As I’ve noted previously, this essay from Slack founder Stewart Butterfield is a banger. You should read the whole thing if you haven’t—or re-read it if you have—and care about building great products. In my new role exploring the crazy, sometimes scary world of AI-first creativity tools, I find myself meditating on this line:
Who Do We Want Our Customers to Become?… We want them to become relaxed, productive workers… masters of their own information and not slaves… who communicate purposively.
I want customers to be fearless explorers—to F Around & Find Out, in the spirit of Walt Whitman:
Yes, this is way outside Adobe’s comfort zone—but I didn’t come back here to be comfortable. Game on.