-: Welcome everyone to our AIGA fireside chat today.
Conversations with business leaders with a digital spark.
I'm really delighted and honored today
for our fireside guest, I've have been looking forward
to this for weeks to spend time
with Adobe's chief product officer Scott Belsky.
Builder, creator, author, and product obsessive.
This is really great.
I get to start today calling somebody obsessive
in a positive way.
So I'd like to welcome you, Scott.
-: Thanks Bennie, it's wonderful to be with you.
-: Yeah. One of the things that, that I've really been drawn
to is you talk often about being an advocate for technology
and community to really empower creatives and business
to be amplified and engage and do more.
My first question is really what initially drew you
into creativity and business?
How did you start thinking about that, that kind of nexus?
-: I mean, I think, you know
most of my inspiration has always come
from frustration and, you know, in this case
I think that the, you know, the creative world
is really what makes life meaningful to us.
You know, the it's it's designed that helps us
understand the world around us as it happens
make sense of whether it be, you know, issues related
to health or policy or whatever else, you know
creativity is what compels us to take action on things.
Creativity is what moves us to tears, it
moves us to laughter if you really think about it.
And yet the creative world is probably the most
the most disorganized community on the planet.
You know, these are people who in sometimes
sometimes actually wear disorder organization
as a badge of honor, as if it's kind of part of the
part of the magical mix of where their ideas come from.
And I just don't agree with that.
You know, I actually think
that the most prolific creative individuals and teams
in the world are actually, you know, quite productive and
and consider themselves as businesses as much
as they consider themselves as, as creatives.
And so I've always found it interesting to
to push those norms.
I feel like, you know, the, the creative people
I know the last thing they need is more creativity.
What they need is more organization and
and practices to scale their efforts and impact.
And so that's, that's always been my, my interests.
-: It's really interesting that you bring that out.
We just released our first AIGA design point
of view industry research
and we want it to be really ambitious
and think about the ins and out of our industry.
And one of the key highlights I was going to talk
about later in our conversation
but you really kind of jumped into it was that we saw
that eventually all creatives, all designers are businesses.
And in a way, this was really powerful in the past year.
When I first started AIGA, we went right
into the pandemic and there were tons
of resources that were available for small businesses.
And one of the insights I had
at that moment is many in our community
didn't really view ourselves as businesses.
We would use other language
creative studios, creative practices
but ultimately the resources that were needed
and available were described under the practice
which is running a small business.
And we're, we were seeing that
whether you're a chief design officer
or starting off there points
in times where you're going to maintain a practice
and there there's value in that
and strengthening your skills in that space.
So I'd love to talk about kind of business and start.
I'm going to take you back a bit.
I was thinking about this conversation
and it's hard to believe it's been 15 years
since you started Behance.
Let me give you a moment to let that thing
sink in that it's been 15 years.
-: Make me feel old.
-: That's not my point.
I just, I want to talk about that moment
because I'd like to bring you back to that time, you know
as you think about starting Behance
and our conversations we've been having this week
with our design and business conference
we've talked a lot about designers
power and solving problems, but we've been refining it
a bit to talk
about the driving problems or the core problems.
And that's a part of an entrepreneurial set.
So I think Behance, what was the driving problem
that you and your partners were looking to
solve 15 years ago when you started Behance?
-: Yeah. Well, I think one of the, one of the, one
of the real insights, again, born from frustration
was just how disorganized our friends' careers were.
I studied a bunch of design in college.
My co-founder Mathias was a graphic designer
by background and, and I know a lot
of the people that we knew really live
with their careers at the mercy of circumstance, they relied
on clients to get them more clients only, you know
they would put up their own portfolio site
and their own domain name somewhere
but people that would go
to it were people they already knew.
So they were kind of preaching
to the choir and not really efficiently networking
and their portfolio sites, frankly, were always out of date.
And it was interesting.
We had a, we had a fateful focus group
in the very early days, and we hired a bunch
of bottles of wine and some cheese
and invited designers that we knew and really respected.
-: Okay, now you call this a focus group, right?
Is that the technical term, okay.
