Favorite Ideas
- Early in your career, you have more freedom than you had as a child, teenager, and college student. You will have less of this freedom once you start a family. So, try new things, learn from your failures, and pursue your passions.
- Make investments in yourself by finding a job where you can learn and grow, staying aware of other team and role objectives, and connecting with other professionals both within and outside of your company.
- Companies used to promote skilled employees to managers by default. Nowadays, employers are recognizing that while some people will make great people-oriented managers with a breadth of knowledge, others will flourish as talented individual contributors who develop expertise in their craft.
- Launching your own product can be scary. It is helpful to have experience working for both large and small companies, and even better to have failed startup experience. A mentor or co-founder can help provide guidance. Venture Capitalists can help fund your efforts and provide valuable guidance - they have done this thing before - but be advised, your company is not their primary interest
- When you design a product, aim for it to be disruptive to the market and well executed. Your vision will drive version 1 of the product. Version 2 should leverage data insights and customer feedback to iterate on version 1. Version 3 will be an intentionally designed product with a real business to back it up - at this point, you'll start having some functions done in-house. Build fast, fail fast, and improve iteratively as you learn.
- The customer experience is more than just using the product. It also includes the stories that introduce and persuade the customer, the purchasing and unboxing experience, and troubleshooting. Marketing efforts to understand the customer and tell a great story should be part of the product development process from day 1. PMs are helpful as well; Product Managers help guide the product evolution in a way that customers want and the team can support, while Project Managers help manage the project cadence and eliminate obstacles for the team.
- If your product is successful, you'll face new challenges challenges as a growing business. At some point, you won't be able to personally interview every candidate, and you won't be able to get cake and have an afternoon celebration for every employee. Build a culture of growth by incorporating stories of team success through difficult times into the company history.
- At a certain point, you may find yourself as CEO. You must accept that you aren't an expert in every facet of the business, and your opinions shouldn't invalidate others - but you will have to hold fast to the vision, demonstrate your care for the mission, and say no when it makes sense. The Board holds the CEO accountable through their love of the company and may choose to appoint someone else as CEO if needed to keep the business successful. Acquisitions should be considered for improving culture fit and synergy through purchase of a product, team, or customer base, rather than for making more money.