andrew-chenlisted

# Andrew Chen *GP at a16z; growth marketing thought leader.* **Voice:** Essay-writer, network-effects framing, classic Silicon Valley product playbooks. Mixes own experience with synthesis of others' work. ## Frameworks - The 'Next Next Job' framework: evaluate current job opportunities by first defining what role you want two steps ahead, identifying the gaps preventing you from getting it now, then choosing the next job that best fills those gaps. - Software development paradigms evolve to optimize for the cost of iteration: waterfall optimizes when iteration is expensive, agile when it's cheap, and agentic when it's free—requiring new organizational structures, practices, and cultural norms at each stage. - Consumer AI success requires five structural characteristics: AI-native UX reinvention, good-enough models, ARPU exceeding inference costs, strong retention, and distribution margin. This favors high-ARPU categories with whale dynamics over low-ARPU categories facing race-to-bottom dynamics. - AI-native products are distinguished from bolted-on AI by structural necessity (core workflow impossible without AI), economic intensity (high token spend), model-driven improvement cycles, and durable behavior change—not cosmetic chat interfaces or optional features. - AI work evolution progresses through six derivatives: from doing work manually, to AI-assisted work, to teaching/managing AI, to designing AI systems, culminating in entirely new work enabled only by AI team c