Just about every time I've met with UX folks @Meta over the years, I hear a consistent theme: "Exec team wanted us to clone product X, we tried to convince them why we should build product Y instead" That's a tricky environment to operate in, and probably not uncommon in SV..
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I remember a version of this while @Google. To be fair, sometimes it worked. But more often it didn't. Why is it most companies when they reach maturity / market leadership forget how to innovate? Why do they focus on playing defense reactively instead of offense creatively?
Why do they stop trusting their teams and themselves, and start trusting incumbents and signals they see online? Why do they stop taking risks? Why do they forget how they started and shift into something they think they're supposed to be? In this essay, I will… 😶🌫️
But for real, why do these executives have to be so formulaic? Mad props to any leader who can break free of these tropes and think for themselves.
You don't build things just because other people built them. There was an insight that got those people were they are, and you pay attention to the insight, you don't just copy+paste. I know we're all fear-motivated-loss-averse humans, but if we KNOW that why can't we beat it?