-: We had to get people in the door.
And, and we, you know
we kind of described what we envisioned for Behance
as this professional, somewhat social network, you know
where people could showcase their work
and connect with each other and universally
everyone thought it was a horrible idea.
People said, well, we've got Deviant art.
We've got MySpace, we've got Facebook, we've got LinkedIn.
Like, last thing I need is another place to
keep my profile updated.
Like what a bad idea.
And we said, oh, wow, like, this is, this is not going well.
So we poured some more wine.
And then we asked the question around
what are you struggling with?
And the list.
It was like a long list, right?
People just kept, we were throwing, growing
writing things up on the wall.
You know, I, I never get attribution for my work,
an agency always takes the credit.
I never get a chance to update my portfolio site, when
I do no one really actually sees it other
than the people I already know.
And the list goes on and on and on.
It was one of those real moments where I was like, wow.
So we cannot build what the customer is saying
that they want.
We must build what the customer is saying that they need.
And so we deconstructed the whole notion of a
portfolio size.
So these projects that ladder up to a portfolio actually
live in the ether across so many different sorts
and discovery paths.
And that ultimately people's work is the lead generation
for their portfolio, which was the inversion of
a traditional portfolio site.
So that's really where it all came from.
-: And moving from, from there, you know
it's been 15 years since Behance started, but 10 years
since you transitioned
into the broader Adobe product family, as an entrepreneur
you know, you you've had a chance to have this growth.
And I always kind of jokingly say
once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur.
So even, even in your capacity now
you've been with Adobe off and on over the past 10 years.
And from that, you know, for everyone that's listening,
Scott had a chance to be a founder of a company that he sold
into the larger company, worked there
then take some time away
and do some other ventures that we'll talk about later
and then come back.
I'd love to hear, you know, your thoughts
on that, that trajectory, and as the entrepreneur moving
to those different spaces, what have you learned
about yourself and the creative business during that time?
-: Well, as, as one of my mentors, Seth Godin likes to say
you know, you, you have to always create ruckus.
And I feel like entrepreneurs are ruckus causers
in their industries or at least they try to be.
And I think that I, that part hasn't left me, I've now been
at the helm of creative cloud, all of our products
for the last three years or so three and a half years.
And, and we are, you know, we're causing ruckus.
Of course, it takes a few years
for ruckus to manifest itself and to see the light of day.
So stay tuned on that front.
But for me, I thought I was a serial entrepreneur right
in the early days.
And then I realized I was more
of a mission-driven entrepreneur.
I liked solving a problem, a particular problem
in a space I loved as opposed
to the idea of starting over again, starting over again
which to me is somewhat masochistic.
It's like, oh my goodness.
Like the idea of going back to the zero to one over
and over and over again is kind of makes my stomach churn.
What I love doing is
over the course of a lot of time, like really making a dent
really making a mark and doing something
for a customer base that I feel I'm really close
with and, you know, identify with personally.
So, you know
you always want to kind of be creating for yourself
to some extent when you're crafting a product, if you can.
And, and I, I also enjoy that.
So that, that is why I kind of went through that, you know
that's the short version, but, you know, I, I think
I do think that these days, you know
with the rise of the creator economy
which we can talk about and the, and the role, I mean
as much as we get excited about technology
let's not fool ourselves.
It's the user's experience
of the technology that matters more than the technology.
And to me, you know, that's the opportunity for design.
-: I think it really is.
I, you know, what are the things that I enjoy
and we follow each other and I get a chance to
sometime have notes that pop up in my feed.
And this is one that popped up for me that I've been saving
for you.
I think, you know, the person who wrote it, Scott Belsky
and it's popped up one day and it just said the best
designers I've ever worked with go rogue at least 10%
of the time in every project.
And you don't stop there and you go on to say
and that's how the product ends up being better
than anyone expected.
So it kind of
like I'm gonna invite you to, to expand on that a bit more
-: And a lot of, of blow back for that, because 10% I'm
like guys, I said, at least 10%, you know
everyone can take their part of the spectrum there
in terms of what percentage they like to go rogue.
