# Raffiapalm > Resources for product teams from industry experts. --- ## Pages - [Privacy Policy](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/privacy-policy/): Who we are Our website address is raffiapalm. com. We enable product teams to find resources from books and blogs... --- ## Posts - [The Five Qualities of Good Visions](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-five-qualities-of-good-visions/): Because everything derives from the high-level vision, the team’s overall leader should invest more energy in it than any other early planning material. - [Freedom and Autonomy](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/freedom-and-autonomy/): In a digital world where innovation is key, where data is flowing freely both inside and outside the company, and where change is constant, work has - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/specific-methodical-consistent/): A SMaC recipe is a set of durable operating practices that create a replicable and consistent success formula. The word “SMaC” stands for Specific, - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/on-productive-evolution/): Any enterprise, whether a company, society, nation, church, social venture, school, hospital, military unit, orchestra, team, or any other human - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/trust-comes-from-being-a-part-of-a-culture-or-organization/): Trust comes from being a part of a culture or organization with a common set of values and beliefs. Trust is maintained when the values and beliefs are - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-product-vision-is-what-drives-and-inspires/): The product vision is what drives and inspires the company and sustains the company through the ups and downs. This may sound straightforward, but it's - [Management by Objectives: The Planning Process Applied to Daily Work](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/management-by-objectives/): The system of management by objectives assumes that because our concerns here are short-range, we should know quite well what our environment demands from - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/replication-as-a-mental-model/): Replication as a mental model teaches us that we don’t always need to reinvent the wheel. Often a good starting point is what others are doing. Once you - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-story-of-a-new-product/): The story of a new product, from conception to widespread use and high market share, is usually one of ups and downs. There are so many facets of business - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/when-people-value-relationships-over-status/): When people value relationships over status, they stimulate the brain chemistry that supports nurturing. They move from a fearful state of mind to a more - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/time-tellers-can-become-clock-builders/): We’ve learned that time-tellers can become clock-builders, and we’re learning how to help time-tellers make the transition. We’ve learned that, if - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/when-things-are-going-best/): When things are going best is when you have the opportunity to be the strongest, most demanding, and most effective in your leadership. A strong wind is - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-art-of-management/): The art of management lies in the capacity to select from the many activities of seemingly comparable significance the one or two or three that provide - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/expertise-ise-is-the-inventory-of-knowledge-and-experience/): Expertise is the inventory of knowledge and experience you possess on a particular subject. You’re not necessarily born with it; you develop it, research - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-process-of-strategy/): ...the process of strategy then reiterates through these steps over and over again, constantly evolving. In other words, strategy is not a discrete - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-real-secret-of-silicon-valley-is-that-its-really-all-about-the-people/): The real secret of Silicon Valley is that it’s really all about the people. Sure, there are plenty of stories in the press about the industry’s young - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-only-defense-a-person-has-in-our-overcommunicated-society-is-an-oversimplified-mind/): The only defense a person has in our overcommunicated society is an oversimplified mind. Not unless they repeal the law of nature that gives us only 24 - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/whats-left-at-the-core-is-emotion/): When you strip away all the rational mechanics of decision making — the generation of options, the weighing of information — what’s left at the core is - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/creativity-is-needed-to-come-up-with-original-ideas/): Creativity is needed to come up with original ideas, which need to be critiqued, evaluated, and elaborated. Many different possibilities need to be - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-there-is-money-to-be-made/): If there is money to be made, new firms will enter the market, increase supply, drive prices down, and thereby eliminate the profits that attracted them - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/product-marketing-is-truly-a-great-on-ramp/): Product marketing is truly a great on-ramp for any career path in tech. It can lead anywhere, and if you're lucky enough to lead people doing it, help - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/in-the-red-oceans-industry-boundaries-are-defined/): In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here, companies try to outperform their - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/waiting-for-permission-instead-of-starting-with/): I’ve met dozens of teams who have never talked to customers because they believe they aren’t allowed to. However, they regularly engage with customers - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/i-would-never-write-anything-that-suggests-the/): I would never write anything that suggests the path to success is a continuum of positive, even euphoric experiences — that if you do all the right things - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/as-anyone-whos-launched-a-product-or-business/): As anyone who’s launched a product or business under conditions of extreme uncertainty knows, it’s very difficult to make accurate forecasts about markets - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/great-organizations-become-great-because-the/): Great organizations become great because the people inside the organization feel protected. The strong sense of culture creates a sense of belonging and - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/true-leadership-is-a-big-part-of-what-separates/): True leadership is a big part of what separates the great product people from the merely good ones. So, no matter what your title or level may be, if you - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/while-what-i-dont-know-about-the-future-is/): While what I don’t know about the future is probably much more than what I do know, what I do know is also a lot. Dealing with the future is all about: - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/a-process-can-be-the-equivalent-of-a-mountain/): A process can be the equivalent of a mountain climber’s harness and rope, allowing you the freedom to explore without constant worry. A process, far from - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/as-a-good-rule-of-thumb-proprietary-technology/): As a good rule of thumb, proprietary technology must be at least 10 times better than its closest substitute in some important dimension to lead to a real - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/when-we-assess-our-choices-well-take-the-inside/): When we assess our choices, we’ll take the inside view by default. We’ll consider the information in the spotlight and use it to form quick impressions. - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/what-ive-learned-over-the-years-is-that-the-best/): What I’ve learned over the years is that the best communicators learn to align their intentions with their impact. While intention is what someone wants - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/a-worldview-is-a-point-of-view-a-way-of-seeing/): A worldview is a point of view, a way of seeing the world. Worldviews are not formed objectively and supported by facts. They are subjective, values-based - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/focusing-is-great-for-analyzing-alternatives-but/): Focusing is great for analyzing alternatives but terrible for spotting them. Think about the visual analogy — when we focus we sacrifice peripheral - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/a-product-is-viral-if-its-core-functionality/): A product is viral if its core functionality encourages users to invite their friends to become users too. This is how Facebook and PayPal both grew - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/customer-success-some-tech-companies-have-whats/): Customer Success: Some tech companies have what’s referred to as a high‐touch model of helping their customers, and some have a low‐touch model. You need - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/dont-be-an-expert-be-open-lets-be-honest/): Don’t be an expert, be open. Let’s be honest. There is a lot of talk about embracing mistakes, failing fast, and showing vulnerability. But expertise is - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/many-products-run-into-ethical-dilemmas-around/): Many products run into ethical dilemmas around their data practices. Here are some questions to ask: What data do you plan to collect? Do your customers - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/incubation-can-be-particularly-helpful-after/): Incubation can be particularly helpful after hearing other people’s ideas. You may not think of new ideas right away, but odds are, your brain is still - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/one-of-the-things-i-have-come-to-believe-strongly/): One of the things I have come to believe strongly is that culture is real; it’s also incredibly important, and it’s something that many people don’t - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/opportunities-framed-from-your-companys/): Opportunities framed from your company’s perspective: Product teams think about their product and business all day every day. It’s easy to get stuck - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-ability-to-create-rich-detailed-models-of/): The ability to create rich, detailed models of natural and artificial phenomena and to process large volumes of experimental data created by a new - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/even-though-sales-is-everywhere-most-people/): Even though sales is everywhere, most people underrate its importance. Silicon Valley underrates it more than most. The geek classic The Hitchhiker’s - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-role-of-a-leader-is-not-to-come-up-with-all/): The role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas. The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen. It is - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/curation-covers-a-wide-range-of-activities/): Curation covers a wide range of activities, starting with finding the right data structures to map into various stores. It