In the first 30s of using a new product you are lazy, vain and selfish. You want to feel successful very quickly. You don't want to watch tutorials, read anything, or endure any learning curve whatsover.If you manage to get people through the first 30s, then you get the opportunity to build a lasting relationship with them and show them your mission and the full potential of your app.

Nail the first 30s of the onboarding process

As your product evolves and gains more traction, you should adapt your onboarding process because you'll attract new kinds of customers. For example:<ul><li>Early users are more willing and forgiving</li><li>Whereas later stage users are more skeptical, less forgiving, and less willing to deal with your friction</li></ul>Photoshop used to cost hundreds of $, but now it's accessible to anyone with creative desires for as little as $10/month. These new users lack the skills or the tolerance to develop them, so Photoshop had to redesign the onboarding experience to acommodate them.

Adapt the onboarding process for new types of users

You need to understand how your app fits into the daily life of your customer — how they are using it amidst everything else that's happening in their lives e.g. watching Netflix; taking care of their kids; commuting; during breaks from work; etc.

Understand the context in which people use your app

Everyone's time is already allocated. They don't have time for your app.

Great product leaders preserve the time to explore lots of possibilities. They pick a couple of them, get feedback on them, refine them further, and then present them to the team ("These are 2-3 things I think we should do").This process is a function of time: Assuming you have the skills, how much time do you have to explore new possibilities for your product?

Preserve the time to explore lots of possibilities

Scott shared some insights on building B2C apps

Brought to you by ⁠Braintrust⁠—For when you needed talent, yesterday | ⁠Eppo⁠—Run reliable, impactful experiments | ⁠Rows⁠—The spreadsheet where data comes to life — 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    Find the transcript and references at: ⁠https://www.lennyspodcast.com/lessons-on-building-product-sense-navigating-ai-optimizing-the-first-mile-and-making-it-through-the-messy-middle-scott-belsky-adobe-behance/#transcript  Where to find Scott Belsky: • Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/scottbelsky⁠ • LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbelsky/⁠ • Blog: ⁠https://www.implications.com/⁠ • Website: ⁠www.scottbelsky.com/⁠  Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: ⁠https://www.lennysnewsletter.com⁠ • Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/lennysan⁠ • LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/⁠  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   Production and marketing by ⁠https://penname.co/⁠. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email ⁠podcast@lennyrachitsky.com⁠.  Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

startup

Startups

podcasts

Podcasts

product

Product & Design

Lessons on building product sense, navigating AI, optimizing the first mile, and making it through the messy middle | Scott Belsky (Adobe, Behance)

Google has a program that allows engineers to spend 20% of their time working on whatever they want. In reality, 20% time is more like 120% time, since it often occurs on nights and weekends.This program is great because:<ul><li>People get the chance to work on stuff they aren't supposed to work on</li><li>People usually try new things, outside of what they do on a day-to-day basis, and so they learn new things and skills</li><li>Even if this program rarely spawns great products, it always fosters creativity and yields smarter people</li></ul>

The 20 percent rule

teamwork

Teamwork

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Google's 20 Percent Rule

We are what we grow beyond.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

movies

Movies & Shows

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

"Don't spare yourself" is the key motivating factor in some Zen monasteries. By working hard and not wasting a moment they are training their subconscious to become infected with enthusiasm. If they keep at this until it becomes a habit, soon the rest of their being obeys.Armies do this too. In boot camps new recruits wake up at the crack of dawn, make the bed neatly in 20 seconds, take a shower in exactly 2 minutes and so on. Initially, they only act like they are self disciplined to avoid punishment, but soon acting sharp and smart becomes a life long habit even without the drill sergeant.

You become what you repeatedly do

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mindfulness

Mindfulness

Why do Zen monks complete tasks quickly?

Sometimes you discover great ideas in books, articles, videos, podcasts, or in conversations with other people. If you write them down and use spaced repetition to review them, you will slowly change the way you think. You will prime your mind to spot those patterns, form connections, and resurface the right idea at the right time in your life.

Review key ideas to change the way you think

If you periodically review your ideas from Deep Work by Cal Newport and your weekly calendar starts to fill with shallow calls and meetings, your mind will likely notice the pattern and start nudging you to create some uninterrupted space. Maybe I should schedule a four-hour focus block to protect that currently unoccupied Thursday morning?

