Jamie Hill

[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

Creativity, is a function of the “library in your head."

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

In 1985, Nike held a 24-hour shoe design contest.

Nike was struggling. Their stock dropped 50%. They had to lay off people. Adidas, Converse, & Reebok were all selling more shoes.

So in a panicked attempt to find creative talent, Nike held a shoe design contest.

The winner was

A corporate architect named Tinker Hatfield.

"Two days after the competition," he said, "I wasn't even asked—I was told that I was now a footwear designer for Nike."

As he got to work on his first official shoe design, he thought about a building he had studied in architecture school: The Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The Centre Pompidou is an inside-out building, meaning that the structural, mechanical, and circulation systems are all exposed.

“That building,” Tinker said, “was describing what it was to the people of Paris. And I thought, ‘Well why not do that with a shoe? Let’s cut a hole in the side and show what’s in the shoe.’”

So Tinker designed an inside-out shoe:

The Air Max 1.

The Air Max 1 was a massive success, and it steered Nike's design direction from then on.

"To this day," Tinker says, "Phil Knight says I saved Nike."

Takeaway 1:

Had he not studied that building in Paris, Tinker says, he couldn’t have created the Air Max.

Creativity, he says, is a function of the “library in your head."

“When you sit down to create something...what you create is a culmination of everything you’ve seen and done previous to that point.”

Takeaway 2:

Tinker Hatfield went to architecture school and then he was a corporate architect for 4.5 years. Then, literally overnight, he became one of the best shoe designers in the world.

This makes me think of a counter-intuitive discovery made by psychologist Charles Spearman in 1904.

Before Spearman, the natural assumption was that the more you specialize in one thing, the worse you’ll be at other things.

Instead, Spearman discovered "the positive manifold" phenomenon.

He found that different abilities tend to be positively correlated. That the expertise gained through specialization is transferrable. That the cognitive and creative abilities cultivated as an architect could positively correlate with being a shoe designer.

- - -

"Creativity is a function of the previous work you put in."  — Robert Greene

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[Priya Prakash @priyascape]

Wow- love this. Brilliant reframe from food waste = landfill to fill land with food nutrients, improve soil 👏🏾👏🏾 @Mill

[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

@now_arsenaI L bozo spurs

[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

@sportbible # idolised

[Fin @fin_ai]

Customer service is fundamentally changing and we’re building products to deliver modern support — including tickets. With our next-gen system, you can respond to customer requests in a more personal way.

Learn more about our evolving 🎟️ philosophy.
https://t.co/mNLMPZpcdo

[Molly Scott Cato is on Bluesky @GreenPartyMolly]

Given that we've taken back control, it seems rather bizarre for Truss to expect the French to sort this out

[Zach Seward @zseward]

This is innovation @brooklinen

[Dan Hill @cityofsound]

Working with Brian Eno on design principles for streets: Bringing a cultural voice into an urban planning conversation that has become narrowly technical, diversifying the thinking around what streets are about, and what cities are for #oneminutecities https://t.co/46utGTv32b

[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

… and that last bit needs constant investment & iteration. Especially as the org scales and evolves. creating the right conditions is never ‘done’.

This is what @intercom gets right to set it apart from most companies I’ve been part of.

[Marty Cagan @cagan]

so many in our industry like to talk how important ethics is, yet consider how many product people are willing to work for this company, or respect their leaders... https://t.co/vJZYYny1mT

[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

@futurefabric So good seeing the standard you’ve reached with these from your really early experiments. Such an impressive outcome and commitment to perfecting your craft. 👌

[Tyrone Mings @TyroneMings]

You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens.

[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

@doriantaylor Yep. Me too. Just was interested to muse how product management as an activity fits in to your statements. Bring that outside in, strategic context to help with choosing which one possibility to align on. “Contextually appropriate”

[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

@doriantaylor The central problem for product management is to ensure engineering and design converge on the most contextually appropriate one possibility.

[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

@clivepafc @jamesbenge It’s almost like your saying consistent top 4 finishes should be the measure of success and we need a big football leader with strong values to align around. Sounds like someone. ;)

[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

@denisewilton Not *exactly* what you asked for. But https://t.co/SgKHpGHPtK might help @eeselapp

[Brian Donohue @brian_donohue]

Every few years we go through a really big growth spurt at Intercom. This is one of those years. We're hiring more folks in R&D, by far, than we ever have before. And that means we have a *bunch* of openings for Product Managers.

Why not come and have a little look-see? 👇

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[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

@Ocado @RyanGarner @monzo Yes! Same problem for me. The other one that @monzo couldn’t help me with but maybe @Ocado can is the one-click add to basket creating a ridiculous volume of active card check items in my feed.

[Shreyas Doshi @shreyas]

A good customer segmentation is worth a thousand strategy meetings.

[Jamie Hill @mrjamiehill]

Johnson and government scientists are having the classic “date vs outcome driven roadmap” debate over lockdown easing. No prizes for guessing which side Johnson is on. Cc @simplybastow

https://t.co/U0foGsw8Oe