includes the schema and the - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/story-is-defined-as-a-narrative-either-true-or/): ‘Story’ is defined as ‘a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader’. This - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/a-persons-identity-is-formed-by-integrating-life/): A person’s identity is formed by integrating life experiences into an internalised, evolving story that provides him or her with a sense of purpose. We - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/to-transcend-means-to-go-beyond-but-this-need/): To transcend means “to go beyond,” but this need not compel us to adopt an ornate dualist view that regards transcendent levels of reality (such as the - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/advertising-is-not-a-sledgehammer-its-more-like/): Advertising is not a sledgehammer. It’s more like a light fog, a very light fog that envelops your prospects. In the communication jungle out there, the - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/i-think-of-product-culture-along-two-dimensions/): I think of product culture along two dimensions. The first dimension is whether the company can consistently innovate to come up with valuable solutions - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/archetypal-brands-are-classless-ageless-and/): Archetypal brands are classless, ageless, and regionless, and their deep meaning must be inviolate. That’s why it matters that the brand’s story (not just - [Product-Led Growth (PLG)](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/product-led-growth-plg-go-to-market-strategy/): Go-to-market strategy that relies on the product to acquire, activate, or retain customers. It is seen as one of the more cost-effective ways to create a - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/researchers-classified-the-three-types-of/): Researchers classified the three types of behavior. The first group, termed gamblers, took high risks but exerted no influence on the outcome of events. - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/its-not-an-accident-that-some-products-catch-on/): It’s not an accident that some products catch on and some don’t. When an ideavirus occurs, it’s often because all the viral pieces work together. How - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-we-define-the-future-as-a-time-that-looks/): If we define the future as a time that looks different from the present, then most people aren’t expecting any future at all; instead, they expect coming - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-way-you-break-through-to-the-mainstream-is-to/): The way you break through to the mainstream is to target a niche instead of a huge market. With a niche, you can segment off a chunk of the mainstream, - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/there-are-three-points-of-executive-leverage-in/): There are three points of executive leverage in strategy making. The first is to manage the cost structure, or values of the organization, so that orders - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/well-managed-companies-are-excellent-at-developing/): Well-managed companies are excellent at developing the sustaining technologies that improve the performance of their products in the ways that matter to - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/before-we-truly-master-something-novel-which/): Before we truly master something novel (which means, before we can effectively limit its indeterminate significance to something predictable, even - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/according-to-kurzweil-the-singularity-is-near/): According to Kurzweil, “the Singularity is near,” it’s inevitable, and all we have to do is prepare ourselves to accept it. But no matter how many trends - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/fundamentally-there-is-no-reason-why-pleasure/): Fundamentally, there is no reason why pleasure, excitement, profound well-being and simple joy at being alive could not become the natural, default state - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-a-company-wants-to-raise-the-bar-for-the/): If a company wants to raise the bar for the product organization, they need to think differently about product. Instead of looking at product as just a - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/sales-and-non-sales-selling-are-developing-along-a/): Sales and non-sales selling are developing along a similar path — because the stable, simple, and certain conditions that favored scripts have now given - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/i-strongly-believe-in-the-promise-of-technology/): I strongly believe in the promise of technology, when directed toward the right ends, to lead to a genuinely better world for all. But I would estimate - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/work-for-goals-that-you-and-your-organization-are/): Work for goals that you and your organization are excited about and think about how your tasks connect to those goals. If you’re focused on the goal, - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/objectives-and-key-results-are-first-and-foremost/): Objectives and Key Results are first and foremost an empowerment technique. The main idea is to give product teams real problems to solve, and then to - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/so-what-do-we-call-this-work-of-evolving-an/): So, what do we call this work of “evolving” an organization to become better adapted to the world in which it finds itself? A lot of best practices for - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/brand-is-about-what-people-aspire-to-be-a-good/): Brand is about what people aspire to be — a good mom, a capable leader, an innovator, eternally young — and the best ones make us feel good about - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/attaining-alignment-is-not-just-a-process-of/): Attaining alignment is not just a process of adding new things; it is also a never-ending process of identifying and doggedly correcting misalignments - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/perfection-can-quickly-become-the-enemy-of-great/): Perfection can quickly become the enemy of great. “We don’t yet know who our ideal customers are,” or “We don’t yet know which messages are most - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/building-a-great-product-isnt-enough-to-succeed/): Building a great product isn’t enough to succeed if you don’t also take the time to position it in the market. Don’t make the mistake of assuming the - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/whether-professionals-have-a-chance-to-develop/): Whether professionals have a chance to develop intuitive expertise depends essentially on the quality and speed of feedback, as well as on sufficient - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/what-psychologists-do-believe-is-that-all-of-us/): What psychologists do believe is that all of us live much of our life guided by the impressions of System 1 — and we often do not know the source of these - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/system-1-is-gullible-and-biased-to-believe-system/): System 1 is gullible and biased to believe, System 2 is in charge of doubting and unbelieving, but System 2 is sometimes busy, and often lazy. Indeed, - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-manager-role-is-the-catalyst-role-as-with/): The manager role is the “catalyst” role. As with all catalysts, the manager’s function is to speed up the reaction between two substances, thus creating - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/our-project-in-the-years-to-come-will-be-to/): Our project in the years to come will be to advance a positive vision of what liberal democracy can deliver with the new tools that technology is placing - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/even-with-its-imperfections-our-evidence-based/): Even with its imperfections, our evidence-based approach to learning about people, guiding them, and sorting them is much fairer and more effective than - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/those-with-more-creativity-invent-ways-to-do/): Those with more creativity invent ways to do things more effectively (for instance by finding good people, good technologies, and/or good designs). Those - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-homogeneity-principle-states-that-the-outputs/): The homogeneity principle states that the outputs of a system are always directly proportional to the input. In other words, twice as much in results in - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-all-of-the-goals-you-set-for-yourself-run/): If all of the goals you set for yourself run counter to your own passions “…” question the goals you have set in the first place. Satisfaction is not - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/when-we-combine-the-behavioral-realm-with-the/): When we combine the behavioral realm with the cognitive and emotional realms, the full picture of self-mastery comes into view. These domains represent - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/use-tools-to-collect-data-and-process-it-into/): Use tools to collect data and process it into conclusions and actions. Imagine that virtually everything important going on in your company can be - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/algorithms-are-principles-in-action-on-a/): Algorithms are principles in action on a continuous basis. I believe that systemized, evidence-based decision making will radically improve the quality of - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/envisioned-future-the-second-primary-component/): Envisioned future — the second primary component of the vision framework — consists of two parts: a ten-to thirty-year “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” and - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/i-think-many-people-assume-wrongly-that-a/): “I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company’s existence, we have to - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/core-values-are-the-organizations-essential-and/): Core values are the organization’s essential and enduring tenets — a small set of timeless guiding principles that require no external justification; they - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/core-ideology-provides-the-bonding-glue-that-holds/): Core ideology provides the bonding glue that holds an organization together as it grows, decentralizes, diversifies, expands globally, and attains - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-the-technology-is-new-you-very-likely-dont/): If the technology is new, you very likely don’t have anyone on the teams who has been trained on this new technology. This fact ends up scaring off many - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/its-about-shared-learning-one-of-the-keys-to/): It’s about shared learning. One of the keys to having a team of missionaries rather than a team of mercenaries is that the team has learned together. They - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/above-all-else-my-wishes-for-you-are-that-you/): Above all else, my wishes for you are that: You can make your work and your passion one and the same. You can struggle well with others on your common - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/user-research-is-all-about-insights-which-is-why/): User research is all about insights, which is why I’m such a fan of having