Britt Gage
@brittfgage
Founder, of All Trades. Building a new type of company for generalists and the founders we seek to serve.
Britt Gage
weofalltrades.com
Replacing bad systems with bad systems
seths.blog
Startup Systems and Internal Product Management
The network effect is sticky and hard to overcome, and as we move the internet of things from our phones to just about everything we touch, it’s worth thinking about resilience, flexibility and the reason we need something in the first place.
Often, we end up compromising about our compromises, maximizing for the wrong outcomes and getting hooked on a new system that forgot what the original system was even for.
When a system is new, few are watching, so a handful of people with intent can design it and optimize it. As it gains in scale and impact, it calcifies at the same time that new tech arrives to codify the decisions that were made when the conditions were very different.
“Almost always, when I look at a team or project at a larger org trying to make a decision with differences in opinions, the root of those differences almost always starts with shared context,” Weiss says. “Or lack thereof.”
The first step to identifying if your team is lacking shared context is to ask yourself a series of questions, Weiss says.... See more
The first step to identifying if your team is lacking shared context is to ask yourself a series of questions, Weiss says.... See more
firstround.com • How to Take Bigger, Bolder Product Bets — Lessons From Slack’s Chief Product Officer
Simplicity is difficult because most of us are overcompensating for uncertainty. Adding something is easy. But removing something is hard, because it requires conviction. It’s easier to hedge against uncertainty, entertain multiple paths, and dilute your focus than to develop a strong opinion about what to exclude.
Things I'm thinking about
Back in the old days of ‘slow traditional culture’ there were plenty of conversations, music in the parlor and even daydreams about dating. But we didn’t count those. The real stuff was the solid stuff, the informal didn’t truly matter.
And now we live in a time where the previously informal is easy to measure.
But just because it’s measured doesn’t... See more
And now we live in a time where the previously informal is easy to measure.
But just because it’s measured doesn’t... See more
The defensive arrogance of TL;DR
Entrepreneur and investor Paul Graham on fooling yourself:
"If you're trying to choose between two theories and one gives you an excuse for being lazy, the other one is probably right."
"If you're trying to choose between two theories and one gives you an excuse for being lazy, the other one is probably right."
Superhuman
The first thing to do when thinking about starting a project, before you invest in systems design, infrastructure or fancy tools, is to practice getting some customers. And the second thing to do is to find out what it’s like to delight or disappoint those customers.
Customer traction is just about the only thing all successful organizations have in... See more
Customer traction is just about the only thing all successful organizations have in... See more
Choose your customers
“At the end of the day, organizations are human.”
Bryan Yuji Walker
Change Leadership Certificate Instructor & IDEO Partner
Bryan Yuji Walker
Change Leadership Certificate Instructor & IDEO Partner
Superhuman
It’s easy to be excited about what the company seems to do... to choose our path based on the public’s perception of the output. But once the company has more than one person in it, most of our day is about satisfying the customer, meeting supplier requirements and dancing with the tension of doing our jobs.
Often, we use the product we make as a... See more
Often, we use the product we make as a... See more
Product and Process
The result of this garage-centered approach to entrepreneurship was a business paradigm that looks liked this:
In the above model, notice how the product is at the center of the company, and all the work and effort of building the actual business is focused on marketing the product.
In the above model, notice how the product is at the center of the company, and all the work and effort of building the actual business is focused on marketing the product.