Scott Belsky - Focus on the First Mile

I call it 'ego analytics' — people want to know and see that they are being successful. And I always like to say that in the first 30 seconds of every product experience, every user is lazy, vain, and selfish. They want everything to be done for them; they don't want to read something; they don't feel like their time should be spent on anything new. And you have to to craft hooks that get people through that laziness, vanity, and selfishness.

Customers don't love technology for the technology; they love technology for the user experience of the technology. You can have really incredible tech, but if the UI is impossible to use, you're dead out of the gate.

The greatest failings I've seen in the product world, including my own, are when you build something out of passion for a problem rather than have empathy with those suffering from the problem.

One of the biggest mistakes we all make as founders and leaders of products: We become not only in love with our products, but we also fall in love with our power customers, and we see the value they get, and we're always like, 'If we could just show the value that they're getting to new customers, they would try our product too.' The problem is that the new customers see that as unachievable for the 30-second moment that they're in.

The competitive advantage of startups is just sticking together long enough to figure it out if you have the right people. Even if you don't have the right idea, you'll just keep iterating until you find it if you have the right people.

I love the term, when you're building a product, of progressive disclosure. And what that means is that it only shows you what you need to know when you need to see it. A 'B designer' will show everything you need and do it beautifully and thoughtfully; but an 'A designer,' an A-level designer, will only show you the things you need when you need to see them.

I do think that great design is ultimately manifested as small things that make a big difference.

As humans, we're not wired to embark on multi-year projects; we're wired toward short-term rewards. If the average lifespan was 25 years back only a hundred years ago... then the idea of embarking on something without a foreseeable end is actually biologically not smart.

I really do believe that every product is sort of the DNA of its team.

Higher education has been one of the most weird ROI-type of investments people ever make because they pay a fortune and go in debt for no guarantee of any return—at least not from a career perspective. 'We have a job department, and we'll have a career fair, and then good luck.'