To capture interest (and later gain support) for your idea (or project) focus first on the why—the value and benefits. Explain its importance clearly before getting lost in the how (the implementation details). It's what Wes calles  'Sales then Logistics'.The logistics of getting something done are important, but not more important than the convincing. Her recomendation is to always sell your idea, even if you feel like you are repeating yourself.

Lead with Why: Secure Buy-In Before Logistics

It is a framework for clear and effective delegation. The acronym stands for:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Comprehension: Confirm understanding of the task and goals.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Excitement: Connect the task to their interests or development. (This also stands for Examples.)</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Derisk: Proactively address potential challenges or blockers.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Align: Agree on the desired outcome, timeline, and check-ins.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Feedback: Set up clear channels for questions and updates.</li></ul>Example: Delegating a client presentation - Check they understand the brief (C), its importance (E), discuss needs resources (D), confirm deadline & specs (A), schedule a draft review (F).

CEDAF Framework: Delegate Tasks Clearly

Wes shares some very tactical tips and frameworks for being a better communicator. I found some of them especially useful. 

Wes Kao is an entrepreneur, coach, and advisor. She co-founded the live learning platform Maven, backed by First Round and a16z. Before Maven, Wes co-created the altMBA with best-selling author Seth Godin. Today, Wes teaches a popular course on executive communication and influence. Through her course and one-on-one coaching, she’s helped thousands of operators, founders, and product leaders master the art of influence through clear, compelling communication. Known for her surgical writing style and no-BS frameworks, Wes returns to the pod to deliver a tactical master class on becoming a sharper, more persuasive communicator—at work, in meetings, and across your career.What you’ll learn:The #1 communication mistake leaders make—and Wes’s proven fix to instantly gain buy-inWes’s MOO (Most Obvious Objection) framework to consistently anticipate and overcome pushback in meetingsHow to master concise communication—including Wes’s tactical approach for brevity without losing meaningThe art of executive presence: actionable strategies for conveying confidence and clarity, even under pressureThe “sales, then logistics” framework—and why your ideas keep getting ignored without itThe power of “signposting”—and why executives skim your docs without itExactly how to give feedback that works—Wes’s “strategy, not self-expression” principle to drive behavior change without frictionPractical ways to instantly improve your writing, emails, and Slack messages—simple techniques Wes teaches executivesManaging up like a pro: Wes’s clear, practical advice on earning trust, building credibility, and aligning with senior leadersCareer accelerators: specific habits and tactics from Wes for growing your influence, advancing your career, and standing outReal-world communication examples—Wes breaks down real scenarios she’s solved, providing step-by-step solutions you can copy today—Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/become-a-better-communicator-specific—Brought to you by:• WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security• Coda—The all-in-one collaborative workspace—Where to find Wes Kao:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/• Website: https://www.weskao.com/• Maven course: https://maven.com/wes-kao/executive-communication-influence—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Wes Kao(05:34) Working with Wes(06:58) The importance of communication(10:44) Sales before logistics(18:20) Being concise(24:31) Books to help you become a better writer(27:30) Signposting and formatting(32:05) How to develop and practice your communication skills(40:41) Slack communication(42:23) Confidence in communication(50:17) The MOO framework(54:00) Staying calm in high-stakes conversations(57:36) Which tactic to start with(58:53) Effective tactics for managing up(01:04:53) Giving constructive feedback: strategy, not self-expression(01:09:39) Delegating effectively while maintaining high standards(01:16:36) The swipe file: collecting inspiration for better communication(01:19:59) Leveraging AI for better communication(01:22:01) Lightning round—Referenced:• Persuasive communication and managing up | Wes Kao (Maven, Seth Godin, Section4): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/persuasive-communication-wes-kao• Making Meta | Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth (CTO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-meta-andrew-boz-bosworth-cto• Communication is the job: https://boz.com/articles/communication-is-the-job• Maven: https://maven.com/• Sales, not logistics: https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/sales-not-logistics...References continued at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/become-a-better-communicator-specific—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

productivity

Productivity

communication

Communication

timemanagement

Time Management

podcasts

Podcasts

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover concrete, actionable, and tactical advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product. www.lennysnewsletter.com