But I do believe that, I mean, the
the best designers I have ever worked with,
Take what I think I'm asking for.
And then come back and show me.
I was at least partly if not, mostly wrong,
As they went through the process of exploring, you know
the full landscape of possibility.
And, and I may have been walking up the wrong hill, you know
and then they found the mountain.
So what does that require?
It requires a first of all, a
a dynamic or a power structure, if you will, within a team
or company where designers not only have a seat
at the table, which is cliche at this point
but also have a disproportionate influence
over strategy and allowance of time and space to, you know
explore the full, the full range of possibility
and the respect of the team to come back
and suggest something different than what was asked of them.
And so that's, you know, and when you work
with people, you know, a lot of people we work
with just do what they're told and not advancing the agenda.
That's literally just staying within the same ballpark.
-: Right. And it's interesting, we, you know
we're spending time now and, and over the past year
and we continue to dig into that cliche
of the seat at the table
because often people say it and it stop right there
which really doesn't give you the insight
as to how executive decisions get made
at both the macro corporate level
or the project level in space.
One of the things that I find really interesting
in your role now
at Adobe is you manage really three distinct groups
from product and engineering and design.
What have you seen and learn from that kind of vantage point
of how best that designers can influence and collaborate
with their peers and colleagues across those functions?
It's, it's something that we hear a lot.
How, how do I have a presence there?
How do I have an outpaced impact?
-: Yeah, well it's, you know, and I'm always tinkering
it's a big organization and there's a lot of legacy.
And of course, every team
within that organization is different.
Right. But I, I, I believe a few things deeply, you know
one of them is this notion
of a prototype being worth a hundred meetings is so true.
And it also doesn't only apply to product design.
It also applies to like any conversation you're having
if you're talking about the business model or
or a marketing experience, you know
your end to end experience
of a customer when they're managing their account settings.
I mean, or whatever the case may be.
You have all these people chiming
in with their experiences and their opinions
and debating facts and metrics, et cetera.
But when you just go through the actual experience
and what it can be together, you know, it's
it's the hot knife through the butter of bureaucracy.
Like people just suddenly get aligned and
and it saves meetings and a lot of miscommunications.
So I think that the role
of a designer in organizations that I manage is to
help them set the bit first, right.
Is to get that prototype up as soon as possible.
Again, give the space
and the resources to have it be developed
and then get everyone on the same page as soon as possible.
You know, back in the Behance stage
we used to have a process called concepting
which was the first part of our product development process.
And it was product and designers only in the room
at a, in a, in an iterative set of meetings, right.
Where we would just spend hours together every week
going through the experience and then feedback.
And then again, the next week, and again, the next week
and only when we felt like this was the right experience
the product experience would we then hand
off and hand the power over to the engineering team.
And that was the moment where they could then
reject anything we had done
and send it back into concepting.
But I purposely kind of kept these, you know
processes separate because engineers are focused
on cost and performance and efficiency, and everything, oh
that's going to be expensive.
That's going to take time.
And that interferes of course, with like the, you know, the
the visioning process in the earlier stage.
-: So I'm going to change pace for a second because, you know
I always like to have a conversation
about leadership as well.
And one of the things that's been interesting
you've been an entrepreneurial leader.
You've been an intrapreneurial leader within organizations
but you've also been a volunteer leader.
And Scott and I share something in common.
We found out recently, we both serve as board members
within the larger Smithsonian institution I served
for the Anacostia community museum.
And Scott is on the board of Cooper-Hewitt.
I'd love to hear how volunteer service
and leadership has impacted your stance
on leadership and made you a better leader.
-: Well, I mean, I think you can
we should talk about it in two perspectives, one
which is what you're doing for the community or within
and also what you're personally getting out of it
because I actually think
that it's it's leadership development and it's, you know
and I mean, I look at all the AIGA events that I've attended
over the years and the people I have known that are involved
in various levels of leadership, you know
AIGA wise around the country, you know, and they
this is oftentimes one of
like their cartel leadership development
experiences where you get to and you solve problems
and you operate at a level that makes you more effective
in every other part of your life.