strong user researchers in the organization. Mostly the insights they generate - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/a-well-conceived-vision-consists-of-two-major/): A well-conceived vision consists of two major components — core ideology and an envisioned future. Notice the direct parallel to the fundamental “preserve - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/soon-enough-virtual-reality-environments-may/): Soon enough, virtual reality environments may overtake our physical world as the primary locus of our experience, which means every aspect of our - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/surround-your-disruptive-core-product-the-thing/): Surround your disruptive core product, the thing that got you to the dance, with a whole product that solves the target customer’s problem end to end. - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-youre-not-actively-taking-what-employees-learn/): If you’re not actively taking what employees learn from their networks and bringing that knowledge back into the company to help solve challenges, it’s as - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/building-a-visionary-company-is-a-design-problem/): Building a visionary company is a design problem, and great designers apply general principles, not mechanical lock-step dogma. Any specific how-to will - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/people-cannot-reliably-predict-where-they-are/): People cannot reliably predict where they are going and how their lives will unfold, especially in today’s unpredictable world. Those who built visionary - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/functionality-design-and-technology-are/): Functionality, design, and technology are inherently intertwined. In the old waterfall model, the market drove the functionality (aka the requirements), - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/while-product-strategy-starts-with-focus-it-then/): While product strategy starts with focus, it then depends on insights. And insights come from study and thought. These insights come from analyzing the - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/when-you-start-a-new-business-you-do-not-need-to/): When you start a new business you do not need to envision accurately the details of your strategy or predict foresightedly how technology will evolve. - [](https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/personal-recommendations-go-a-long-way-we-trust/): Personal recommendations go a long way. We trust the judgment of others. It’s part of the fabric of strong cultures. But we don’t trust the judgment of --- # # Detailed Content ## Pages - Published: 2023-07-16 - Modified: 2023-07-18 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/privacy-policy/ Who we are Our website address is raffiapalm. com. We enable product teams to find resources from books and blogs that they can use to make decisions at work. Cookies If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year. If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select "Remember Me", your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. If you edit or publish any content, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the ID of the content you just edited. It expires after 1 day. Embedded content from other websites Articles on this site may include embedded content (e. g. videos, images, articles, etc. ). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.... --- --- ## Posts > Because everything derives from the high-level vision, the team’s overall leader should invest more energy in it than any other early planning material. - Published: 2023-12-01 - Modified: 2023-12-01 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-five-qualities-of-good-visions/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership Because everything derives from the high-level vision, the team’s overall leader should invest more energy in it than any other early planning material. The five most important characteristics are: simplifying, intentional (goal-driven), consolidated, inspirational, and memorable. — Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management by Scott Berkun Source: Amazon Kindle --- > In a digital world where innovation is key, where data is flowing freely both inside and outside the company, and where change is constant, work has - Published: 2023-09-07 - Modified: 2023-09-07 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/freedom-and-autonomy/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, product In a digital world where innovation is key, where data is flowing freely both inside and outside the company, and where change is constant, work has become increasingly complex, changeable, and informal in nature. As a result, an organization needs to get rid of its traditional hierarchy—which mainly promotes people having interactions with others in their own department—in favor of a system which encourages input and collaboration from people with different skill sets across functions internally and externally with partners and customers. Therefore, leaders need to focus on bringing strong people together and giving them greater freedom to generate ideas and execute them through collaboration. A leader should articulate what needs to be done and why, and then let the team decide how to do it. She will set things in motion, guide her team, and clear the obstacles when the team is in trouble. This has similarities with the role of a product manager. She will have to work cross‐ functionally with teammates and stakeholders, lead, influence, motivate, and trust them—without ever ordering them to do anything. She will ensure they are motivated and know what their purpose is. She will coach them and help them develop in a safe environment. She will connect the dots internally and externally to empower her team with additional information, better tools, and efficiency. She will ensure that they have the data they need to experiment and iterate quickly, as well as the autonomy to make informed decisions based on their learning. She... --- > A SMaC recipe is a set of durable operating practices that create a replicable and consistent success formula. The word “SMaC” stands for Specific, - Published: 2023-08-27 - Modified: 2023-08-27 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/specific-methodical-consistent/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, strategy A SMaC recipe is a set of durable operating practices that create a replicable and consistent success formula. The word “SMaC” stands for Specific, Methodical, and Consistent. You can use the term “SMaC” as a descriptor in any number of ways: as an adjective (“ Let’s build a SMaC system”), as a noun (“ SMaC lowers risk”), and as a verb (“ Let’s SMaC this project”). A solid SMaC recipe is the operating code for turning strategic concepts into reality, a set of practices more enduring than mere tactics. Tactics change from situation to situation, whereas SMaC practices can last for decades and apply across a wide range of circumstances. — Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (Good to Great Book 5) by Jim Collins, Morten T. Hansen Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Any enterprise, whether a company, society, nation, church, social venture, school, hospital, military unit, orchestra, team, or any other human - Published: 2023-08-27 - Modified: 2023-08-27 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/on-productive-evolution/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, change, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership Any enterprise, whether a company, society, nation, church, social venture, school, hospital, military unit, orchestra, team, or any other human organization, faces a constant struggle to find the balance between continuity and change. No human enterprise can succeed at the highest levels without consistency; if you bring no coherent unifying concept and disciplined methodology to your endeavors, you’ll be whipsawed by changes in your environment and cede your fate to forces outside your control. Equally true, however, no human enterprise can succeed at the highest levels without productive evolution. — Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (Good to Great Book 5) by Jim Collins, Morten T. Hansen Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Trust comes from being a part of a culture or organization with a common set of values and beliefs. Trust is maintained when the values and beliefs are - Published: 2023-08-02 - Modified: 2023-08-02 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/trust-comes-from-being-a-part-of-a-culture-or-organization/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, strategy Trust comes from being a part of a culture or organization with a common set of values and beliefs. Trust is maintained when the values and beliefs are actively managed. If companies do not actively work to keep their Golden Circle in balance — clarity, discipline and consistency — then trust starts to break down. A company, indeed any organization, must work actively to remind everyone WHY the company exists. WHY it was founded in the first place. What it believes. They need to hold everyone in the company accountable to the values and guiding principles. It’s not enough to just write them on the wall — that’s passive. Bonuses and incentives must revolve around them. The company must serve those whom they wish to serve it. — Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek Source: Amazon Kindle --- > The product vision is what drives and inspires the company and sustains the company through the ups and downs. This may sound straightforward, but it's - Published: 2023-08-01 - Modified: 2023-08-01 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-product-vision-is-what-drives-and-inspires/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, product, strategy The product vision is what drives and inspires the company and sustains the company through the ups and downs. This may sound straightforward, but it's tricky. That's because there are two very different types of product leaders needed for two very different situations: Where there is a CEO or a founder who is the clear product visionary Where there is no clear product visionary—usually in situations where the founder has moved on There are two very bad situations you may encounter related to product vision and strategy. The first is when you have a CEO who is very strong at product and vision, but she wants to hire a VP product (or, more often, the board pushes her to hire a VP product), and she thinks she should be hiring someone in her own image—or at least visionary like her. The result is typically an immediate clash and a short tenure for the VP product. If this position looks like a revolving door, it's very possible that's what's going on. The second bad situation is when the CEO is not strong at vision, but she also hires someone in her own image. This doesn't result in the clash (they often get along great), but it does leave a serious void in terms of vision, and this causes frustration among the product teams, poor morale across the company, and usually a lack of innovation. The key here is that the VP product needs to complement the CEO. If you have a... --- > The system of management by objectives assumes that because our concerns here are short-range, we should know quite well what our environment demands from - Published: 2023-07-31 - Modified: 2023-07-31 