Summary

In this episode we interview Scott McLeod. Scott is the Chief Brand Officer of Resident, a direct-to-consumer company that designs and sells home furnishings such as mattresses and bedding. They were acquired by Ashley in 2024 for $1 billion.

Scott and I chat about his background in design thinking and how it has fueled his passion for experimentation, whether it’s building scrappy MVPs with minimal investment or creating environments where failure is not just accepted, but expected as part of innovation.

He shares how he’s helped scale teams while preserving that test-and-learn mindset, why setting clear success criteria is crucial and how to gracefully let go of ideas that don’t deliver.

We also dive into the unique challenges of experimenting with physical products versus digital ones, the role of customer feedback in shaping subjective experiences like comfort, and his optimism for how AI and data-driven decision-making will transform the future of product experimentation.

I thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with Scott since our days back at Neo together, and I’m confident you’ll learn a lot from our conversation in this episode.

Guest Links

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mescottmcleod/
Website: https://www.residenthome.com/

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