Andrew Skotzko

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A new chapter = a really long walk + new ideas

I want to mark a big milestone. Last month, I wrapped up ~5 terrific creative years with Applied Invention, where I was a group product lead for several groundbreaking new products in sustainability. What a ride! We built some terrific things that are making the world a better place, and I’m very proud of the work we did together. I can’t wait to see what the team creates next.

Going forward, I’ll be doubling down on the direction I’ve been exploring through my Make Things That Matter podcast and writing over the last few years: high-performance flourishing. I’ll focus on building products and enabling organizations to maximize people’s creative and cognitive performance, and thrive while they do so.

Domain-wise, I’ll be exploring learning and growth, creative tooling, and maximizing the intersection of wellness and performance within the workplace. Functionally, I’ll continue working to shape great products and influence organizations through product and organizational design, advising startups, and learning out loud via podcasting, writing, and speaking. 

So, what’s next?

A few of you have asked what I plan to do next. First, I’m taking a break until mid-summer to focus on learning and exploring. Traveling, reflecting, connecting with friends old and new, reading, and learning in some areas I want to go deeper on. I’ve been lucky to have so many rich experiences in the last few years and I want to take time to properly reflect on it all before I push the gas pedal again. 

To start, I’ll be walking ~900km across Spain along El Camino de Santiago beginning this weekend. It’ll take me 5-6 weeks to do the whole thing. I’ll be mostly quiet / offline during this time, although a few scheduled podcast episodes will go out.

El Camino

When I return, I’m looking forward to reconnecting with many of you! I want to hear what you’re working on and look at the world fresh through an innovator’s lens as I experiment with possible ventures and product ideas. 

My focus is on how to unleash teams for maximum creative potential and performance. If you are focused on this space as a product person, company leader, Chief People Officer, L&D strategist, or similar, and are looking to share pain points or ideate solutions, please reach out. You can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, or through this website, and my emails remain the same.

Permission to Fall

In life, I regret the things I didn’t do more than the missteps I made along the way.
– David Stanley

For the last three months, I traveled throughout South America. Despite what my Instagram photos may suggest, for the first month I was on the road, I was not enjoying it. Everything was new and stressful. There were no familiar places or friends to fall back on. The lack of regular schedules shot all my routines to hell. I felt lonely without my friends, and had no idea what I was doing. I drank too much, and exercised too little.

Searching, far from home

I had gone away to get out of the tech scene for a while, for a change of pace and scenery. I had recently left Chill, where I’d driven myself at a maniacal pace for almost three years. I needed time and space to think, refresh, and get some perspective.

But I was 6,121 miles away, and it wasn’t working.

On the night of December 21st, I remember calling Matt from my apartment in Buenos Aires. I’d talked myself in circles, about whether this crazy trip was still a good idea.

Should I just go back to California and take another job? Should I scrap the idea of trying to build something of my own? I was minutes away from booking a trip back to the USA so I could spend the holidays with friends and family. [Read more…] about Permission to Fall

Analog Hearts In A Digital World

If there’s ever a time of year when we want to feel human connection, it’s around Valentine’s Day. And connection requires vulnerability and honesty, experiencing the world through another’s eyes.

Here are two questions that I’ve found helpful in authentically opening up my work and thinking to others over the last few months, which has led to some wonderful connections and conversations:

  1. What do the things that I feel compelled to do tell me about myself?
  2. Why do I want this thing that I want?

[Read more…] about Analog Hearts In A Digital World

Nice to Meet You, Again

It’s an incredible moment when you meet the real person inside someone you’ve casually known for years.

Tonight I was at a dinner at USC with a large group of people I’ve known since my time there. Most of us have met before, had some meetings, maybe even been out socially in that sort-of-colleagues-but-also-sort-of-friends way that was so common in my life before I got that I have to bring who I really am to everything I do.

At dinner, I re-connected with a college peer I’ve known for about six years. I wouldn’t say we were ever friends, but we knew each other and had worked together. After dinner, we walked together across campus and had the first real conversation we’ve ever had. It was exciting—I made a new friend, a real friend—we had independently experienced similar struggles and were discussing our journeys since leaving college. When we parted, I felt like I had just met an entirely different person. We hugged, and without even thinking I said “nice to meet you” to a guy I’ve known for six years. But in a sense, I had just met the real him for the first time.

Conversations are powerful.

Conversations are powerful because moments are powerful. Moments are where we take risk. Moments are when we expose ourselves in hopes that another will respond. Moments are when we push pause on our mental treadmills and appreciate something in the past that we were too busy experiencing to grasp the significance of. Moments are where we suddenly stop reaching, trying, stretching for something external and just…are.

Conversations may well be the most important tool we have for uncovering these moments. Conversations are often when those moments happen, or synthesize, come together, and coalesce into a cogent whole that has meaning and power.

Deep conversations like the one I had tonight are when I get to experience my favorite moment.

Whether it’s out of frustration, desperation, or exhaustion, eventually there is a moment where we all just get tired and say “Fuck it.” To the career path that cultivates money at the expense of meaning. To doing what we’re supposed to do instead of what we want to do. To playing the small game we’ve been told to play instead of the big game our heart yearns for.

This moment is precious. It’s exciting. Because the moment you stop trying to speak with somebody else’s voice is the moment you hear the first whispers of your own. And those whispers mark the beginning of the path that leads to what each of us is really seeking: ourself.

It’s the moment when someone begins to come into their own. The moment when untapped potential becomes reality-on-the-way, when hope becomes action, when things long dreamed of become memories soon to be cherished.

How you arrive at this moment doesn’t matter, but I believe we all must arrive there eventually if we’re to live the life we’re capable of.

There is nothing I want more than to help everyone I come in contact with to be closer to living at their potential, to experience these moments and the ripple effects in their life. That unleashing of potential in people and ideas is what I live for.

And there is an effective vehicle to get there: real conversations. I’m going to try to have more of them from here on out.

So I hope I have occasion to say “nice to meet you” to someone I’ve already met, again, very soon.

I wish the same for you.

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