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/management-by-objectives/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, team management The system of management by objectives assumes that because our concerns here are short-range, we should know quite well what our environment demands from us "... " The idea behind MBO is extremely simple: If you don’t know where you’re going, you will not get there. Or, as an old Indian saying puts it, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. ” A successful MBO system needs only to answer two questions: Where do I want to go? (The answer provides the objective. ) How will I pace myself to see if I am getting there? (The answer gives us milestones or key results. ) — High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Replication as a mental model teaches us that we don’t always need to reinvent the wheel. Often a good starting point is what others are doing. Once you - Published: 2023-07-30 - Modified: 2023-07-30 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/replication-as-a-mental-model/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, personal mastery, product Replication as a mental model teaches us that we don’t always need to reinvent the wheel. Often a good starting point is what others are doing. Once you get a sense and a feel for the environment you can adapt to better suit your own needs. What we need to remember is that effective replication requires enough structure and space to produce a copy, but enough flexibility to adapt that copy to changes in the environment. Just because something has worked for a while doesn’t mean that it will continue to be effective in perpetuity. Maintaining a successful approach requires an ability to grow and modify that approach as required. — The Great Mental Models Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology by Shane Parrish, Rhiannon Beaubien Source: Amazon Kindle --- > The story of a new product, from conception to widespread use and high market share, is usually one of ups and downs. There are so many facets of business - Published: 2023-07-29 - Modified: 2023-07-30 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-story-of-a-new-product/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, product The story of a new product, from conception to widespread use and high market share, is usually one of ups and downs. There are so many facets of business to learn, from production to sales to marketing, that for novice businesspeople trying to turn their great idea into a successful sales story, there are usually a few mistakes along the way. In addition, we often have to manage traversing our own peaks and valleys while trying to ensure that our current capacities don’t limit our ability to climb a higher peak. Using the lens of global and local maxima shows that often in bringing a new product to market, there are many times the owners reach a peak of success only to have to go down to a local minimum as they take on the next challenging climb. — The Great Mental Models Volume 3: Systems and Mathematics by Rhiannon Beaubien, Rosie Leizrowice Source: Amazon Kindle --- > When people value relationships over status, they stimulate the brain chemistry that supports nurturing. They move from a fearful state of mind to a more - Published: 2023-07-28 - Modified: 2023-07-28 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/when-people-value-relationships-over-status/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery When people value relationships over status, they stimulate the brain chemistry that supports nurturing. They move from a fearful state of mind to a more trusting state of mind. Even in the face of difficult challenges, focusing on relationships shifts the conversation, which shifts the outcomes. As we will see, when relationships start to go bad in a healthy company, people use the tool of priming to address the issue quickly and directly. They focus on raising the bar on what good and great relationships look like — they focus on mutual support and understanding rather than personal gain. When we focus on relationships first, we create a safe space for connecting with others heart to heart, and people move toward one another with compassion and understanding rather than away from each other in fear and judgment. We bring the skeptic on board. — Conversational Intelligence: How Great Leaders Build Trust & Get Extraordinary Results by Judith E. Glaser Source: Amazon Kindle --- > We’ve learned that time-tellers can become clock-builders, and we’re learning how to help time-tellers make the transition. We’ve learned that, if - Published: 2023-07-27 - Modified: 2023-07-27 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/time-tellers-can-become-clock-builders/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery We’ve learned that time-tellers can become clock-builders, and we’re learning how to help time-tellers make the transition. We’ve learned that, if anything, we underestimated the importance of alignment, and we’re learning much about how to create alignment within organizations. We’ve learned that purpose — when properly conceived — has a profound effect upon an organization beyond what core values alone can do, and that organizations should put more effort into identifying their purpose. — Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras Source: Amazon Kindle --- > When things are going best is when you have the opportunity to be the strongest, most demanding, and most effective in your leadership. A strong wind is - Published: 2023-07-26 - Modified: 2023-07-26 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/when-things-are-going-best/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery When things are going best is when you have the opportunity to be the strongest, most demanding, and most effective in your leadership. A strong wind is at your back, but it requires an understanding of the perils produced by victory to prevent that wind from blowing you over. — The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, et al. Source: Amazon Kindle --- > The art of management lies in the capacity to select from the many activities of seemingly comparable significance the one or two or three that provide - Published: 2023-07-25 - Modified: 2023-12-01 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-art-of-management/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, team management The art of management lies in the capacity to select from the many activities of seemingly comparable significance the one or two or three that provide leverage well beyond the others and concentrate on them. For me, paying close attention to customer complaints constitutes a high-leverage activity. Aside from making a customer happy, the pursuit tends to produce important insights into the workings of my own operation. Such complaints may be numerous, and though all of them need to be followed up by someone, they don’t all require or wouldn’t all benefit from my personal attention. Which one out of ten or twenty complaints to dig into, analyze, and follow up is where art comes into the work of a manager. The basis of that art is an intuition that behind this complaint and not the other lurk many deeper problems. — High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Expertise is the inventory of knowledge and experience you possess on a particular subject. You’re not necessarily born with it; you develop it, research - Published: 2023-07-24 - Modified: 2023-07-24 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/expertise-ise-is-the-inventory-of-knowledge-and-experience/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery Expertise is the inventory of knowledge and experience you possess on a particular subject. You’re not necessarily born with it; you develop it, research it, thrive on learning as much about your subject as you possibly can. The greater your expertise, the greater your potential to teach, the stronger and more productive you can be as a leader. — The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, et al. Source: Amazon Kindle --- > ...the process of strategy then reiterates through these steps over and over again, constantly evolving. In other words, strategy is not a discrete - Published: 2023-07-23 - Modified: 2023-07-23 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-process-of-strategy/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, strategy ... the process of strategy then reiterates through these steps over and over again, constantly evolving. In other words, strategy is not a discrete analytical event — something decided, say, in a meeting of top managers based on the best numbers and analysis available at the time. Rather, it is a continuous, diverse, and unruly process. Managing it is very hard — the deliberate strategy and the new emerging opportunities fight for resources. On the one hand, if you have a strategy that really is working, you need to deliberately focus to keep everyone working together in the right direction. At the same time, however, that focus can easily cause you to dismiss as a distraction what could actually turn out to be the next big thing. It may be challenging and unruly, but this is the process by which almost all companies have developed a winning strategy. — How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, et al. Source: Amazon Kindle --- > The real secret of Silicon Valley is that it’s really all about the people. Sure, there are plenty of stories in the press about the industry’s young - Published: 2023-07-22 - Modified: 2023-07-22 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-real-secret-of-silicon-valley-is-that-its-really-all-about-the-people/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, startups The real secret of Silicon Valley is that it’s really all about the people. Sure, there are plenty of stories in the press about the industry’s young geniuses, but surprisingly few about its management practices. What the mainstream press misses is that Silicon Valley’s success comes from the way its companies build alliances with their employees. Here, talent really is the most valuable resource, and employees are treated accordingly. The most successful Silicon Valley businesses succeed because they use the alliance to recruit, manage, and retain an incredibly talented team of entrepreneurial employees. — The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, et al. Source: Amazon Kindle --- > The only defense a person has in our overcommunicated society is an oversimplified mind. Not unless they repeal the law of nature that gives us only 24 - Published: 2023-07-21 - Modified: 2023-07-21 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-only-defense-a-person-has-in-our-overcommunicated-society-is-an-oversimplified-mind/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing, mental models The only defense a person has in our overcommunicated society is an oversimplified mind. Not unless they repeal the law of nature that gives us only 24 hours in a day will they find a way to stuff more into the mind. The average mind is already a dripping sponge that can only soak up more information at the expense of what’s already there. Yet we continue to pour more information into that supersaturated sponge and are disappointed when our messages fail to get through. Advertising, of course, is only the tip of the communication iceberg. We communicate with each other in a wide variety of bewildering ways. And in a geometrically increasing volume. The medium may not be the message, but it does seriously