Startup Systems
systems that power startups
Startup Systems
“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
Eight marketing maxims
- Trust is worth more than attention.
- Helping people get to where they seek to go is more effective than hustling people to persuade them to go where you’re going.
- Choose your customers, choose your future.
- Tell ten people. If they don’t tell the others, make a better product.
- Creating the conditions for the word to spread is the
Eight marketing maxims
Certainty - Making your customers feel secure about the quality and longevity of your product reduces the fear of disappointment or the need to frequently replace the item.
Variety - Owning items that introduce a sense of novelty to a person's life satisfies their need for variety and can make them feel more excited.
Significance - Owning something... See more
Variety - Owning items that introduce a sense of novelty to a person's life satisfies their need for variety and can make them feel more excited.
Significance - Owning something... See more
Superhuman
On purchasing higher end products
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 Jenga situation
seths.blog
The early days are exciting. Customers are seen and heard and served. Variations are created and value is produced as problems are solved.
In the early days, the most celebrated employees are the ones who figure out what someone needs and then determines a way to fill that need.
Once the organization gains traction, it’s possible that a short-term profit maximizer will join the team. They push to treat the customers as replaceable flanges, almost identical, income opportunities to be processed. And the employees? They are expenses, not part of a team.
It can seem like the fastest way for a stable business to increase profits is simply to remove some sticks. Process more flanges with fewer expenses. Lower overhead, measure the easy stuff, do it faster.
We spend too much time dealing with shaky towers. The resilience of people connecting, of organizations evolving, of service and clarity and generative work is far too important to be threatened by a few hustlers who insist on measuring the wrong thing.
Another emotion I picked up in myself and in others is what feels like we’re floating in space a bit. Since the change is so fundamental and a lot of things aren’t figured out, it’s quite hard to navigate yourself within Buffer currently, since nothing feels “fixed” and ever changing these last few months.
I do get the sense that this is somewhat... See more
I do get the sense that this is somewhat... See more
How We're Working Without Managers at Buffer
The build is taxing. Empathy with yourself and others who are building alongside you is crucial.
And what you see internally is what I'll say is razor-sharp focus on reducing cycle time and bias to action and how do we reduce cycle time. I think it's basically the core of it culturally to me is getting people to think about smaller units of time for decision making. It seems obvious but I think you really have to reinforce it culturally. So... See more
Lessons from scaling Ramp | Sri Batchu (Ramp, Instacart, Opendoor)
“It's just to remind people that we don't work in years, quarters, weeks, we work in days. Each day matters and so never put out something tomorrow that you know can get done today. And that bias to action really permeates not just in the product teams but everywhere.”
...in order to understand how to get a yes, we first need to grasp why people typically say no.
The main reason says Kao, is that people don't see how the idea you're proposing is beneficial to them. She's right.
At least on some level, we're all selfish.
The solution is to present your request in a way that shows the benefit the other party will
The thing about smart people is that they tend to think that if they think really hard about something, they might figure it out, when the truth is, in strategy (and life in general), there is never one right answer.... See more
Strategy requires making choices about a future that is not yet known. I’m one of those people that tends to over-intellectualize