Paul Adams

Only work on what matters most. Stop worrying about things you can't control.

My advice is keep it simple. Fight so hard to resist the temptation to add extra ways in which you price.

Be different and better in ways people care about. We were different and better in these Google projects in ways people didn't care about.

I'm a big believer in big bets, high risk, high reward. I don't get as excited about incremental things. But, I get excited about big bets. And if you make big bets, you're going to get a lot of it wrong.

This is a meteor coming towards you. This is going to radically transform society. And I think if people don't explore AI properly, it will leave them behind.

We have a principle called Ship to Learn. Ship fast, ship early, ship often. So, in that idea is the idea of failure. It's not going to go right. And, it's going to go wrong more often than not.

I'd start with the thing your product does. What's the core premise behind it? Why do people use it? What problem does it solve for them? That kind of thing. So, go back to basics. And then ask, 'Can AI do that?' And for a lot, the answer is going to be, 'Yes, it can.'

We literally ripped up our strategy almost entirely, and started again, from first principles and said, 'Okay, why do people use Intercom?'

I think people who adopt a product, or buy a product, or switch to a product, there's two driving forces. One is the attraction of the new solution, and that's basically differentiation. But, on the other side, there's a entry requirement or table stakes.

Don't bolt it on. Don't be like, 'Oh, we'll have a bunch of AI people...' I think it's much better to have everyone learn about it.

You just have to take the time. There's just no other way for me. And that to me doesn't mean... It's about priorities. You got to read. You got to stay up to date, and you got to play with things, and try things.

To know where the boundary is, you got to cross it. And crossing it is painful. But, if you don't cross it, you'll never know.