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Become a better communicator: Specific frameworks to improve your clarity, influence, and impact | Wes Kao (coach, entrepreneur, advisor)

Become a better communicator with Wes Kao

The "Triangle of Talent" categorizes employees based on their ability to solve problems independently and effectively. It ranges from:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify"> Level 1 (Useless)—who struggle even with direct instructions—to </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Level 5 (Superstars)—who identify and solve the right problems without being told. </li></ul>Top performers are those who can both identify the right problems and solve them efficiently, either individually or by coordinating teams. Obviously, organizations should prioritize hiring and developing more Level 5 employees, as they generate the most impact.

The Triangle of Talent: Levels of Problem Solving

In any company, talent distribution follows a pattern where a small percentage of high-performing employees ("right-side" players) create the majority of the value. However, managers often spend most of their time handling low-performing or average employees, which is inefficient. A better strategy would be to focus on hiring, developing, and retaining star performers.

The Distribution of Talent

problemsolving

Problem Solving

teamwork

Teamwork

business

Business

startup

Startups

The Triangle of Talent

Different leaders exhibit different kinds of action logic—ways in which they interpret their surroundings and react when their power or safety is challenged. In our research of thousands of leaders, we observed seven types of action logics.
The least effective for organizational leadership are the Opportunist and Diplomat; the most effective, the Strategist and Alchemist.
Knowing your own action logic can be the first step toward developing a more effective leadership style.

Seven Ways of Leading

Style: Focused on personal wins and control; sees world and others as opportunities to be exploited. Found In: Rarely survive long in management unless they evolve; sometimes found in early-stage startups or high-risk environments.Examples: Early career Larry Ellison Benefits: Can create exciting environments for risk-taking; good at seizing immediate opportunities Pitfalls: Constant firefighting; manipulative behavior; rule-breaking; high turnover of staff; unsustainable leadership model

Opportunist (5% of leaders)

Style: Focuses on gaining control of own behavior; seeks to please higher-status colleagues while avoiding conflictFound In: Primarily junior management roles (80% at junior levels), customer service, support roles Examples: Often found in front-line supervisor positions, customer service representatives, nurse practitioners Benefits: Provides social glue; ensures attention to others' needs; good team players Pitfalls: Avoids necessary conflict; cannot give challenging feedback; struggles with change initiatives

Diplomat (12% of leaders)

Style: Exercises control through knowledge and expertise; relies on logic and data Found In: Professional services, technical roles, analysts, engineers, consultants Examples: Scott McNealy (Sun Microsystems) Benefits: Great individual contributors; pursuit of continuous improvement; efficiency-focused Pitfalls: My-way-or-highway attitude; views collaboration as waste of time; dismissive of others' opinions

Expert (38% of leaders)

Style: Creates positive environment focused on deliverables; balances managerial and strategic tasks Found In: Mid to senior management roles, particularly in established organizations Examples: Many successful middle-market company leaders Benefits: Creates positive work environment; good at meeting strategic goals; effective at managing diverse stakeholders Pitfalls: Can inhibit outside-the-box thinking; may clash with Expert subordinates

Achiever (30% of leaders)

Style: Recognizes both personal and organizational paradoxes; interacts well with different action logics Found In: Creative organizations, consulting firms, innovative startups Examples: Unconventional but highly effective project leaders Benefits: Strong at unique problem-solving; effective communication across levels; highly adaptable Pitfalls: May ignore rules they deem irrelevant; can create organizational tension; sometimes seen as wild cards

Individualist (10% of leaders)

Style: Focus on organizational constraints and transformations; creates shared visions across action logics Found In: Senior executive positions, particularly in transforming organizations Examples: Joan Bavaria (Trillium Asset Management) Benefits: Excellent change agents; comfortable with conflict; effective at organizational transformationPitfalls: Rare to find; may struggle in traditionally structured organizations

