I've heard this too many times now. "We cycled through a few different Heads of Product... they never work out." The pattern looks like this... 1. Founders notice they aren't shipping product. 2. They think a Head of Product will fix it. 3. Head of Product comes in, and spends time/energy at the "strategy" level of framing. 4. The strategy from the Head of Product misses the mark. 5. Founders realize they probably have better ideas about strategy. 6. Founders explain what's important to the Head of Product. 7. Head of Product doesn't have the right skills to translate "this is what we want to solve" to a blueprint of what to specifically build. In the end, it's a mix of wrong output and no output. What went wrong here? The #1 mismatch I see is that founders don't know what to expect from the Head of Product, and vice versa. Founders think they should delegate strategy, which is often not the case. Heads of Product think they should contribute strategy, which is often not the case. What's missing is this ... very often Founders have a good nose for what needs to get solved. What they need is someone who can NARROW DOWN and TRANSLATE that into a specific concept with good UX that's technically legible. But instead what happens is both compete for the "set the strategy" role. And nobody is problems into frames into shapes to go build. My #1 advice to founders thinking they need a head of product. Ask yourself: do you actually NOT know what you want, strategically? Are you really looking to outsource strategy? If it's not actually about bringing in someone from outside to set the direction for your whole product ... then you need someone who is skilled ONE LEVEL DOWN in concreteness. Meaning someone who can listen to you about what matters, whiteboard the solution that pulls it all together, and work with technical people to make it happen. There is a HUGE gap in the market today. We need product people who can work ABOVE the level of Figma-visuals and BELOW the level of "company strategy". So much work of getting to what we actually ship — the blueprint — is in-between. And let me tell you ... if you EVER go to a product conference, prepare to be deeply misled. There are WAY TOO MANY talks about "strategy" when nobody in the room is truly responsible for strategy. Product is ultimately about understanding the purpose and translating that into a specific design. A Head of Product who can't whiteboard a UI flow or make technical trade-offs with engineers isn't heading product. They're trying to play CEO.

A streetwear-inspired crypto brand I very much liked these illustrations Inspired by Boot Boyz / Now-Time...iykyk

what. a. Config. 😮 I interviewed the new Chief Design Officer @loredanacrisan to go behind the scenes of today's @figma launches I think you'll really enjoy this one 👇

Thoughts highlights after #config (community version): 1. Hosted the Day 1 closing keynote w/ Catt Small @mds @rasmusfabbe 2. @LinusEkenstam is a fun dude 3. Achievement unlocked: wife daughter backstage watching dad’s keynote. Thanks @figma (truly) 4. A bird pooped on me before my keynote. Got some free swag out of it. New pro tip 5. Many of you are asking me to start a live show with @ridd_design. Should we? 6. I create events I wish existed. Adding a new one next year: Hiking Green Gulch to Monastary. Smaller, beautiful, more intimate convos. You in? 7. Designers IRL > designers chronically online 8. Got invited to an event. Showed up. All friends had left. Knew no one. Met people for an hour. Realized I was at the wrong event. Womp-womp security. My party was next door. Went next door. All friends said “where you?” Then it ended after 10 minutes. rip 9. I throw good parties, but I think it’s time to create an actual conference. So I’m cooking that up next 10. Anyone can come to our party. I don’t care who you are. But you have to buy a ticket before they sell out. We charge for tickets. We try to invest all revenue into the event. Bigger venue, food, open bar, music, etc. Once it sells out, I’ll still try to get you in. But eventually, I can’t. So as I say in every announcement: “We WILL sell out quickly, so please don’t wait until the last minute.” - I get really bummed when I see this happen each year.

what. a. Config. 😮 I interviewed the new Chief Design Officer @loredanacrisan to go behind the scenes of today's @figma launches I think you'll really enjoy this one 👇

ICYM Dive Club Live in NYC we're releasing the panel discussion today featuring 3 incredible guests: 1️⃣ @meaghaneschoi (design lead for Claude Code/Cowork) 2️⃣ @danshipper (CEO of Every) 3️⃣ @bradleyziffer (design eng at Ramp) Enjoy this deep dive into AI design workflows 👇

130 paper cutouts of OG Anunoby’s tip-in for the New York Knicks (aka the greatest play in NBA Finals history )