Dries Vaesen

I help innovation teams turn ambitious ideas into market-ready products

[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

This. Time and time again.

[James Clear @JamesClear]

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

[Dylan Field @zoink]

I have been thinking about whether to comment on this. Not clear if Gal is serious, rage baiting, etc. Whatever the case, it has spread enough in the design community that I want to share some thoughts.

The psychological journey people go through with AI is quite fascinating to me. A new model launches, people think the world has changed, they sometimes have an existential crisis, then they play with the model, they understand its strengths and limitations and then they settle down. A few weeks later, the cycle repeats.

On top of this, even before AI, designers have often shown insecurity and imposter syndrome. There are probably many reasons for this. First, before ~2010 design wasn't valued by the tech industry in the way it is today. Second, the people attracted to working in the field of design are often very open to new ideas and have high empathy. Third, there is no "one path" to working as a designer and designer backgrounds are often pretty random.

Ironically, despite the insecurity + imposter syndrome so many designers feel, design is more important than ever. I truly believe this. And yes, I have an incentive to believe this. But just think about it... the logic couldn't be more clear. More design is entering the world, the attention economy is real and therefore creativity / design / point of view is how you will stand out. Your brand, marketing, product design, moments of delight and overall customer journey must be excellent. Some companies already get this and are fighting wild battles over design talent. Other companies are still figuring it out. Everyone will get there and it will be obvious in retrospect.

This isn't a new trend with AI. It is a trend that we've seen over the last decade. Designers used to complain about not having a seat at the table. Now designers have a seat at the table. And many of the businesses I speak with are pulling from their design bench when looking for new leaders for their business... they know that design thinking and the design process is what they need to adopt everywhere to win.

I'm not saying that every stakeholder gets it. But so many are trying to learn right now. Designers need to do more than create great work, they have to spend a lot more effort educating.

Showing work can also trigger anxiety. Sometimes the best solution to a design challenge is the first thing you think of. And other times you have to explore for quite a long time to come up with something great. Inputs to a design process might include things that feel like traditional office work and are easy to point to... reading docs, talking with teammates, formal research, etc. Inputs might also include a walk in the park, an interesting dream you had the night before, a good song you listened to on the radio during your commute, a painting from the 1800's or all sorts of other cultural / emotional input.

In summary, I've never been more confident in the role of design and impact design can have. I wish designers felt the same confidence. This is the moment to be more bold, to take more creative risk, to double down on the power of design. Everyone is on their own journey, and there are lots of fascinating ways to move through life, so if Gal is serious about "quitting design" then I wish him the best in his adventures ahead. But I hope if others follow they do it because there are other things they are so excited about spending time on vs fear of AI.

[James Clear @JamesClear]

Finish something. Anything. Stop researching, planning, and preparing to do the work and just do the work. It doesn’t matter how good or how bad it is. You don’t need to set the world on fire with your first try. You just need to prove to yourself that you have what it takes to produce something.

There are no artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, or scientists who became great by half-finishing their work. Stop debating what you should make and just make something.

[Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 @pmarca]

Interesting.

[Grant Lee @thisisgrantlee]

https://t.co/R9oKCQRRF3

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Tony Fadell has more receipts for this philosophy than anyone alive.

The iPod launched with one function: play music. No FM radio, no voice recorder, no wireless sync. Apple’s board wanted all of it. Jobs and Fadell killed every single one. The iPod sold 100 million units in six years.

The Nest Thermostat shipped with a display that only showed the temperature. Honeywell’s competing thermostats had 12 buttons and 6 menu screens. Nest had a single rotating dial. Google bought the company for $3.2B.

“If you can’t explain why it matters, it doesn’t ship” sounds like a platitude until you realize what it actually requires. It requires a PM to walk into a room where an engineer spent three weeks building something and say “this adds complexity without solving the problem, we’re cutting it.” That conversation destroys most PMs. They default to shipping everything because saying yes is free and saying no costs political capital.

The reason most products feel bloated is because saying yes is the path of least resistance. Nobody gets fired for adding a feature. People get fired for killing one that a VP wanted.

Fadell’s Nest rule forces the opposite incentive structure. The burden of proof sits on the feature, not on the person cutting it. That one inversion changes everything about how a team prioritizes.

Most PMs treat the roadmap like a to-do list. The best PMs treat it like a murder board. Every item is guilty until proven innocent.

That’s the actual job.

[Jason Fried @jasonfried]

Loved this idea so much we brought it to the HEY Calendar overnight. Live now in the new Year view (top left toggle in your HEY Calendar account).

[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

@felixleezd @ADPList Yes Please!

[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

@tombarrett Still got a copy available @tombarrett? 😊

[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

@raphaelschaad https://t.co/VXfqMnTK92

[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

This is sick!

[Jared Friedman @snowmaker]

Yesterday we wrapped up the W24 batch. We did a lot of things for the first time this batch.

Here were the high points for me ...

[Workspaces @workspacesxyz]

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[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

@dickiebush Review

[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

@EmyLascan Send!

[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

@rikrenard @QuantifiedRob I already have an Apple Watch. Yet, I did like the tracking visuals much more on the Whoop. I saw that they now also started with embedded content from Huberman etc., which is also a big plus IMO.

[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

@JapjeetU @hubermanlab @SatchinPanda Stumbled into TRE because I had trouble sleeping, mostly. Doing it also caused a ripple effect (lost weight, less bloated during the day, …). So I guess longevity has been the goal, ultimately.

[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

With wearable tech reaching research-grade accuracy and patients desiring more care at home, I won't be shocked to see many more move from in-patient to out-patient for procedures.

[Dries Vaesen @driesvaesen]

For a health service like Atrium, investing in outpatient services is interesting for many reasons:

🛌 freeing up hospital beds (sooner)
👍🏻 improving patient satisfactions
🪦 lower readmission and/or mortality rates
⬇️ lower costs all together