Strategist (4% of leaders)

Style: Generates social transformations; integrates material, spiritual, and societal transformation Found In: Extremely rare; typically involved with multiple organizations simultaneously Examples: Nelson Mandela Benefits: Able to renew/reinvent organizations; highly effective at dealing with immediate and long-term priorities Pitfalls: Very rare to find; may be too focused on long-term transformation for some organizations' immediate needs

Alchemist (1% of leaders)

Expert → Achiever: Move from technical mastery to people leadership. Success comes through embracing multiple approaches, developing delegation skills, and shifting focus from perfect solutions to achieving results through others.Achiever → Individualist: Evolve from pure results orientation to deeper questioning. Focus moves from "how" to "why," with growth through self-reflection, diverse perspectives, and questioning assumptions.Individualist → Strategist: Transform from personal effectiveness to systems thinking. Create sustainable organizational change through collaborative leadership.

Leadership Transformation

Leaders are made, not born, and how they develop is critical for organizational change.

remotework

Remote Work

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

creativity

Creativity

humanresources

Human Resources

Seven Transformations of Leadership

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) is a metric that measures a company's profitability by ignoring debt, taxes and non-cash charges like depreciation and amortization. It shows how much cash a business is generating and is not required for publicly listed companies.Depreciation is the practice of spreading out the cost of a physical asset over its lifetime while amortization is the same concept for non-physical assets. EBITDA is not a universally accepted metric and can vary between businesses.

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation & Amortization (EBITDA)

EBITDA is a financial term created by John Malone, a telecom investor, to show fake profits. John didn't like paying taxes and inflated his investments to lower them. Now, everyone uses it to fool banks and investors.In a way EBITDA is a fake metric used to deceive creditors. It was created to lower taxes and obtain additional loans, a process now widely used by finance people.

The Truth Behind EBITDA

EBITDA is a flawed method of measuring a company's value, according to Warren Buffet:<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Flawed Depreciation & Amortization - Spreading the cost of something over several years may not be beneficial, as it only delays tax gains. Getting a dollar today is better than getting one tomorrow.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Hidden Costs - Important costs such as debt from restructuring and stock-based compensation are often not considered in EBITDA, misleading investors</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Potential Manipulation - Experienced CFOs can easily manipulate EBITDA, making it a malleable metric that does not accurately reflect a company's financial health.</li></ol>

Warren Buffet's Critique on EBITDA

▼WARREN BUFFETT FINANCIAL RULES PDF:▼
🧑‍🎓 FREE PDF: https://longtermmindset.co/buffett

▼ABOUT US:▼
👨‍💼Brian Feroldi is an author (https://amzn.to/3JVr9Q0), investor, YouTuber, and financial educator. He's been investing in the stock market since 2004. Brian likes to buy and hold the highest quality companies he can find.

👨‍💼Brian Stoffel is a writer, investor, YouTuber, and financial educator. He's a teacher at heart. Brian has been investing for over a decade and has written over 4,000 articles for The Motley Fool. Brian plans his life and his investments around “antifragile” principles.

❗️❗️DISCLAIMER:❗️❗️
All content on this channel is for discussion, education, entertainment, and illustrative purposes only and SHOULD NOT be construed as professional financial advice, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any securities, notwithstanding anything stated on this channel. There are risks associated with investing in securities. Loss of principal is possible. Past performance is not a predictor of future investment performance. Brian Feroldi and the guests on this channel are not responsible for investment actions taken by viewers. Should you need such advice, consult a licensed financial advisor, legal advisor, or tax advisor. You agree to verify all information yourself before investing. Any past performance discussed during this program is no guarantee of future results. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital; please seek advice from a licensed professional.

All views expressed are personal opinions as of the date of recording and are subject to change without the responsibility to update views.  No guarantee is given regarding the accuracy of the information on this channel. Releasees undertake no obligation to provide accurate or sound investment statements. You waive any and all duties that may exist flowing from you to any Releasee. You agree not to hold any Releasee liable for any possible claim for damages arising from any decision you make based on information or other content on the Channel.