So there's that kind of somewhat, you know
selfish or career oriented, you know, benefit, which goes
without saying, but the, you know, I, I I'll tell you
I attended my first Cooper Hewitt board meeting 10 years ago
or something like that.
And, and I was really excited.
I mean, this is our nation's design museum.
And I was like, wow.
I mean, like, this is cool.
And the meeting, you know
was extraordinarily slow for my taste.
You know, I'm used to a startup environment
decisiveness actions, divide, and conquer
have the meeting be as short as possible.
And this was more of a, you know
let's go through each exhibition, let's talk about this.
Let's. I mean, it just, you know, I walked out
of that meeting and one of the people that was
on the board with me at the time
and is still on the board is John Meda who probably many
of you know, and was, was president of Rhode Island school
of design at one point before that, you know
at the MIT media lab and has had an interesting career ever
since, a great design, you know, design mind.
And so went up to him and I was like, John, like, gosh
you know, that is that like what a waste
of time that was like, nothing happened.
Like we didn't make any decisions.
And he looked at me, you know
in this sort of Yoda, like way, you know, shaking his head
at the young padawan and being like, oh, Scott, you know
all these little startups, he gets so excited about
they won't be around in a hundred years.
They may not be around in 10 years, but every now
and then in life, you get the opportunity to add a brick.
And that's why you're here.
You are you're to find your brick to add
to an institution that will well out last
anything else you're probably ever involved with.
And it really struck with me.
I was like, wow, like, so the purpose is
is really to be the sounding board and everything else
but find some way, you know
whether it's through my, you know, my day role
with Adobe or like some other relationship I have
or something I can add value
to whether it's the digital experience or whatever
and try to add that brick.
And so I I've
I've started to approach the volunteering side of my life
with a different level of expectation and aggressiveness
you know, sometimes you're at your objective
there is a little different when it comes
to the community and the, and, and, and, you know
making an impact on the world in that way.
-: It really is.
I mean, that's
that's a powerful metaphor to kind of add the brick.
You know, you think of it as that dynamic stewardship.
Space of it where you're helping to infuse new ideas
but you also have this responsibility to help kind
of make this space and to leave it better than you found it
and to grow right, and understand respect what
comes what's come before what's happening now
and how you can impact what happens in the future.
-: Well said.
-: So it's, you know, one of the things that
that I love in our conversations is thinking
about the things that you explore and you've been
been writing about almost a year to today.
Actually, you wrote a piece
about crisis unlocking productivity.
I was surprised when I looked back and I was like
it's actually been a year and you were writing this
from a vantage point of two months
two and a half months into our pandemic.
So the wonderful thing
about writing is we get a chance to put a stake
in the ground.
And then we get to look back
and smile at ourselves a year later or two years later.
So I'm going to give you that opportunity to smile back
but I, I'm curious
you made some great points about this moment of crisis and
and how it could unleash productivity that we had laden
And as we take a year
on to those two months, 14 months into there
what do you think today about this opportunity
that the last year and a half has created for us?
What do you think about that
in terms of our productivity in the world?
-: Yeah, well, I mean that, first of all, that was, you know
me trying to desperately find the silver lining
in an absolute crazy time, both within my teams
in my life and in the world.
The thing that I did start to realize was that, you know
we've had modern practices for remote work.
We've had these new tools
like the slacks of the world, and, you know
cloud services for collaboration, et cetera.
We've had these things for years.
Our teams haven't gotten the full benefit of them
because there were always the holdouts
the people who just prefer to still do things over email
or needed to still be in person for certain things.
And they became, in some ways
like the lowest common denominators
of our team's productivity, because we couldn't, you know
we always had to accommodate them.
And, and we didn't, you know, because we want it to be like
you know, collegial, et cetera.
And, and then this, and then this pandemic happened
and the forcing function of everyone suddenly having to
adopt the things that they were always sort
of radison to really, you know, adopt
and modernize themselves with, you know
that happened like instantaneously.
And, and what ended up happening is that all of this
there was all this kind of a new productivity that was
real, was kind of gained, but never fully realized.