affect the message. Instead of a transmission system, the medium acts like a filter. Only a tiny fraction of the original material ends up in the mind of the receiver. — Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries, Jack Trout Source: Amazon Kindle --- > When you strip away all the rational mechanics of decision making — the generation of options, the weighing of information — what’s left at the core is - Published: 2023-07-20 - Modified: 2023-07-20 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/whats-left-at-the-core-is-emotion/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, decision making, kindle, leadership, personal mastery When you strip away all the rational mechanics of decision making — the generation of options, the weighing of information — what’s left at the core is emotion. What drives you? What kind of person do you aspire to be? What do you believe is best for your family in the long run? (Business leaders ask: What kind of organization do you aspire to run? What’s best for your team in the long run? ) Those are emotional questions — speaking to passions and values and beliefs — and when you answer them, there’s no “rational machine” underneath that is generating your perspective. It’s just who you are and what you want. The buck stops with emotion. — Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath, Dan Heath Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Creativity is needed to come up with original ideas, which need to be critiqued, evaluated, and elaborated. Many different possibilities need to be - Published: 2023-07-19 - Modified: 2023-07-19 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/creativity-is-needed-to-come-up-with-original-ideas/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, product, strategy Creativity is needed to come up with original ideas, which need to be critiqued, evaluated, and elaborated. Many different possibilities need to be explored before focusing on those that have the most potential value. And it is product teams that are able to combine these different behaviors—and switch between them in flexible ways—that are best suited to succeed in the world in which we now find ourselves. — EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: Amazon Kindle --- > If there is money to be made, new firms will enter the market, increase supply, drive prices down, and thereby eliminate the profits that attracted them - Published: 2023-07-18 - Modified: 2023-07-18 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-there-is-money-to-be-made/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, strategy If there is money to be made, new firms will enter the market, increase supply, drive prices down, and thereby eliminate the profits that attracted them in the first place. If too many firms enter the market, they’ll suffer losses, some will fold, and prices will rise back to sustainable levels. Under perfect competition, in the long run, no company makes an economic profit. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Product marketing is truly a great on-ramp for any career path in tech. It can lead anywhere, and if you're lucky enough to lead people doing it, help - Published: 2023-07-18 - Modified: 2023-07-18 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/product-marketing-is-truly-a-great-on-ramp/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing, personal mastery, product Product marketing is truly a great on-ramp for any career path in tech. It can lead anywhere, and if you're lucky enough to lead people doing it, help grow them into tomorrow's company leaders. — Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Martina Lauchengco Source: Amazon Kindle --- > In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here, companies try to outperform their - Published: 2023-07-16 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/in-the-red-oceans-industry-boundaries-are-defined/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, product, startups, strategy In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here, companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody. Blue oceans, in contrast, are defined by untapped market space, demand creation, and the opportunity for highly profitable growth. Although some blue oceans are created well beyond existing industry boundaries, most are created from within red oceans by expanding existing industry boundaries. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. — Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne, et al. Source: Amazon Kindle --- > I’ve met dozens of teams who have never talked to customers because they believe they aren’t allowed to. However, they regularly engage with customers - Published: 2023-07-15 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/waiting-for-permission-instead-of-starting-with/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, product I’ve met dozens of teams who have never talked to customers because they believe they aren’t allowed to. However, they regularly engage with customers outside of work. They work for a major bank, and most (if not all) of their friends have a bank account. They build sales software, and their best friend’s dad works in sales. They work on hospital badge systems, and they have three clinicians in their extended family. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Get started by talking to anyone who is like your customers. Iterate from there. — Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value by Teresa Torres Source: Amazon Kindle --- > I would never write anything that suggests the path to success is a continuum of positive, even euphoric experiences — that if you do all the right things - Published: 2023-07-14 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/i-would-never-write-anything-that-suggests-the/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership I would never write anything that suggests the path to success is a continuum of positive, even euphoric experiences — that if you do all the right things everything will work out. Frequently it doesn’t; often you crash and burn. This is part and parcel of pursuing and achieving very ambitious goals. It is also one of the profound lessons I have learned during my career, namely, that even when you have an organization brimming with talent, victory is not always under your control. Rather, it’s like quicksilver — fleeting and elusive, not something you can summon at will even under the best circumstances. Almost always, your road to victory goes through a place called failure. — The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, et al. Source: Amazon Kindle --- > As anyone who’s launched a product or business under conditions of extreme uncertainty knows, it’s very difficult to make accurate forecasts about markets - Published: 2023-07-13 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/as-anyone-whos-launched-a-product-or-business/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, startups, strategy As anyone who’s launched a product or business under conditions of extreme uncertainty knows, it’s very difficult to make accurate forecasts about markets you’ve never played in before — or that may not even exist yet. Innovation accounting gives entrepreneurs and leaders a language for talking about progress in the years before revenue kicks in. And not only that — it allows you to actually translate your learning into numbers your finance colleagues and investors can understand. Having that shared language, and a shared system for showing progress, helps concretize the trust between leaders and entrepreneurial teams. Entrepreneurs and leaders agree to a set of metrics they believe are important to the success of a project. Entrepreneurs must show progress to be able to secure their next round of funding, and leaders agree to continue supporting the project as long as entrepreneurs can demonstrate that their strategy is working — or that they’re making the proper adjustments to their strategy based on their discoveries. — The Leader’s Guide by Eric Ries Source: Amazon --- > Great organizations become great because the people inside the organization feel protected. The strong sense of culture creates a sense of belonging and - Published: 2023-07-13 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/great-organizations-become-great-because-the/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models Great organizations become great because the people inside the organization feel protected. The strong sense of culture creates a sense of belonging and acts like a net. People come to work knowing that their bosses, colleagues and the organization as a whole will look out for them. This results in reciprocal behavior. Individual decisions, efforts and behaviors that support, benefit and protect the long-term interest of the organization as a whole. — Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek Source: Amazon Kindle --- > True leadership is a big part of what separates the great product people from the merely good ones. So, no matter what your title or level may be, if you - Published: 2023-07-12 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/true-leadership-is-a-big-part-of-what-separates/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, product True leadership is a big part of what separates the great product people from the merely good ones. So, no matter what your title or level may be, if you aspire to be great, don’t be afraid to lead. — INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: Amazon Kindle --- > While what I don’t know about the future is probably much more than what I do know, what I do know is also a lot. Dealing with the future is all about: - Published: 2023-07-11 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/while-what-i-dont-know-about-the-future-is/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, product, strategy While what I don’t know about the future is probably much more than what I do know, what I do know is also a lot. Dealing with the future is all about: Perceiving and adapting to what is happening, even if it can’t be anticipated Coming up with probabilities for what might happen Knowing enough about what might happen to protect oneself against the unacceptable, even if one can’t do that perfectly Knowing how things have changed in the past leads me to consider the possibility that something similar might happen in the future. That is a big advantage relative to being unaware. “... ” Knowing this, I am constantly looking for leading indicators of the same things happening again, and having leading indicators of these things, even if they aren’t perfect, puts me in a better position to protect myself than remaining blissfully unaware and unprepared for what might happen. — Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail by Ray Dalio Source: Amazon Kindle --- > A process can be the equivalent of a mountain climber’s harness and rope, allowing you the freedom to explore without constant worry. A process, far from - Published: 2023-07-10 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/a-process-can-be-the-equivalent-of-a-mountain/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, product A process can be the equivalent of a mountain climber’s harness and rope, allowing you the freedom to explore without constant worry. A process, far from being a drag or a constraint, can actually give you the comfort to be bolder. And bolder is often the right direction. Short-run emotion, as we’ve seen, makes the status quo seductive. But when researchers ask the elderly what they regret about their lives, they don’t often regret something they did; they regret things they didn’t do. They regret not seizing opportunities. They regret hesitating. They regret being indecisive. Being decisive is itself a choice. Decisiveness is a way of behaving, not an inherited trait. It allows us to make brave and confident choices, not because we know we’ll be right but because it’s better to try and fail than to delay and regret. Our decisions will never be perfect, but they can be better. Bolder. Wiser. The right process can steer us toward the right choice. And the right choice, at the right moment, can make all the difference. — Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath, Dan Heath Source: Amazon Kindle --- > As a good rule of thumb, proprietary technology must be at least 10 times better than its closest substitute in some important dimension to lead to a real - Published: 2023-07-09 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/as-a-good-rule-of-thumb-proprietary-technology/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, startups As a good rule of thumb, proprietary technology must be at least 10 times better than its closest substitute in some important dimension to lead to a real monopolistic advantage. Anything less than an order of magnitude better will probably be perceived as a marginal improvement and will be hard to sell, especially in an already crowded market. The clearest way to make a 10x improvement is to invent something completely new. If you build something valuable where there was nothing before, the increase in value is theoretically infinite. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters Source: Amazon Kindle --- > When we assess our choices, we’ll take the inside view by default. We’ll consider the information in the spotlight and use it to form quick impressions. - Published: 2023-07-08 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/when-we-assess-our-choices-well-take-the-inside/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, personal mastery, product When we assess our choices, we’ll take the inside view by default. We’ll consider the information in the spotlight and use it to form quick impressions. “... ” What we’ve seen, though, is that we can correct this bias by doing two things: zooming out and zooming in. When we zoom out, we take the outside view, learning from the experiences of others who have made choices like the one we’re facing. When we zoom in, we take a close-up of the situation, looking for “color” that could inform our decision. Either strategy is helpful, and either one will add insight in a way that conference-room pontificating rarely will. When possible, we should do both. — Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath, Dan Heath Source: Amazon Kindle --- > What I’ve learned over the years is that the best communicators learn to align their intentions with their impact. While intention is what someone wants - Published: 2023-07-07 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/what-ive-learned-over-the-years-is-that-the-best/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery What I’ve learned over the years is that the best communicators learn to align their intentions with their impact. While intention is what someone wants to make happen or plans to accomplish, the impact involves the quality of the experience from the perspective of the receiver — and that impact may not correspond with what the communicator intended. When communicators monitor and align intention and impact successfully, people trust them more fully. — Conversational Intelligence: How Great Leaders Build Trust & Get Extraordinary Results by Judith E. Glaser Source: Amazon Kindle --- > A worldview is a point of view, a way of seeing the world. Worldviews are not formed objectively and supported by facts. They are subjective, values-based - Published: 2023-07-06 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/a-worldview-is-a-point-of-view-a-way-of-seeing/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing, mental models, personal mastery A worldview is a point of view, a way of seeing the world. Worldviews are not formed objectively and supported by facts. They are subjective, values-based reflections of our experiences and beliefs. Our worldviews shape our attitudes and biases, influence our decisions and guide our actions. And while as innovators and marketers we understand all of this, in our search for ways to understand and define our markets, we sometimes forget to apply it. Just because they take the same route to work each morning doesn’t mean that all twenty-nine-year-old men living in the suburbs share the same worldview. Our assumptions about the stories of the people we create for can lead us down the wrong track. — Meaningful: The Story of Ideas That Fly by Bernadette Jiwa Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Focusing is great for analyzing alternatives but terrible for spotting them. Think about the visual analogy — when we focus we sacrifice peripheral - Published: 2023-07-05 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/focusing-is-great-for-analyzing-alternatives-but/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery Focusing is great for analyzing alternatives but terrible for spotting them. Think about the visual analogy — when we focus we sacrifice peripheral vision. And there’s no natural corrective for this; life won’t interrupt our focus to draw our attention to all of our options. — Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath, Dan Heath Source: Amazon Kindle --- > A product is viral if its core functionality encourages users to invite their friends to become users too. This is how Facebook and PayPal both grew - Published: 2023-07-04 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/a-product-is-viral-if-its-core-functionality/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing, mental models, product A product is viral if its core functionality encourages users to invite their friends to become users too. This is how Facebook and PayPal both grew quickly: every time someone shares with a friend or makes a payment, they naturally invite more and more people into the network. This isn’t just cheap — it’s fast, too. If every new user leads to more than one additional user, you can achieve a chain reaction of exponential growth. The ideal viral loop should be as quick and frictionless as possible. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Customer Success: Some tech companies have what’s referred to as a high‐touch model of helping their customers, and some have a low‐touch model. You need - Published: 2023-07-03 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/customer-success-some-tech-companies-have-whats/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, customer success, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, product, strategy Customer Success: Some tech companies have what’s referred to as a high‐touch model of helping their customers, and some have a low‐touch model. You need to understand what your company’s customer success strategy is, and you need to ensure that your products are aligned with that strategy. Again, if you are proposing something that would represent a change, you’ll want to sit down with leadership and discuss the options. — INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Don’t be an expert, be open. Let’s be honest. There is a lot of talk about embracing mistakes, failing fast, and showing vulnerability. But expertise is - Published: 2023-07-02 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/dont-be-an-expert-be-open-lets-be-honest/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, marketing, mental models, product Don’t be an expert, be open. Let’s be honest. There is a lot of talk about embracing mistakes, failing fast, and showing vulnerability. But expertise is both rewarded and embraced, and often essential to being viewed as credible. How do you balance this? The marketing leader finds ways to communicate expertise while still showing openness toward others, inviting participation. This balance is serious Jedi-level $h#t (I’m still working on it). You’re never really a master. But the difference between a “functional expert” (director) and “leader” (VP or CMO) lies in tone, tenor, and self-awareness. You don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to develop tools to navigate challenges with grace. Experts feel closed. Leaders feel open. — Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Martina Lauchengco Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Many products run into ethical dilemmas around their data practices. Here are some questions to ask: What data do you plan to collect? Do your customers - Published: 2023-07-01 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/many-products-run-into-ethical-dilemmas-around/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, data, ethics, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, product Many products run into ethical dilemmas around their data practices. Here are some questions to ask: What data do you plan to collect? Do your customers understand that you’ll be collecting that data? Do your customers understand how you’ll be using that data? Are you planning to share that data with third parties? If yes, how are those third parties planning to use that data? If your customers fully understood how you planned to use their data, would they be okay with it? — Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value by Teresa Torres Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Incubation can be particularly helpful after hearing other people’s ideas. You may not think of new ideas right away, but odds are, your brain is still - Published: 2023-06-30 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/incubation-can-be-particularly-helpful-after/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, product Incubation can be particularly helpful after hearing other people’s ideas. You may not think of new ideas right away, but odds are, your brain is still working on it in the background. So, if you get stuck, sleep on it. Tomorrow will likely bring fresh ideas. Another common way of getting unstuck is to look to analogous products for inspiration. For many product teams, this means competitive research. You should draw inspiration from your competitors, but look broader than that. Many innovative ideas come from unrelated domains. — Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value by Teresa Torres Source: Amazon Kindle --- > One of the things I have come to believe strongly is that culture is real; it’s also incredibly important, and it’s something that many people don’t - Published: 2023-06-29 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/one-of-the-things-i-have-come-to-believe-strongly/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, team management One of the things I have come to believe strongly is that culture is real; it’s also incredibly important, and it’s something that many people don’t understand at all. It’s both an easy, natural consequence of your company’s evolution and something that can quickly become a problem if you don’t tend to it. Consciously guiding the culture of your team is part of a leader’s job, and to do this well, you need to understand what it means in the first place. So what is culture? Culture is the generally unspoken shared rules of a