*Some of the links and other products in this video are from companies for which Brian Feroldi will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Brian Feroldi is part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date.

0:00 Intro
0:26 What is EBTIDA?
3:20 What is EBITDA popular?
5:55 Why Munger HATES EBITDA

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

videos

Videos

📈 Subscribe To Learn About Accounting & Investing

Brian Feroldi is a financial educator, YouTuber, and author. He has written over 3,000 articles on stocks, investing, and personal finance for the Motley Fool. Brian’s best-selling book "Why Does The Stock Market Go Up?" was published in 2022. It was written to explain how the stock market works in plain English.

Book: https://amzn.to/3JVr9Q0

Brian Stoffel is a teacher with more than a decade of investing experience. He has written more than 4,000 articles for The Motley Fool. Brian plans his life and his investments around “antifragile” principles.



Long Term Mindset

Why Charlie Munger HATED EBITDA

EBITDA is Bullsh*t

In today's market environment distributing your product is more important than creating the product. Simply put, distribution is king. Marketing is the core of any business and core business never gets outsourced. Marketing needs to be owned in house:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Own the message. Nobody should tell the story better than you</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Own delivery. Don't be reliant on anyone to intermediate the relationship between you and the potential customers. </li></ul>

Marketing can't be outsourced

Having a brand is like owning a free money machine. It means having a space in potential users' minds that keeps on giving. This can lead to lower advertising budgets and give a competitive edge.Only 5% of buyers are ready to make a purchase right now. Effective marketing can increase the chances that your brand comes to mind when they are ready. This means targeting the other 95% as well.

Branding: The Ultimate Free Money Machine

Viewing marketing as a funnel may not be the most effective strategy. A better way to understand marketing is to think of it as having gravity.Each interaction with your content, from ads to site visits to email opens, adds weight to your brand and attracts potential customers just like objects in space are drawn to larger masses. The bigger your content footprint, the more people will be attracted to learn more about your brand.

Gravity Marketing

Brand building is all about creating something that is completely unique in a crowded room of competition, where everyone is shouting at the top of their lungs, "LOOK AT ME!"Modern marketing is all about vibes. The main KPI of the business should be the LOLZ factor. Make people laugh and smile with great and entertaining content.

Don't Be Boring - The LOLZ Factor

Performance marketing is a drug. It's precise measurement makes business people hooked on them to deliver predictable results. However predictability usually comes with way lower profit margins and an reliance on performance marketing can diminish the strategic value of the company. Being dependent on ads is a form of out-sourcing the distribution of your message to a the algorithm of huge tech companies.

Beyond Ads

Measuring organic marketing is not as precise as performance marketing. But you can still have guidance:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">measure the mass of your web presence: track how many people you are touching on a monthly basis</li><li class="ql-align-justify">measure the searches of brand as an indicator of your impact</li><li class="ql-align-justify">measure the organic revenue by extracting the revenue directly attributed to performance marketing (ideally the mix should be 50-50)</li></ul>

Measuring organic marketing

There are some tricks you can use to add organic marketing:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Start thinking as a media company. Your social posts should be less about the profesional brand and more about content concepts.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Brandify your ads. The ads should have the consistent visuals/messaging elements so they could work for non-buyers as well.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Introduce self promotion in ads like "Follow me @". This make better ads because the content comes as more authentic and also grow your organic presence. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Introduce affiliates to have another negotiating tactic with influencers</li></ul>

Tactics to add organic to the mix

Influencer marketing is messy. But if done correctly it can scale beyond ads. Here are some hints on how to do it correctly: <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Look for influencers who have a great ratio of views/costs. Use scrappers and AI to make databases.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">An influencer view is worth less than an ad view because the ad is super targeted. The CPM for influencer should be 50% cheaper than an ad to get the same performance. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Best to test an influencer is by ordering 3 pieces of content to test views and messaging.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Lower the costs to hire influencers by adding affiliates commission to the mix.</li></ul>

