Here are the key takeaways from "5 Things I learned from Scott Belsky about Building Products and Leadership":
- 1. Embrace the ‘Messy Middle’: Most journeys in building products or companies involve a long, uncomfortable middle phase full of challenges and uncertainties. These periods are often forgotten or glossed over, but sharing and learning from them is vital for growth and resilience.
- 2. Company Culture as an Immune System: Leadership isn’t just about solving problems, but about maintaining a healthy, open culture. Leaders need to sense when something’s “off” within the team and foster open communication, while still providing optimism and energy.
- 3. Endure and Optimize What Works: Instead of focusing only on fixing problems, invest in identifying and optimizing what is already working well—whether in team performance or product features.
- 4. Ideas are Less Important than Execution: Creative people often value ideas, but real results come from structured execution and organizational discipline. Fewer ideas, more action, and systematic follow-through build tangible outcomes.
- 5. Simplicity Wins—The 30-Second Rule: New users judge products in the first 30 seconds. Assume your users are “lazy, selfish, and vain” at first—your product should be insanely simple and make them feel rewarded or accomplished quickly, before adding more layers or features.
These principles are useful not just for product managers but for anyone in creative or leadership roles, helping to focus on what really leads to progress and engagement.uxplanet