And then suddenly like that gap between the gain
and the realization like suddenly closed.
And like all this productivity was suddenly realized.
And I think suddenly real organizations, I think a lot
of us feel burnt out to some degree.
Because we've been so hyper productive because all of the
kind of the, the, the friction of the system kind
of went away to some degree.
And now we're like, whoa, like this is not scalable
from a humidity perspective.
So, but it is exciting that we've unlocked it.
Right. And now we have to be stewards of our own energy
and our own, you sanctity of mind discern
how productive we actually really want to be.
But that was the that was like
the key realization for me then.
-: It it's, I mean
I really respect the conversation and it was empowering.
Could have read it then, and then look back now
to kind of boldly say, Hey, wait, we are unleashing this.
I think about in our own lives
how many things that we could here are our 2017 selves
and our 2018 say, I'm saying we cannot do.
It is impossible to do.
And then watching as we not only did it
we did it with creativity.
We did it with, you know, consideration
concern and empathy.
We did it with all these ways that we didn't
think were possible before
but it does shape kind of a space right now.
It is the things that we're doing are they sustainable?
Right. And, and I, so I wouldn't ask you to look
back a year without asking you to look forward, right?
And, and, but that'll give you a shorter horizon
but if you look six months out from today
what are the things that we think our new reality
is creating both challenges and opportunities?
-: Hmm. Bennie that's a good one, you know
and I think we could have
we could have a discussion, a number
of elements in terms of what, what, what that future holds.
I do, you know, I do.
I do think that there's
do you remember the whole quantified self movement in the
you know, it started maybe 10, 15 years ago
and it was people just kind of chronicling geeky aspects
of themselves, you know, how much they consume
how many steps they took, how many hours they slept
how many, this, how many that, and now, you know
we all have like Apple watches
and different things, different, you know
some people take it to different levels
of glucose monitoring and sleep monitoring, et cetera.
And, and I think, you know, I
I do think this last couple of years, because we, you know
all of our lives
to some extent became a little bit more localized
and a little bit more, you know
we started to understand our inputs
and outputs a little bit better and, or the lack thereof.
I mean, for me, like I'm desperate to travel again
because that was sort of an input that I never
really appreciated from a creative perspective, you know
and now like seeing these four walls over and over and over
right. It's like, at some point you start
you need more inputs, but I think that
so what I think over the next few years, I
first of all, I think, you know, that notion
of the roaring twenties coming back, I do buy that.
You know, I think
that we will more deeply appreciate the role
of travel and other people and meeting people
even an introvert such as myself, because it's
these are inputs we desperately need to some extent.
And, you know
then I also think we're going to start to just not
not work as hard as we possibly can just for the sake of it.
I think we've all kind of recognized.
We can now unleash so much productivity for ourselves.
Let's be more purposeful in our time.
You know, I was talking recently to the, the CEO and founder
of Calendly, which is just like a, such a cool product.
And, you know, he, we were talking and
and what we were talking about was like
what if you could actually really get a bar graph
of your time every week?
Like you really knew how every meeting was allocated
in your calendar.
Is it, you know, how many hours are you spending
with members versus responsibilities like fundraising
versus managing versus employee feedback
versus personal things versus creative things.
And if you saw a report every week, you know
would you be satisfied with that?
Or would you say, wait
that doesn't map with what I should be doing.
I think that stuff is going to become much more popularized
for all of us.
-: Interesting. So kind of thinking future as well.
You've talked a lot
about the future of work, and I, I'm curious in
in these discussions where we're having them
all the time as well, like, what does the future
of work look like for creatives, for designers
for design adjacent business leaders
and how do we make that a more intentioned future?
And you start to kind of speak about that, of
of determining what we do with our productivity
but there's no question
that our world has changed is changing
and continues to change at a faster clip.
You know, what, what are your thoughts on
on what that future will look like for creatives?
-: Well, I would start with the fact that we
we used to think we needed to be associated with a shingle
and have a back office in order to have a great career
as a creative, and that need is longer there.
I know that doesn't mean that we won't want to be a part
of firms and agencies, but we can be more purposeful
and like why we are doing that.
