Request Options
“An A/B test needs a ‘B.’”
I’m proud of that line from my guest post on Kim Scott’s “Radical Candor” blog. It distills an incredibly important realization: the very act of comparative testing requires generating alternatives.
Far too often, a team only has one idea. But the masters of creativity have always known: best to request options.
David Kelley told me that legendary Stanford professor Bob McKim, who founded Stanford's human-centered Product Design Program in 1958, would answer inquiring students in the same way: “Show me three.”
If you wanted to know what McKim thought about a particular project direction, you had to give him options.
This is a fantastic way to force fresh thinking on a team.
Implicit in any new direction is the possibility (likelihood!) of failure. A great innovation leader, when presented with a nascent direction, will ask, “What else are we trying?” This is NOT to increase the workload on the team, but rather to acknowledge the underlying realities facing innovation endeavors, and to emphasize the importance of learning-by-comparison.
Related: Consider the Odds
Related: The Problem With Solving Problems
Related: Create A Portfolio
Click here to subscribe to Paint & Pipette, the weekly digest of these daily posts.
When organizations think about AI transformation, they immediately focus on technical roles: data scientists, developers, prompt engineers. But what if the most important AI role in your organization requires zero technical expertise?
Enjoy this guest post from Eric Porres, Head of Global AI at Logitech. It’s a fantastic personal story of how one business leader got a much-needed turbo boost by augmenting his own intelligence with AI.
Behold the great AI measurement delusion: Organizations tracking usage metrics are missing the only thing that matters—impact.
More use isn't better use. Better use is better use.
Last week a CEO asked me the same question I hear from every executive: 'How do I get my team to use AI?'
My answer shocked him.
In the AI age, love is more important than ever. Because now anyone can generate “good enough” solutions with a few prompts. But people want more than good enough. When average is free, only above-average passion will stand out.
Deeply practical guest post by former NCAA and NFL punter, now tech executive, Zoltán Meskó. I met Zoltán at Stanford’s annual Campbell Trophy Summit last summer, and he stayed in touch, telling me all the cool stuff he was trying - check out how AI is changing the way he works.
"I don't really have any pain points to automate," a CEO told me during an AI workshop last week. "I don't do repetitive work like other people in the company do."
Then he mentioned how he spends six hours manually editing every report his team sends him… I had to stop him right there.
The piece of data from Section’s latest AI Proficiency Report I can’t stop thinking about: Silence on AI breeds more AI skepticism than an outright AI ban. So if you’ve been gathering your thoughts on AI, now is the time to put them in writing. In this special guest post, Section’s CEO, Greg Shove, will tell you how.
There’s only one right answer to the question, “Did AI help with this?” The shift to an AI-first mindset isn't just about saving time. It's about recognizing a fundamental truth: AI isn't a tool you might want to use. It's an amplifier you'd be reckless not to use.
AI isn't coming for your job. But someone using AI almost certainly is. So why not take your own job before someone else does? It’s time to prioritize and systematize disrupting ourselves.