Abhilash Rao

the brand substitution test. If, in some marketing activity—an ad campaign, a viral video, a new product introduction—the brand were replaced by a competitive brand, then that marketing activity should not work as well in the marketplace. A well-positioned brand should be distinctive in its meaning and execution.

Ask propelling questions Propelling questions reset our status quo and encourage us to explore different ways of doing things. They often start with: How might we? How could I? What would happen if? These questions are designed to prevent our existing knowledge from limiting our ability to imagine new possibilities. They fast-forward us into the

But the messaging architecture is only the first step. For every version of the Nest story, we wrote down the most common objections and how we’d overcome them—what stats to use, what pages of the website to send people to, what partnerships to mention or testimonials to point to. We figured out which story we could put on a billboard all the way

Another good way to start practicing paying attention to your own needs is noticing when you are starting to feel “quietly” frustrated, resentful, angry, or upset about something. When you feel this tension, immediately get curious: Do I have an unspoken expectation or need I’m not expressing? Is there a request of someone else I’m not making that

coming. “Being right and ineffective in venture is not worth very much,”

Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?