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Richard Banfield
head of deep dive studios / transformative product leader / advisor / author / artist / previously CEO
Richard Banfield is a seasoned executive leader, advisor, author, and entrepreneur with extensive experience in product design, digital transformation, and business leadership. Here are some key details about his career and background:
Professional Experience
Richard Banfield has held several notable positions throughout his career:
- Advisor at Sell Better by JB Sales (2021 - present)3
- Chief Question Asker at Irritating Morning Person (2020 - present)3
- Advisor at Maginative (2021 - present)3
Previously, he founded and led Fresh Tilled Soil, a product design firm that worked with Fortune 500 enterprises and startups. The company was voted Boston's Best Place To Work multiple times and completed over 700 projects before being sold in 2019.1
After selling Fresh Tilled Soil, Banfield joined InVision to lead design transformation for the company's Fortune 500 customers.1
Entrepreneurial Ventures
Banfield has been involved in several entrepreneurial ventures:
- Co-founded Acceleration, a marketing stack integration firm that grew to 250 employees with offices in multiple countries before being sold to WPP1
- Started a small design agency in the late 90s focused on web and digital product design1
- Briefly ran global sales and marketing for a software startup called Win Win Technologies1
Author and Thought Leader
Richard Banfield is a prolific author and thought leader in the product design and leadership space:
- Authored four books, including "Design Sprints," "Design Leadership," "Product Leadership," and "Enterprise Design Sprints"1
- His book "Product Leadership" has sold over 25,000 copies and been published in 16 languages1
- Launched a podcast called "The Dirt"1
- Pioneered the first UX apprenticeship program1
Current Focus
Today, Banfield splits his time between writing, advisory work, and art. He continues to share insights on product design and innovation, emphasizing the importance of maintaining human-centered approaches in digital transformation.24
Richard Banfield's LinkedIn username is richardbanfield, as mentioned in the query.
Highlights
I treat AI as a partner, not a replacement. Here are some of the ways I've found to create a partner out of AI and some prompts I use:
- Have a mindset that you're working with an assistant and craft your prompts as if you're talking to an objective co-worker. "I'd like your help with a problem I'm working on. Can you be my thought partner and help me avoid blindspots or biases?"
- Avoid tasking AI with solving problems; view it as a thinking assistant. "Let's start with understanding the problem..."
- Offer comprehensive context for better insights. "Here are some important things you should know before we start..."
- Utilize existing documentation and data to improve decision-making. "I'm uploading docs that can will provide background and important details."
- Engage in dialogue with AI by asking follow-up questions and providing additional context. "Ask me questions that will help me think through this problem."
- Use mental models to elicit new ideas or solutions. "How might we solve this problem with Occam's Razor in mind?"
- Break down work into specific tasks. "Let's work through these items one by one to ensure we're not overlooking issues."
- If work is complex, like writing a product strategy doc, break the work into separate exercises and task the AI with the different roles for that work. "Now I'd like you to think like a product marketer. What would a product marketer need to know to be successful?"
This is what Chris McKay did with Maginative. To make it possible to generate dozens of news articles a week, Chris built custom agents and prompts as if they were his editorial staff so he could act as Chief Editor and get the support he needed. By breaking the work into role specific prompts he gets a more accurate response.
Emphasize using AI collaboratively, not as a substitute.
Who in my network is actively using the DoubleLoop product metric tools? I'd love to hear about your experiences and insights.