community. — The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change by Camille Fournier Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Opportunities framed from your company’s perspective: Product teams think about their product and business all day every day. It’s easy to get stuck - Published: 2023-06-28 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/opportunities-framed-from-your-companys/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, product Opportunities framed from your company’s perspective: Product teams think about their product and business all day every day. It’s easy to get stuck thinking from your company’s perspective rather than your customers’ perspective. However, if we want to be truly human-centered, solving customer needs while creating value for the business, we need to frame opportunities from our customers’ perspective. No customer would ever say, “I wish I had more streaming entertainment subscriptions. ” But they might say, “I want access to more compelling content. ” Review each opportunity on your tree and ask, “Have we heard this in interviews? ” If you had to add opportunities to support the structure of your tree, you might ask, “Can I imagine a customer saying this? ” Or are we just wishing a customer would say this? — Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value by Teresa Torres Source: Amazon Kindle --- > The ability to create rich, detailed models of natural and artificial phenomena and to process large volumes of experimental data created by a new - Published: 2023-06-28 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-ability-to-create-rich-detailed-models-of/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, data, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes The ability to create rich, detailed models of natural and artificial phenomena and to process large volumes of experimental data created by a new generation of scientific instruments that are themselves powered by computing makes computing a universal intellectual amplifier, advancing all of science and engineering and powering the knowledge economy. Cloud computing is the latest technological evolution of computational science, allowing groups to host, process, and analyze large volumes of multidisciplinary data. Consolidating computing and storage in very large datacenters creates economies of scale in facility design and construction, equipment acquisition, and operations and maintenance that are not possible when these elements are distributed. — The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery by Tony Hey, Stewart Tansley, et al. Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Even though sales is everywhere, most people underrate its importance. Silicon Valley underrates it more than most. The geek classic The Hitchhiker’s - Published: 2023-06-27 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/even-though-sales-is-everywhere-most-people/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, sales, strategy Even though sales is everywhere, most people underrate its importance. Silicon Valley underrates it more than most. The geek classic The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy even explains the founding of our planet as a reaction against salesmen. When an imminent catastrophe requires the evacuation of humanity’s original home, the population escapes on three giant ships. The thinkers, leaders, and achievers take the A Ship; the salespeople and consultants get the B Ship; and the workers and artisans take the C Ship. The B Ship leaves first, and all its passengers rejoice vainly. But the salespeople don’t realize they are caught in a ruse: the A Ship and C Ship people had always thought that the B Ship people were useless, so they conspired to get rid of them. And it was the B Ship that landed on Earth. Distribution may not matter in fictional worlds, but it matters in ours. We underestimate the importance of distribution — a catchall term for everything it takes to sell a product — because we share the same bias the A Ship and C Ship people had: salespeople and other “middlemen” supposedly get in the way, and distribution should flow magically from the creation of a good product. The Field of Dreams conceit is especially popular in Silicon Valley, where engineers are biased toward building cool stuff rather than selling it. But customers will not come just because you build it. You have to make that happen, and it’s harder than it looks.... --- > The role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas. The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen. It is - Published: 2023-06-25 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-role-of-a-leader-is-not-to-come-up-with-all/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership The role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas. The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen. It is the people inside the company, those on the front lines, who are best qualified to find new ways of doing things. — Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Curation covers a wide range of activities, starting with finding the right data structures to map into various stores. It includes the schema and the - Published: 2023-06-25 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/curation-covers-a-wide-range-of-activities/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, data, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, product Curation covers a wide range of activities, starting with finding the right data structures to map into various stores. It includes the schema and the necessary metadata for longevity and for integration across instruments, experiments, and laboratories. Without such explicit schema and metadata, the interpretation is only implicit and depends strongly on the particular programs used to analyze it. Ultimately, such uncurated data is guaranteed to be lost. We must think carefully about which data should be able to live forever and what additional metadata should be captured to make this feasible. — The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery by Tony Hey, Stewart Tansley, et al. Source: Amazon Kindle --- > ‘Story’ is defined as ‘a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader’. This - Published: 2023-06-24 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/story-is-defined-as-a-narrative-either-true-or/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery ‘Story’ is defined as ‘a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader’. This limiting definition sells ‘story’ short. Traditionally, in business and career development, we’ve primarily used our stories as communication tactics — ways to get people to see us — while overlooking the opportunity to leverage them to help us see ourselves more clearly. Far from just being a way to differentiate us, our stories can help us to decide, plan, lead, sell, inspire, influence, persuade, rally, create value, build trust, foster connection and succeed by building better, more purposeful organisations and lives. Our stories can shape who we are. — Story Driven: You don’t need to compete when you know who you are by Bernadette Jiwa Source: Amazon Kindle --- > A person’s identity is formed by integrating life experiences into an internalised, evolving story that provides him or her with a sense of purpose. We - Published: 2023-06-23 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/a-persons-identity-is-formed-by-integrating-life/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, personal mastery A person’s identity is formed by integrating life experiences into an internalised, evolving story that provides him or her with a sense of purpose. We make sense of who we are by piecing together stories from our reconstructed past, perceived present and imagined future. ‘In personality psychology, what mainly counts when it comes to the idea of a life story is the narrator’s subjective understanding of how he or she came to be the person he or she is becoming — that is, the person’s narrative identity. ’ — Story Driven: You don’t need to compete when you know who you are by Bernadette Jiwa Source: Amazon Kindle --- > To transcend means “to go beyond,” but this need not compel us to adopt an ornate dualist view that regards transcendent levels of reality (such as the - Published: 2023-06-22 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/to-transcend-means-to-go-beyond-but-this-need/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, personal mastery To transcend means “to go beyond,” but this need not compel us to adopt an ornate dualist view that regards transcendent levels of reality (such as the spiritual level) to be not of this world. We can “go beyond” the “ordinary” powers of the material world through the power of patterns. Although I have been called a materialist, I regard myself as a “patternist. ” It’s through the emergent powers of the pattern that we transcend. Since the material stuff of which we are made turns over quickly, it is the transcendent power of our patterns that persists. The power of patterns to endure goes beyond explicitly self-replicating systems, such as organisms and self-replicating technology. It is the persistence and power of patterns that support life and intelligence. — The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Advertising is not a sledgehammer. It’s more like a light fog, a very light fog that envelops your prospects. In the communication jungle out there, the - Published: 2023-06-21 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/advertising-is-not-a-sledgehammer-its-more-like/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing Advertising is not a sledgehammer. It’s more like a light fog, a very light fog that envelops your prospects. In the communication jungle out there, the only hope to score big is to be selective, to concentrate on narrow targets, to practice segmentation. In a word, “positioning. ” The mind, as a defense against the volume of today’s communications, screens and rejects much of the information offered it. In general, the mind accepts only that which matches prior knowledge or experience. Millions of dollars have been wasted trying to change minds with advertising. Once a mind is made up, it’s almost impossible to change it. Certainly not with a weak force like advertising. “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind’s made up. ” That’s a way of life for most people. The average person will sit still when being told something which he or she knows nothing about. (Which is why “news” is an effective advertising approach. ) But the average person cannot tolerate being told he or she is wrong. Mind-changing is the road to advertising disaster. — Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries, Jack Trout Source: Amazon Kindle --- > I think of product culture along two dimensions. The first dimension is whether the company can consistently innovate to come up with valuable solutions - Published: 2023-06-20 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/i-think-of-product-culture-along-two-dimensions/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, product, strategy I think of product culture along two dimensions. The first dimension is whether the company can consistently innovate to come up with valuable solutions for their customers. This is what product discovery is all about. The second dimension is execution. It doesn’t matter how great the ideas are if you can’t get a productized, shippable version delivered to your customers. This is