And we can be a little bit more assertive in
are we getting what we want
for our careers out of this experience or not?
Because if you're not
there is welcome to the soloist economy
you can get everything you need from, you know
this company, collective fin for incorporating yourself to
you know, all the companies that do billing and payments.
You can, you know
there's so many ways you can market yourself.
You can literally have all
of the back office functions of a big agency
for a series of, you know, monthly staff's fees, right.
-: Right.
-: And then you're off to the races on your own and
and you really own your audience
and you own your brand and you own your time.
And so that actually raises the bar
for what an agency and firm needs to provide for us
if we're going to work, you know, and associate ourselves
with a company as opposed to being an independent soloist.
So I think that that's, you know
that's out of the starting gate, that's a big difference
and that will be continue to be more true.
The, the future of the economy is the soloist economy
you know, in my view, and, you know
engaging people on their own terms.
Of course
we also should be able to work wherever we work of course.
And, but that opens
up a very interesting problem to solve
around career development.
How do you make sure you're known, you know
amongst your colleagues, how do you get opportunity?
What's the new version of FaceTime there's
there are a few companies out there that are now doing
I like to call it spontaneity
as a service, you know, they're, you know, you like you log
into something every day where you just kind
of bump into people and have audio chats, you know
with little avatars in a website, we need new ways of, of
of also like having some of those moments and spontaneity
for career development and idea exchange, et cetera
that we will lose if we all insist
on just kind of working remotely on our own.
So those are a few of the, you know
opportunities and challenges.
I think we're going to have to figure out.
-: Yeah, I think
to your point there's opportunities in upscaling
and diversity of skill and portfolio, because you're right.
If you're working on your own
then often you can block yourself off
of other opportunities because of the nature
of the business that you're working at
the kind of open space.
And likewise, the trade-off, if you're working
with a larger shingle, you know, the ability to pivot
in space creates an entirely new way of thinking
about a dynamic career, one know sustainable and productive.
So, you know, it, it comes back to, you know
it all comes back to our conversations about, you know
being a creative entrepreneur.
You know, we really, the theme and throughput
of our discussion is really talked about those points
in those drivers of thinking about what's next.
And, and how do we build.
When you think about your time is
as an entrepreneur, I can, I'm running my creative practice,
and I'm transitioning from my idea to reality.
And then back to reality to the ideas there
there's something that you've written about
about this dimension of looking
at joy and time being involved in this space.
And I found that kind of
really interesting to think about that.
So I've made this commitment.
I have an entrepreneurial space in there, and now going
through this space and trying to balance my joy and time
could you speak a little bit about that?
It's a really kind of cool idea.
-: Yeah. I'm trying to remember what I was thinking when I
when I was talking about that.
Maybe one
of my all night benders thinking about the real journey
but it's, but I, I would, I would put it this way.
You know, I, you know, what I've learned about myself is
that I am most, I'm most happy when I feel fully utilized.
-: Right.
-: And, you know, in some
of the career mistakes that I've made, like
for example, you know
leaving the world of building and designing to
become a full-time venture capital investor.
I mean, you know
I don't know what I was thinking because immediately I felt
like I had hung up my spurs, a headwind.
I was sort of like all of the skills that I loved putting
to use were sort of suddenly like atrophying
you know, and, and, you know
I learned a few valuable lessons there
like one is, you know, don't just
because everyone says you should be doing something
doesn't mean you should be doing that, that thing.
And, and then the second thing is maybe
along the grass is greener thing.
You know, a lot of us would probably complain
about our clients or about the, the anxiety of building
and managing teams and shipping products and all this stuff.
And you say to yourself, oh, if I could just get
on the other side of that and have that as my past chapter
and then like three weeks in, I missed it.
And, and I just recognize, like
that tension was actually something that put me to use.
And, and so I'm most happy when I feel fully utilized
both professionally and personally.
And so I've started to really just think
about my time as it relates to, you know, whether it was
with my children or my spouse or my discernment
like all of the things that are trying to like
you know, leverage those, those, those, those muscles.
So Julian time.