Performance Influencer Marketing

Marketing Insights I collected over the past months. Decided to publish them all in bulk.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

strategy

Strategy

The Alchemy of Attention

Think of marketing like a fuel-engine. The fuel is everything you say to your audience, like short online messages, blog posts, ads, or videos. The engine is the methods and tools you use to share the fuel, and track your growth. Combining fuel and engine makes your business grow fast! <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Fuel includes messages you say out loud, in writing, or visually</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Engine includes channels, processes, tools, and metrics</li></ul>

Marketing as Fuel & Engine

When starting a business, it is crucial to allocate resources properly between creating fuel and building a strong engine. Over-indexing on one at the expense of the other can hinder growth.An unbalanced fuel-engine mix can hinder growth and make it difficult to identify the root cause. For example, solely focusing on creating fuel without seeing results may make it seem like the fuel type is the problem, when in fact the issue could be with the engine's ability to utilize the fuel effectively.

Balancing Fuel and Engine in Marketing

Balance Fuel Projects and Engine Projects:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Use GACC (Goals, Audience, Channel/Distribution, Creative) Brief at the Top of Everything You Create. This Ensures You Have a Solid Engine Plan for Each Piece of Fuel You Create.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Create Mini-Funnels (Engines) for Every Major Piece of Content (Fuel) You Create.</li></ul>

The Right Fuel-Engine Combo Through GACC

The right marketing team (see chart above) will have:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">fuel roles - in blue (Growth roles: paid, demand-gen, sales emails etc)</li><li class="ql-align-justify">engine roles - in yellow (Content Marketing, Brand, Creative)</li><li class="ql-align-justify">mixed roles - in green (Product Marketing, Community, PR, Events)</li></ul>Some roles mostly create fuel, some roles mostly build the engine, and some do both. The mixed, “do both” roles are critical, as these roles make sure the fuel and engine come together to make the vehicle move.

Hiring for fuel and engine

Useful Analogy for thinking about setting up the right marketing structure.

A simple framework for getting the mix of marketing activities correct, the right set of people on your marketing team, and high impact work out the door.

product

Product & Design

Building an efficient marketing machine: the fuel & the engine

It is not what you want. We all kinda eant the same things: money, family, relationships etc. The question is:What pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for?Pain is not something to avoid, but it is the path to achieveing the thi gs you really want.

The Most Important Question

Focusing on what pain and struggles we are willing to endure in order to achieve our goals is more important than just focusing on what we want in life.
Success is not determined by the positive experiences we desire, but by the negative experiences we are willing to endure in order to reach our goals.

The Importance of Struggles Over Desires

To get good at dealing with negative experiences is to get good at dealing with life.

The question that will change your life isn't what you want, it's what you're willing to struggle for. Here's why.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

philosophy

Philosophy

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

The Most Important Question of Your Life

Every product needs a vision. <ol><li>A good product vision needs to be lofty ...</li><li>Yet realistic, and separate from current technology limitations.</li><li>It should be grounded in solving clear user problems.</li><li>It should be communicated through storytelling, such as writing future headlines or sketching ideas.</li></ol>One example is uber's vision of a city without cars or Microsoft's vision of a computer on every desk.

The 4 Elements Of Product Vision

Product leadership is about clarity and conviction. Clarity is about bringing simplicity and transparency to the product's purpose and issues.Conviction is having a strong belief in the vision and strategy, knowing the path forward.

Clarity and Conviction in Product Management

This is how to make a product vision:<ol><li>Start with empathizing with users to understand their needs.</li><li>Create solutions that envision a better future for users.</li><li>Evangelize the vision to teams and stakeholders to align everyone.</li></ol>The vision shoul live in a live doc, open to comments easy to reference. It should not be percived as static but rather open to debate and question.

Empathize, Create, Evangelize

Ebi is a product leader who specializes in helping teams craft compeling product visions.

