Making and Leading Products People Love (Scott Belsky) | Lenny & Friends Summit 2024
Executive Summary
Lenny and Friends Summit 2024 talk in which Scott Belsky, who founded Behance and later oversaw Adobe's Creative Cloud, shares insights for making and leading products people love. He describes Behance as a platform of 56 million creatives and his years at Adobe, then lists lenses he calls seeing the Matrix as a product leader. He says data is a compass, not a map, that new products should optimize for the problems you want to have, and that shallow value should come before deep value. He says Behance improved when the team killed features such as groups and tip exchange, and describes a product life cycle where users flock to simple products, then power user features add complexity. He says early customers are lazy, vain and selfish, so onboarding should show rather than explain. The description says the talk was recorded live in San Francisco on October 24. PARTIAL COVERAGE: the captions cover roughly the first 14 minutes of the 27 minute talk, so later insights and the human thread at the end are not summarized. All claims are the speaker's own and are not independently checked. Nothing here is legal, financial or medical advice.
Key Takeaways
Data is a compass
Scott says data is a compass, not a map: it helps you climb a mountain but does not choose it.
Problems you want to have
He says prioritize problems such as users asking for power features over problems like onboarding failure.
Shallow before deep value
He says you need to optimize for shallow value before deep value so people feel successful quickly.
An MVP has gravity
He says teams forget how much gravity an MVP has, so the standout feature must be great at launch.
Do half
He says the greatest mistake at Behance was not cutting more, and each time they killed a feature core engagement rose.
The simplicity cycle
He says users flock to simple products, which then grow complex, and users flock to simple products again.
Lazy, vain and selfish
He says early customers are lazy, vain and selfish, so show rather than explain in onboarding.
The Conversation Breakdown
Data is a compass
⏱ Untimed topicScott says data is a compass, not a map: it helps you climb a mountain but does not choose it.
Problems you want to have
⏱ Untimed topicHe says prioritize problems such as users asking for power features over problems like onboarding failure.
Shallow before deep value
⏱ Untimed topicHe says you need to optimize for shallow value before deep value so people feel successful quickly.
An MVP has gravity
⏱ Untimed topicHe says teams forget how much gravity an MVP has, so the standout feature must be great at launch.
Do half
⏱ Untimed topicHe says the greatest mistake at Behance was not cutting more, and each time they killed a feature core engagement rose.
The simplicity cycle
⏱ Untimed topicHe says users flock to simple products, which then grow complex, and users flock to simple products again.
Lazy, vain and selfish
⏱ Untimed topicHe says early customers are lazy, vain and selfish, so show rather than explain in onboarding.
Core Frameworks & Ideas
Compass, not a map - Scott's data rule
Pick the mountain with intuition and empathy, then use data to climb.
Prune like a bonsai - Scott's half rule
Cut good branches to strengthen the core.
Problems you want to have - Scott's roadmap lens
Build for early success before deep value.
Actionable Next Steps
- ✓List the problems you want to have and the ones you do not.
- ✓Pick one feature to cut and watch if the core metric improves.
- ✓Make your onboarding show, not explain, in one line.
- ✓Treat Scott's lessons as his own product experience, not guarantees.
Notable Quotes
“data is a compass not a map”
“we should only do half of what we want to do”
“lazy Vain and selfish”
The One Thing to Remember
Scott Belsky says to use data as a compass, build the problems you want to have first, do half of what you want to do, and keep products simple for each new cohort.