Scott Belsky
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.
Career (separate track) Skills
Persistence in the face of volatility is justified only when customer validation continues to increase your core conviction in the solution.
"Some people are like, 'Oh, Scott, I mean, I have more conviction. All that I've learned, all the validation I've received from customers, we just haven't figured it out yet. And for those people, I'm..."
Discovery & Research Skills
True product intuition is developed through deep customer empathy rather than falling in love with a specific technical solution.
"First of all, I think the biggest mistakes that teams make is they become very passionate about a solution to a problem they're trying to solve as opposed to do everything they can to develop empathy..."
Growth & Retention Skills
Optimizing the 'first mile' of a product requires designing for a user's initial state of impatience and their desire for immediate personal or professional validation.
"In the first 30 seconds of using a new product, you are lazy, vain, and selfish. You want to get it done super quickly. You want to look good to your colleagues or to your friends. You don't want to h..."
Overlay: Building AI Products Skills
AI will enable a transition from generalized onboarding to hyper-personalized experiences that adapt to a user's specific persona and context.
"I actually think that the role of AI going forward will be to have applications increasingly meet us where we are. To this day, we've always had to generalize onboarding experiences for the most part..."
Strategy & Positioning Skills
The decision to persevere depends on whether your conviction in the problem and solution has grown or diminished after facing real-world challenges.
"I basically say, 'How much conviction do you have in the solution you're building?' I know in the beginning, before you knew all you know now, you had tons of conviction. Now knowing all you know, do..."
Team & Organization Skills
A CPO's longevity and impact depend on integrating design, product, and engineering to ensure the company prioritizes experience over pure technology.
"In the chief product officer role, I oversaw design, product, and engineering. I think part of the reason I was even interested in coming into the company and taking this role is that I felt like thes..."