Ebi Atawodi is Director of Product Management for the Creator Experience at YouTube, former Head of Product at Uber, and a former Director of Product (Payments and EMEA) at Netflix. Known for crafting a strong, unified vision, Ebi empowers her teams to achieve outsized outcomes. In today’s episode, we go deep into vision and strategy, including:• The four key elements of a good vision statement• Three ways to determine your mission• The four pillars of great product management• How writing helps you gain clarity• How culture influences product• Tips on how to structure a strategy session• Advice on building team culture and improving work relationships• What’s coming soon at YouTube — Brought to you by Sidebar—Accelerate your career by surrounding yourself with extraordinary peers | Jira Product Discovery—Atlassian’s new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies — Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/crafting-a-compelling-product-vision — Where to find Ebi Atawodi: • X: https://twitter.com/ebiatawodi • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebiatawodi • YouTube mixes: https://www.youtube.com/@EbiAtawodi/videos — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Ebi’s background (04:31) Four key elements of a product vision (08:14) Examples of lofty but attainable visions (11:43) Vision vs. mission  (13:23) Examples of visions and missions from notable companies (15:00) A simple framework for outlining a vision  (20:51) Other methods for outlining a vision  (23:29) The impact of writing clear headlines (26:41) Using mockups to frame your vision (28:24) A step-by-step approach to developing a vision (32:58) Ebi’s “10 Things” document (37:47) A quick summary of Ebi’s tips (40:56) How to use the “10 Things” doc in a strategy session (43:11) The three concentric circles of evangelizing  (47:48) The cadence of developing a vision and bringing it to life (49:26) Visions vs. micro visions (52:58) First steps in developing a vision (55:12) Infrastructure is the product (56:39) Clarity and conviction, the main jobs of PMs (59:58) Ebi’s narrative doc (1:04:59) Conviction, its role in the job, and how to build it (1:08:20) How to build company culture (1:17:06) The monolithic culture at Uber (1:19:09) The culture Ebi embeds in her teams (1:23:58) How to evaluate your relationship with your engineering manager  (1:26:02) What’s new at YouTube (1:29:22) Ebi’s closing thoughts (1:30:45) Lightning round — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

softwareengineering

Software Engineering

Crafting a compelling product vision | Ebi Atawodi (YouTube, Netflix, Uber)

Richard Sheridan is the CEO of Menlo Innovations, a software company in Michigan. He argues that joy is possible & essential in creating high-performing organizations. He believes that by focusing on joy, companies can improve employee morale, increase productivity, and create a fulfilling work environment.His key principles:<ol><li>Lead with empathy: Understand & respond to the needs of employees.</li><li>A culture of psychological safety: Feel safe to take risks & make mistakes.</li><li>Collaboration</li><li>Celebrating Successes: Recognize and reward employees</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Embrace failure: Learn from mistakes and grow</li></ol>

A joyful workplace

Pair programming is when two programmers work together on the same task, sharing a single laptop (or screen). This:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Enhances Learning: By working alongside experienced colleagues, developers can quickly learn the craft</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Improved Quality: Through constant code review and discussion, errors and potential problems are identified and addressed early on.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Boosted Productivity: While it may seem counterintuitive, studies have shown that pair programming increases overall productivity.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Stronger Team Relationships: Overfacing challanges fosters collaboration, trust, and camaraderie.</li></ul>

Pair programming

"Knowledge hoarders" are people who possess extensive knowledge about specific systems, processes, or technologies. While they are highly valuable, they can also cause problems for organizations: <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">If a knowledge hoarder leaves, it can create disruptions and gaps in knowledge. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">A culture of hoarding knowledge can hinder creativity and innovation. </li><li class="ql-align-justify"> The organization becomes heavily reliant on a small number of individuals, leaving it vulnerable to departures or absences. </li></ul>To minimize these risks, companies should promote a culture of knowledge sharing.

The Peril of Knowledge Hoarders

Lunch and learn sessions are informal gatherings where employees share knowledge and insights on a variety of topics. Sherian emphasizes this ritual as a fundamental tool for creating a learning organization. It's very important for the meetings to be informal, low pressure ... so that anyone member of the team should feel welcome ... and share their ideas.