Example of an idea resurfacing at the right time

Mastery is our Readwise term for the one-two punch of active recall and spaced repetition applied to the notes and highlights you take while reading.

education

Learning & Education

problemsolving

Problem Solving

Using Spaced Repetition and Active Recall with Books to Hack Your Brain

If reviewing flashcards feels like a chore, you will become averse to doing it.Tips to make your reviewing sessions more enjoyable:<ul><li>Have a diverse set of flash cards, so you don't get bored going through the same topic for a long time.</li><li>Mix in some fun cards with inspiring quotes or poems to give you short moments of relief during sessions.</li><li>Shuffle the cards to have diverse sessions.</li></ul>

Spaced repetition should be enjoyable to stick as a habit

Efficient memorization using the spacing effect: literature review of widespread applicability, tips on use & what it’s good for.

Spaced Repetition for Efficient Learning

Creativity can be broken down into a process:<ol><li>Consume lots of sources</li><li>But no faster than you can reflect on them and take notes. It's pointless to consume a lot without reflecting because you don't learn anything.</li><li>Collect your notes in one place and organize them in collections around topics/questions/etc.</li><li>As your collections grow larger you'll see patterns in them and notice missing pieces. Identify a theme in one of your collections and write about it in an essay, blog post, note for yourself, or another creative output.</li></ol>

Reflect on what you consume to increase your creativity

There is no best way to reflect. Do whatever works for you depending on the content you consume, your mood, and how much time you have available:<ul><li>Write your opinion</li><li>Save a quote</li><li>Extract an important idea</li><li>Associate it with something you already know</li><li>Or a combination of all of the above</li></ul>Beware of wasting time trying to write the perfect notes or to synthesize everything that was said. Focus on writing good enough notes that you can come back to later.

Tips to reflect on what you consume

The trick to turning potential into productivity, @mhashemi says, is to distill it down into four stages: consume, critique, curate, create. Here's how:


writing

Reading & Writing

creativity

Creativity

Intentional creation

When scheduling meetings it's important to open the door for others first. Instead of simply sending over your Calendly link and saying "Here is my Calendly link", you can ask them to first give their availability. For example, you might say:"Feel free to share some times you’re available, or you can also pick from my Calendly if it’s easier."

Ask for their availability before sharing your Calendly link

Is Calendly rude? Only if you’re rude about it. Follow the basics of scheduling etiquette, and your invitees will appreciate the time you’ve saved everyone!

remotework

Remote Work

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

humanresources

Human Resources

How to Share your Calendly Politely

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

"How do I get tougher?" Be tougher. "How can I wake up early in the morning?" Wake up early. "How can I work out every day?" Work out every day.

You don't set out to build a wall. You don't start by saying "I'm going to build the biggest, baddest wall that's ever been built". You don't start there. You say "I'm going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid." If you do that every day, soon you will have a wall.

Whether you think you can, or you think you can't — you're right.

productivity

Productivity

Good Morning

Karma refers to the mental urges that bring us to act in compulsive ways. Acting out these urges, we reinforce our old habits and condition ourselves to acting in a certain way. So we continue to repeat our patterns of behavior and we experience our moods going up and down.If we want to break free from these up and down changes, we need to become mindful of our mental urges and choose not to act them out. If we do this, in time we will slowly change our attitudes and replace destructive behaviors with constructive ones.

Karma

In general:<ul><li>Be mindful of the urges you're feeling</li><li>Allow negative urges to arise and depart naturally without acting on them. This will gradually weaken them and allow you to break your old habits.</li></ul>When you realize you acted out a negative urge, you can lessen its impact on yourself by:<ul><li>Admitting it was a mistake</li><li>Regretting what you did</li><li>Intending to stop repeating that action</li><li>Finding ways to repair the damage</li></ul>

Practical tips to break free from destructive behaviors

<ul><li>If you grew up with cheating and fighting between your parents, you will be more likely to look for cheating signs in your adult relationships</li><li>If you were abused as a child, you will be more likely to see abusive behavior around you and to become an abuser yourself</li><li>If you make a habit of fiddling your tax return, you will feel more anxious as the IRS might catch you and you need to be careful who you are honest with</li><li>If you make a habit of criticizing others, you will have a tendency to point out the shortcomings of others and miss out their good qualities</li></ul>

Examples of karmic habits

Understanding the many factors that affect our karma, we can change what we experience in life as the result of our previous compulsive behavior.

Lessons on building product sense, navigating AI, optimizing the first mile, and making it through the messy middle | Scott Belsky (Adobe, Behance)

Google's 20 Percent Rule

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Why do Zen monks complete tasks quickly?

Using Spaced Repetition and Active Recall with Books to Hack Your Brain

Ovidiu Podariu