The old economy demanded a flurry of hard work, obsessive focus, and a charrette before launch. Launches were expensive and rare, and managers and co-workers would push to get everything just right before hitting the big red button to announce, ship and launch. The attention demanded by this scarcity raised the game, overcame fear and pushed things from one level to another.
A big reason for the push is to ameliorate risk. Launching is risky business, and one way to diminish that risk in a world of scarcity and market noise is to go big. And then big becomes a habit.
In the new economy, in the economy of launch and learn and revise, some of the POP! is replaced by Pfffft. Because there's no big launch, we get more easily distracted, we don't push ourselves as hard, we don't treat that first day as as big a deal. There's less risk because you're going straight to your tribe, not hoping for a cultural mass-market sensation every time.
The thing is, if I had a book launch party every time I posted on this blog, the cheese and crackers would kill me. And the idea of a gold master in software development is now an antique. There's a paradox here:
The good news is that fewer good ideas get killed for feeling too risky.
The bad news is that sometimes we trade in the important for the trivial.
The punchline is that some artificial pop might be required. Just because it's easy to ship doesn't mean you shouldn't push yourself. The art is in ignoring the fear that pushes you to polish too much…
May 26, 2010
The number of people you need to ask for permission keeps going down:
1. Go, make something happen.
2. Do work you're proud of.
3. Treat people with respect.
4. Make big promises and keep them.
5. Ship it out the door.
When in doubt, see #1.
May 25, 2010
It’s not clear to me why business plans are the way they are, but they’re often misused to obfuscate, bore and show an ability to comply with expectations. If I want the real truth about a business and where it’s going, I’d rather see something else. I’d divide the modern business plan into five sections:
- Truth
- Assertions
- Alternatives
- People
- Money
The truth section describes the world as it is. Footnote if you want to, but tell me about the market you are entering, the needs that already exist, the competitors in your space, technology standards, the way others have succeeded and failed in the past. The more specific the better. The more ground knowledge the better. The more visceral the stories, the better. The point of this section is to be sure that you’re clear about the way you see the world, and that you and I agree on your assumptions. This section isn’t partisan, it takes no positions, it just states how things are.
Truth can take as long as you need to tell it. It can include spreadsheets, market share analysis and anything I need to know about how the world works.
The assertions section is your chance to describe how you’re going to change things. We will do X, and then Y will happen. We will build Z with this much money in this much time. We will present Q to the market and the market will respond by taking this action.
This is the heart of the modern business plan. The only reason to launch a project is to change something, and I want to know what you’re going to do and what impact it’s going to have.
Of course, this section will be incorrect. You will make assertions that won’t pan out. You’ll miss budgets and deadlines and sales. So the alternatives section tells me what you’ll do if that happens. How much flexibility does your product or team have? If your assertions don’t pan out, is it over?
The people section rightly highlights the key element… who is on your team, who is going to join your team. ‘Who’ doesn’t mean their resume, who means their attitudes and abilities and track record in shipping.
And the last section is all about money. How much do you need, how will you spend it, what does cash flow look like, P&Ls, balance sheets, margins and exit strategies.
Your local VC might not like this format, but I’m betting it will help your team think through the hard issues more clearly.
May 24, 2010
UPDATE: In more than 900 cities, nearly 6,000 people signed up to attend the one-day only meetup sessions for Linchpins. There were meetups in Jordan, Slovenia, the UK, the US and just about every time zone around the world. There's even a magazine.
(Cyndi made these Meetmeme cards for her meetup)…
I'm delighted (and a little surprised) that so many people are realizing how easy and powerful it is to surround oneself with people who will egg you on. Projects large and small are being spawned (including a slick magazine) but far more powerful, I think, is the psychic energy and encouragement you find when you discover that others are doing what you're doing, that they're walking the same road.
The real impact of Linchpin, then, is the ability of a book to help individuals verbalize what they already knew, and to connect us to one another. With a little effort, this can scale, the connections can become more vibrant and we can all ship some work worth doing.
Original Post: Announcing worldwide-meet-the-tribe-of-Linchpins day on June 14, 2010. In as many as 500 cities worldwide, here's your chance to find some folks just like you.