Well, you know, I think that you, you know
you certainly have like a very volatile process, you know
over the course of something, but I don't know.
Maybe you would tell me
if there's another direction you wanted to go
-: That's it.
I, I came across that in the conversation.
I just thought that was a nice thing to share
with our audience, you know, because we're all making those
those kinds of trade-offs in thinking about it.
And I love the candor
of talking about making those steps, you know
you're doing the next best, you know, expected move, right.
But that's not always the right thing.
It's not always the generative thing.
And it's not always the authentic, you know
soul enriching thing.
Right. But we get
into a space where this is the next thing that we should do.
And I, I appreciate you sharing that out to say, Hey
I did this, you know, it sounds like a good press release.
Right. But it's not true to really Scott Belsky.
-: Yeah. I agree.
And, you know, I, you know, I look back and I think, gosh
you know, I've always tried to take every opportunity
right. Because, you know, it always seemed like, oh my gosh
so lucky I get to work with this person.
I get this opportunity.
And, and, you know, all of us
like we want to make the most of every opportunity presented
to us and appreciate them fully.
And at the same time, maybe, you know, we, as we mature
we have to make sure we, you know, are, are grounded
in like what our values are and like what really fulfills
and utilizes us, because that's not only good for us.
It's also good for the world.
Right. And it's good for the people around us.
And, and so, you know, maybe that's something
we can all challenge ourselves to, to do.
-: So I'm gonna ask a wonderful advice question, you know
as you've had a chance to serve
as a leader in your own shop, a leader within a program
and then a leader for large enterprise
what advice do you have
to my design plus business audience today
as they go through their journeys?
So what are the things that you think
that they should hold true
as they think about what's next for them?
-: Well, I, you all have a superpower.
That is, that is really, I mean, competitive advantage.
We already know design as a competitive advantage
for those businesses, but as the, the
the ability to show, as opposed to tell, you know
that the ability to make that prototype that is worth
you know, countless meetings.
And, and so, first of all, you need to be working
in an environment where that superpower is both nourished
and appreciated, and it is scary to always make a change.
But if you don't feel like your, your
your capacity is being fully utilized
and that your learning curve is steep
like you owe it to yourself, as well as your colleagues
in the future colleagues, you might be able to work with
who would leverage that part of you, you know, to, to
to try to take a risk in that regard.
I also, you know, I think it's, I
I think that it's really helpful to
to write and to contribute content in the community.
To me sharing is the new networking.
Whereas we used to go to these receptions and try to
hand business cards out and go to meet
like the senior people, or try to get connections.
Like that's, that's old news right.
Now it's about, I mean, if you're a designer sharing
sharing assets, you know, sharing your creative cloud
libraries with other people, sharing your
your PSDs and, you know, in network, you know
building a network with people that are more junior
than you, that peers, you know
having this collective mentality, you know, is really
in my view, what is fueling the future of collaborations
and thus the future of careers.
And so sharing is the new networking, sharing your, your
your writing, like your ideas, you know, putting yourself
out there.
I think that we should all be curators of
what's interesting to us and narrators of, of, you know
the story is that we're involved with.
And then other people who tune in are going to be there when
we need them to help connect the dots for us to
help them find some talent that will help us, you know, as
as we build our teams, et cetera.
So those are a few things, but the, the future of
of the designer is bright.
And, and we just all have to recognize
you know, how, how, how much great stuff we can do
-: That is the most perfect way
to end our conversation today I think,
The future of the designer is bright.
Scott, I cannot thank you enough for spending this time
this morning with us.
And still, as we quoted, still helping creative people
teams and networks make ideas happen
and make the world better.
You have been kind of a living embodiment of
what we push on the AIGA mission
which is design as a creative and professional craft
thinking of design as strategic advantage.
And as we've talked today, and I think what's
really powerful for our audience to get a chance
to hear you talk about your journey as a leader
and the work that you do, having an impact as
a positive catalyst for the world around you.
I thank you very much for taking this time with us.
It's always a pleasure and look forward to
catching up with you again.
Thank you.
-: Thank you so much.
And thanks everyone for tuning in