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

Listen to this episode from Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career on Spotify. 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.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-on-building-product-sense 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 ⁠[email protected]⁠. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.