Lunch and learn sessions

Joyful organizations are fueled by creative energy. Which the company should cultivate mainly through hiring the right people. And there is no better way, the author argues, than to put passion on top of skills when evaluating a candidate. Instead of hiring "superstars" with extensive experience, companies should focus on hiring individuals with strong learning abilities and a curious mindset. The company will become more agile, more adaptive, more creative and overall more joyful.

Hiring for Potential, Not Just Skill

A book about how to create joy at work ... in a dev company.

The moment you walk into Menlo Innovations, you can sense the atmosphere full of energy, playfulness, enthusiasm, and maybe even . . . joy. As a package-delivery person once remarked, "I don't know what you do, but whatever it is, I want to work here." Every year, thousands of visitors come from around the world to visit Menlo Innovations, a small software company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They make the trek not to learn about technology but to witness a radically different approach to company culture. CEO and "Chief Storyteller" Rich Sheridan removed the fear and ambiguity that typically make a workplace miserable. His own experience in the software industry taught him that, for many, work was marked by long hours and mismanaged projects with low-quality results. There had to be a better way. With joy as the explicit goal, Sheridan and his team changed everything about how the company was run. They established a shared belief system that supports working in pairs and embraces making mistakes, all while fostering dignity for the team. The results blew away all expectations. Menlo has won numerous growth awards and was named an Inc. magazine "audacious small company." It has tripled its physical office three times and produced products that dominate markets for its clients. Joy, Inc. offers an inside look at how Sheridan and Menlo created a joyful culture, and shows how any organization can follow their methods for a more passionate team and sustainable, profitable results. Sheridan also shows how to run smarter meetings and build cultural training into your hiring process. Joy, Inc. offers an inspirational blueprint for readers in any field who want a committed, energizing atmosphere at work--leading to sustainable business results.

books

Books

Richard Sheridan

Joy, Inc

Shift from a 🏗️ builder's mindset of having a fixed plan to a 🌱 gardener's approach, allowing ideas to grow naturally.Builders are limited by their own efforts, while gardeners nurture growth and direct energy where needed.Done correctly, this method can look magical, as it involves curating and responding to emerging potential, rather than being the genius dictator micro-managing everything. Alex calls it "farming for miracles" because you are setting up the foundation to discover "magical seeds" that could have an exponential effect on growth.

Think Like a Gardener, Not a Builder

Creating structures & behavior that allows ideas and projects to grow from the bottom up is called emergence thinking.It is a different way of approaching leadership and can often be misinterpreted as being a slacker or "weirdo". This is because traditional leaders with a concrete plan are often praised for their hard work, while emergent focused leaders are seen as inefficient.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Top-down leadership may seem effective, but it can hinder the growth of new and innovative ideas.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Emergence thinking may not be popular in large companies, but it can lead to great success if given the chance to thrive<warningtag>.</warningtag></li></ul>

The Power & Perils of Emergence Thinking

The most important thing to do after planting an acorn is to keep squirrels away so they don't dig it up.
As a leader it's your duty to gain enough credibility in front of management & provide air cover for your team so they to do great work.

Strict hierarchical orgs have to deal with coordination issues (how to pick the target, focus on the target etc). A small company is analogue to a sports car, allowing for speed and fast pivots. A large company can organize itself into a team of sports cars but there would be less collaboration between teams. Slime molds adapt and autonomously find solutions, which can boost creativity and innovation. They are not rigidly constraied by fixed job description or objectives, and can morph themselves into any shape needed. They operate with autonomy, exploration & creative problem-solving.

Slime Molds Organization

LLMs & Generative AI are disrupting software development and production in general. They are a "magical duck-tape" that will lower costs and enable the everybody to produce at lower costs. So your taste as a product manager is now more important than ever.Taste means to be able to differentiate from an LLM, given the same prompt. LLMs will produce the mediocre result, the wisdom of the crown. Your taste has to do with a unique perspective that you have the courage to put fwd.