One of the first linchpins I ever knew was my 3rd grade teacher. His daughter was born on flag day, and for some reason, I've never forgotten that. So in her honor, it's Linchpin day on June 14.
Here's a simple, fast and free way to find other Seth fans in your community. Meet other people who talk about this blog, read the books and want to make an impact on the universe. Find people who ship.
This one-time worldwide meetup lets you either volunteer to run your local in-person, non-virtual, face-to-face group meeting (in a bookstore, cafe or greenhouse) or merely join one. The page is simple. Find a city or add one. If the city needs an organizer, volunteer if you like. It's very lightweight, free and it might just work.
Chemistry happens when people interact…
Have fun!
The people who work the hardest to get referrals, it seems to me, are the people who least deserve them.
If you make average stuff for average people, why exactly will someone refer you? If you are busy selling standard insurance policies to standard insurance clients, why will someone refer you? Because you're good at golf?
In fact, the best way to get referrals is to change what you do, what you sell, how you act when times are difficult, how generous you are when you don't need to be.
Yes, you should make it easy for people to refer you. Yes you should be aware that asking for referrals can help. (John has a new book about this). But no, all the tactics in the world won't help you get the referrals you want. The only thing that will make you remarkable is being worth remarking about.
May 23, 2010
About twenty five years ago, Howard Gardner taught us his theory of multiple intelligences. He described the fact that there's not just one kind of intelligence, in fact there are at least seven (1 Bodily-kinesthetic, 2 Interpersonal, 3 Verbal-linguistic, 4 Logical-mathematical, 5 Intrapersonal, 6 Visual-spatial, 7 Musical, 8 Naturalistic). This makes perfect sense—people are good at different things.
The flip side of this occurred to me the other day, as I was busy judging someone for being really dumb. Of course, no one is really dumb. And certainly no one deserves to be judged as such. If we're good at different things, we're also bad at different things, right?
The story people tell about you (and the one you tell about yourself in the way you act) may be broadcasting one of your weaknesses louder than you deserve. We often fail to hire or trust or work with someone merely because one of their attributes stands out as below par. That's our loss.
May 22, 2010
That's the way a friend described someone she had just met. She was sure (just as I'm sure) that he's going places. Once the determination is in his eyes, the learning will take care of itself.
On the other hand, if I can see the fear in your eyes, then I'm not sure that learning alone will take care of the problem. No one can prove that the path you're on is risk free or guaranteed to work. Searching for more proof is futile. Searching for more determination makes more sense.
May 21, 2010
The internet is constantly, relentlessly public. Post something and it's there, for everyone, all the time.
Acar has come up with a clever idea, a small idea that makes things just a little protected. Trick.ly is a url shortener with a twist. You can share a URL but hide it behind a question that only insiders can easily answer.
So, for example, you could tweet, "Here's the source for my world-class chili: http://trick.ly/2L5". Anyone can go there, but only people who can figure out the clue can discover the site you were pointing to.
It's not secure. It's sort of private. Neato.
May 20, 2010
This is the chasm of the new marketing.
The marketing department used to be in charge of talking. Ads are talking. Flyers are talking. Billboards are talking. Trade shows are talking.
Now, of course, marketing can't talk so much, because people can't be easily forced to listen.
So the only option is to be in charge of doing. Which means the product, the service, the interaction, the effluent and other detritus left behind when you're done.
If you're in marketing and you're not in charge of the doing, you're not going to be able to do your job.
In most fields, there's an awful lot of work put into the last ten percent of quality.
Getting your golf score from 77 to 70 is far more difficult than getting it from 120 to 113 or even from 84 to 77.
Answering the phone on the first ring costs twice as much as letting it go into the queue.
Making pastries the way they do at a fancy restaurant is a lot more work than making brownies at home.
Laying out the design of a page or a flyer so it looks like a pro did it takes about ten times as much work as merely using the template Microsoft builds in for free, and the message is almost the same…
Except it's not. Of course not. The message is not the same.
The last ten percent is the signal we look for, the way we communicate care and expertise and professionalism. If all you're doing is the standard amount, all you're going to get is the standard compensation. The hard part is the last ten percent, sure, or even the last one percent, but it's the hard part because everyone is busy doing the easy part already.
The secret is to seek out the work that most people believe isn't worth the effort. That's what you get paid for.
May 19, 2010
