Mariano Avila

product designer

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3%

In order to make something great you only need to change the existing layer by 3%.

I think most people are held back by the fear of not producing something completely original. Nothing is so good that it can’t be made better. Many of the most innovative companies of our generation have been made from tweaking an existing layer by 3% and then building upon that.

Yesterday, Snap was named the world’s most innovative company of 2020. When it started in 2011, Snapchat was not a completely novel idea. We already had the ability to send messages and photos through SMS and other various apps. Snapchat tweaked the existing layer of communication on the internet by adding ephemerality.

Obviously Snap has grown to do more than ephemeral messaging, but the core product philosophy remains the same. Reinvent the camera to improve the way people live and communicate. They tweaked the existing...

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Early Days

If we cannot tell a story about what has happened to us, nothing has happened to us.

Lately I’ve been reflecting on the past few years of my life. I’ve been trying to piece together how I got here. I think it comes down to being innately curious about people and actively surrounding myself with the most interesting people I can find.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and becoming close friends with entrepreneurs, artists, and engineers that are changing the world we live in.

The first person I ever met on Twitter was Kevin Abstract.

I met Kevin in 2013. He tweeted his phone number, I FaceTime’d him, and we kept in touch over iMessage for the next few months.

Kevin went on to build Brockhampton: one of the most prolific music groups of our generation.

This taught me the power of Twitter and meeting people on the Internet. Just a few clicks and you can become friends with people...

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