How to be Creative in the Age of AI

Strategy Salons: A collaborative, opt-in conversation environment that fosters emergence in companies.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Only those who want to participate are accepted.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Open discussions and the sharing of diverse perspectives enhances idea generation.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Iteration and a non-judgmental space allows for a free flow of ideas.</li></ul>This open forum, with no strict objectives, is often where the best insights emerge.

Strategy Salons

Instead of making giant leaps, explore the adjacent possible, focusing on achievable actions.This concept respects constraints, guiding realistic, impactful innovations.Consistently making small, feasible steps can lead to surprisingly large shifts over time.

The Adjacent Possible

Alex makes a great argument for emergent organization for fostering innovation and creativity. 

Alex Komoroske is a strategic leader who merges the practice, theory, and mindset necessary to tackle complex problems. He spent 13 years at Google, where he worked on Search and DoubleClick and led Chrome’s Open Web Platform. He also spearheaded Augmented Reality in Google Maps and developed toolkits to align companywide strategy from the ground up. After serving as Head of Corporate Strategy at Stripe, he is now co-founding a startup aimed at reimagining the web for the AI era. Alex created the popular “Slime Molds” deck, which offers fresh insights into organizational dynamics. He is also the author of the widely read “Bits and Bobs,” a collection of thought-provoking reflections. In our conversation, we delve into: • “Organizational kayfabe” • “Gardening” vs. “building” • How AI will soon change how we build product • How and why to embrace the adjacent possible • The power of reflection and how to build it into your workflow • How to create emergent properties in organizations • How to run effective “strategy salons” or “nerd clubs” • Much more — Brought to you by: • ⁠Eppo⁠—Run reliable, impactful experiments • ⁠Vanta⁠—Automate compliance. Simplify security • ⁠Coda⁠—The all-in-one collaborative workspace — Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/unconventional-product-advice-alex-komoroske — Where to find Alex Komoroske: • X: https://x.com/komorama • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-komoroske-6597336/ • Website: https://www.komoroske.com/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Alex (01:53) Alex’s Bits and Bobs document (06:20) The Compendium and note-taking process (10:10) The impact of AI and LLMs on product development (14:24) Skills to lean into as a product manager (19:02) How AI makes us better as individuals (23:04) Organizational kayfabe (31:48) Gardening vs. building (34:46) Emergence-oriented thinking (41:55) Slime molds and organizational structure (45:15) Identifying resonant ideas (47:05) The power of metaphors (48:02) Strategy salons and nerd clubs (52:30) Building and sustaining communities (55:59) Productivity hacks and self-control (01:01:04) Life philosophy and personal insights (01:07:52) The adjacent possible (01:15:56) Lightning round — Referenced: • Bits and Bobs Google Doc: https://groups.google.com/g/komoroske-updates/c/2rPJ9EyKVYY?pli=1 • The Compendium: https://thecompendium.cards/ • WebSim: https://websim.ai/ • Dylan Field live at Config: Intuition, simplicity, and the future of design: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/dylan-field-live-at-config • Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/ • Claude: https://claude.ai • Steve Jobs on Why Computers Are Like a Bicycle for the Mind (1990): https://www.themarginalian.org/2011/12/21/steve-jobs-bicycle-for-the-mind-1990/ • Kayfabe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayfabe • Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration: https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Inc-Overcoming-Unseen-Inspiration/dp/0812993012 • How Perplexity builds product: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-perplexity-builds-product • Slime Molds: https://komoroske.com/slime-mold/ • Ken Stanley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-stanley-3a159b/ • Evolution through the Search for Novelty Alone: https://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~meeden/DevelopmentalRobotics/lehman_ecj11.pdf ...References continued at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/unconventional-product-advice-alex-komoroske⁠ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Thinking like a gardener not a builder, organizing teams like slime mold, the adjacent possible, and other unconventional product advice | Alex Komoroske (Stripe, Google)

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