

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scott belsky

5 months

disappointing outcome, but just want to thank our community & Figma’s community for all the support and excitement re: the possibilities. so much respect for @zoink and the whole @figma team - they have such a bright future, and I know we’ll look for ways to partner to bring some…

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

7 years

For a strong company, financing is a tactic. For a weak company, financing is a goal.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

common question: “Should i quit or should i stick with it?” If you’ve lost conviction in the end-state, quit and try something else. But if you’re frustrated/feeling hopeless, but still have conviction, stick with it. you’re just in the messy middle - par for the course.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

6 years

While a product’s simplicity is its advantage, building a business requires serving your “power users” which ultimately breeds complexity and makes products more powerful but less accessible. It’s called “the product life cycle”...

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scott belsky

2 years

making a simple product = difficult keeping product simple = very difficult making a complicated product simpler (without alienating users) = really f’ing difficult

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

“ai but for legos” just went from head scratcher to brain melter

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

6 years

the save-you-a-click version: thrilled to build better tech/systems/experiences for creative minds of all kinds, tackle AR/new frontiers as Chief Product Officer @Adobe ; and continue my early-stage investing/board/venture partner roles. 💥

@scottbelsky

scott belsky

6 years

Observations re: the state of creativity these days, big opportunities in creative+tech, and what i’m doing about it.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

6 years

Over 100 seed investments in, i find myself favoring familiar products/services (established needs) with a revolutionary go-to-market vs. entirely novel products with familiar go-to-market.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

7 years

Undeniable theme among founders i've invested/worked with: The less defensive, the more potential. Those that absorb + integrate outperform.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

Initiative > Experience (because, in a team, initiative is contagious, experience is not) #TheMessyMiddle

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

7 years

Life's greatest opportunities run on their own schedule, not yours.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

how long until some company unknowingly hires a full-time remote employee that is actually an incredibly sophisticated purpose-built ai-powered bot? we'll need "humanity verification" as a requirement for employment.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

1 year

How will work/life change over next ~3-5 years? As we synthesize the latest tech + trends in culture, what are the implications? In an attempt to connect dots, get your input, and prompt conversation… 🥁🔮 9 forecasts that made the cut:

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

2 years

you will never be thanked for the hardest yet most important decisions you make as a parent or leader. possibly years later, but not at the moment. reminder not to measure the impact of decisions by quickly being liked or thanked.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

7 years

great entrepreneurs make the most of the cards they're dealt, while great investors fold until they get a good hand. optimism vs. discipline

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

3 years

8 Reasons WHY Crypto Art (& NFT tech) is the greatest unlock of artist opportunity in 100+ years. This isn’t a suboptimal or fringe version of the real-world art economy, it is a vastly improved one.

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The Furry Lisa, CryptoArt, & The New Economy Of Digital Creativity

Over the last year I became the proud owner of The Furry Lisa, among several other one-of-a-kind digital creations often referred to as…

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scott belsky

3 years

That the best way to review a product experience is to ask 3 questions on EVERY screen: “how did I get here?” “what do I do now?” “where do I go next?” — these questions will reveal flaws in object model, UX, onboarding, and orientation.

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scott belsky

3 years

one argument that NFTs (despite inevitable cycle) are in early days: humans have always been collectors, it’s just never been this easy to both collect and share collections - and have your collection serve as a persistent cultural flex and connection in so many places at once.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

7 months

a little sneak of something for the future of creativity we’re pretty damn excited to talk about at our MAX conference next week… 👀

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 years

thinking: given every remarkable achievement is a stretch, you’re unqualified to do what will ultimately be your greatest work. (important to keep in mind for managers, and managing a career...)

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

4 years

what could possibly go wrong? 🥴

@mashable

Mashable

4 years

Why camp by a river when you can camp on one?

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scott belsky

5 years

Testing the oils. #projectgemini

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

5 months

When taboos become the norm... Came across this graph from World In Data of the rise of "online dating" as the way people meet their spouse. My favorite new technologies transform norms...and this is a great example, and is one question I always ask myself as a product leader and…

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scott belsky

8 years

Our country needs a better education system.

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scott belsky

5 months

next edition of IMPLICATIONS will explore: - what the re-imagination of entertainment leaves us longing for... - “Emotional bumpers,” powered by AI - the quantified trade-offs of Lifespan vs. Healthspan vs. Joyspan - tactics for surfing waves in Cambrian explosions. ;-) - the…

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scott belsky

3 years

The creative world is in transition: From manual to ai-assisted creativity, from desktop to web apps, from solo work to collaborative creation, and from 2D to 3D experiences; Oh, and NFTs😉. Today’s product updates touch upon each of these journeys we're on together. 👇 #AdobeMAX

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scott belsky

3 years

41. 😬 may seem young to those that I want to learn from, and old to those I increasingly need to learn from

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scott belsky

1 year

we’re entering an age where we can no longer believe our eyes. at the current rate of AI, our human senses and judgment are hackable by anyone. it’s an era of both wondrous creativity and new genres of risk. we must be creative about what can go right AND wrong. cc @ContentAuth

@saastrash

SaaS Trash 🗑🔥

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we’re fucked 😂😂

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scott belsky

4 years

participate in an experience you want, not a financial return you desire. startups are long-term journeys of compounding insight (for team & investors). ask yourself: do I love this topic so much that, even when things are rough, i‘m excited to obsess about it? if yes, jump in.

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scott belsky

5 years

people come to a product for what they expect, but they only rave about what they didn’t expect. gotta prioritize AND execute both the expected (hard) and the unexpected (even harder)...

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scott belsky

4 years

thinking: note takers are the underestimated holders of power and team performance - they are the source of truth 24 hours later, and often the arbiters of our memory. am very grateful to my project management colleagues that move us forward.

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scott belsky

5 years

mtg tip: push your team to express their doubts about the plan in the meeting, otherwise they will leave with them.

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scott belsky

6 years

When we talk about “hustle,” perhaps what we’re really referring to is one’s level of persistent tolerance and determination to do a lot of frustrating and tedious work that feels immaterial day-by-day but ultimately matters.

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scott belsky

2 years

while the best designers I know favor teams and industries that fawn over design, the impact of design is most transformative in industries where design is undervalued. perhaps a key career insight is to find a team that values your superpower in an industry that doesn’t?

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scott belsky

3 years

That consumer (and prosumer) products ultimately succeed because of how people feel about themselves using them. Ego analytics, surprise+delight, and hooks to appeal to our laziness, vanity, and selfishness in first mile of product experience are the biggest secret in product.

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@scottbelsky

scott belsky

7 months

(while merger isn’t yet closed…) a few of us at @Adobe and @Figma had a small jam a few weeks ago - and figured we'd share some of the possibilities we're excited about… :-)

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scott belsky

6 years

A shared trait among entrepreneurs (and innovators within big companies) is defying prescribed roles. The future is drafted by people doing work they don’t have to do.

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scott belsky

4 years

to win, you’ve got to “push people that don’t want to be pushed...challenge people that don’t want to be challenged...” such a powerful testimony to leadership and why the leading that matters most is seldom welcome.

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scott belsky

6 years

Perplexed by how so many people seem to increasingly tolerate unacceptable means toward a particular end. If we lose all the values that define us in the pursuit of a goal, we’ve lost.

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scott belsky

4 years

don’t recall a startup, at least that i’ve worked with, that was disproportionately focused on fundraising and succeeded. product should consume the energy (and airtime) in every interaction. typically it’s bad sign when it doesn’t.

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scott belsky

10 months

observed: peoples egos cost them so much

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