what product delivery is all about. — INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Archetypal brands are classless, ageless, and regionless, and their deep meaning must be inviolate. That’s why it matters that the brand’s story (not just - Published: 2023-06-19 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/archetypal-brands-are-classless-ageless-and/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing, strategy Archetypal brands are classless, ageless, and regionless, and their deep meaning must be inviolate. That’s why it matters that the brand’s story (not just its advertising, but the whole myth or legend surrounding the brand) must be congruent with the brand’s core archetype. Brands are trusted to the degree that everything they do is consistent. Products seem right when everything about them is aligned with their informing archetype. This obviously includes the product’s logo, tag line, product design, packaging, and placement in stores, as well as the design of the story, the environment surrounding the sale of the product, and the look and story line of all promotional materials, including your Web site. They all should tell your story. — The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes by Margaret Mark, Carol S. Pearson Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Go-to-market strategy that relies on the product to acquire, activate, or retain customers. It is seen as one of the more cost-effective ways to create a - Published: 2023-06-18 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/product-led-growth-plg-go-to-market-strategy/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, product, strategy Go-to-market strategy that relies on the product to acquire, activate, or retain customers. It is seen as one of the more cost-effective ways to create a customer base, in particular to engender organic growth and evangelism. It’s particularly popular for developer tools, as it’s always presumed developers like to try something before they believe it will work for them, as well as consumer-facing companies. In B2B companies, it can mean using product data to drive sales actions. The idea with PLG is that people like the product so much, they use it with others, which grows the number of users organically or vastly simplifies the sales process. — Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Martina Lauchengco Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Researchers classified the three types of behavior. The first group, termed gamblers, took high risks but exerted no influence on the outcome of events. - Published: 2023-06-17 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/researchers-classified-the-three-types-of/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, human behavior, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery, team management Researchers classified the three types of behavior. The first group, termed gamblers, took high risks but exerted no influence on the outcome of events. The second group, termed conservatives, were people who took very little risk. The third group, termed achievers, had to test the limits of what they could do, and with no prompting demonstrated the point of the experiment: namely, that some people simply must test themselves. By challenging themselves, these people were likely to miss a peg several times, but when they began to ring the peg consistently, they gained satisfaction and a sense of achievement. The point is that both competence and achievement-oriented people spontaneously try to test the outer limits of their abilities. — High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove Source: Amazon Kindle --- > It’s not an accident that some products catch on and some don’t. When an ideavirus occurs, it’s often because all the viral pieces work together. How - Published: 2023-06-16 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/its-not-an-accident-that-some-products-catch-on/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing, product It’s not an accident that some products catch on and some don’t. When an ideavirus occurs, it’s often because all the viral pieces work together. How smooth and easy is it to spread your idea? How often will people sneeze it to their friends? How tightly knit is the group you’re targeting — do they talk much? Do they believe each other? How reputable are the people most likely to promote your idea? How persistent is it — is it a fad that has to spread fast before it dies, or will the idea have legs (and thus you can invest in spreading it over time)? Put all of your new product developments through this analysis, and you’ll discover which ones are most likely to catch on. Those are the products and ideas worth launching. — Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin Source: Amazon Kindle --- > If we define the future as a time that looks different from the present, then most people aren’t expecting any future at all; instead, they expect coming - Published: 2023-06-15 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-we-define-the-future-as-a-time-that-looks/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, startups If we define the future as a time that looks different from the present, then most people aren’t expecting any future at all; instead, they expect coming decades to bring more globalization, convergence, and sameness. In this scenario, poorer countries will catch up to richer countries, and the world as a whole will reach an economic plateau. But even if a truly globalized plateau were possible, could it last? In the best case, economic competition would be more intense than ever before for every single person and firm on the planet. However, when you add competition to consume scarce resources, it’s hard to see how a global plateau could last indefinitely. Without new technology to relieve competitive pressures, stagnation is likely to erupt into conflict. In case of conflict on a global scale, stagnation collapses into extinction. That leaves the fourth scenario, in which we create new technology to make a much better future. The most dramatic version of this outcome is called the Singularity, an attempt to name the imagined result of new technologies so powerful as to transcend the current limits of our understanding. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters Source: Amazon Kindle --- > The way you break through to the mainstream is to target a niche instead of a huge market. With a niche, you can segment off a chunk of the mainstream, - Published: 2023-06-14 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-way-you-break-through-to-the-mainstream-is-to/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing, mental models, product, strategy The way you break through to the mainstream is to target a niche instead of a huge market. With a niche, you can segment off a chunk of the mainstream, and create an ideavirus so focused that it overwhelms that small slice of the market that really and truly will respond to what you sell. The early adopters in this market niche are more eager to hear what you have to say. The sneezers in this market niche are more likely to talk about your product. And best of all, the market is small enough that a few sneezers can get you to the critical mass you need to create an ideavirus. — Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin Source: Amazon Kindle --- > There are three points of executive leverage in strategy making. The first is to manage the cost structure, or values of the organization, so that orders - Published: 2023-06-13 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/there-are-three-points-of-executive-leverage-in/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, heuristics, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, product, strategy There are three points of executive leverage in strategy making. The first is to manage the cost structure, or values of the organization, so that orders of disruptive products from ideal customers can be prioritized. The second is discovery-driven planning — a disciplined process that accelerates learning what will and won’t work. The third is to vigilantly ensure that deliberate and emergent strategy processes are being followed in the appropriate circumstances for each business in the corporation. This is a challenge that few executives have mastered, and is one of the most important contributors to innovative failure in established companies. — The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by Clayton M. Christensen Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Well-managed companies are excellent at developing the sustaining technologies that improve the performance of their products in the ways that matter to - Published: 2023-06-12 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/well-managed-companies-are-excellent-at-developing/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, innovation, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, product, strategy Well-managed companies are excellent at developing the sustaining technologies that improve the performance of their products in the ways that matter to their customers. This is because their management practices are biased toward: Listening to customers. Investing aggressively in technologies that give those customers what they say they want. Seeking higher margins. Targeting larger markets rather than smaller ones. — The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change) by Clayton M. Christensen Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Before we truly master something novel (which means, before we can effectively limit its indeterminate significance to something predictable, even - Published: 2023-06-11 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/before-we-truly-master-something-novel-which/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, product Before we truly master something novel (which means, before we can effectively limit its indeterminate significance to something predictable, even irrelevant) we imagine what it might be. Our imaginative representations actually constitute our initial adaptations. Our fantasies comprise part of the structure that we use to inhibit our responses to the apriori significance of the unknown (even as such fantasies facilitate generation of more detailed and concrete information). There is no reason to presuppose that we have been able to explicitly comprehend this capacity, in part because it actually seems to serve as a necessary or axiomatic precondition for the ability to comprehend, explicitly. — Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief by Jordan B. Peterson Source: Amazon Kindle --- > According to Kurzweil, “the Singularity is near,” it’s inevitable, and all we have to do is prepare ourselves to accept it. But no matter how many trends - Published: 2023-06-11 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/according-to-kurzweil-the-singularity-is-near/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, product, startups According to Kurzweil, “the Singularity is near,” it’s inevitable, and all we have to do is prepare ourselves to accept it. But no matter how many trends can be traced, the future won’t happen on its own. What the Singularity would look like matters less than the stark choice we face today between the two most likely scenarios: nothing or something. It’s up to us. We cannot take for granted that the future will be better, and that means we need to work to create it today. Whether we achieve the Singularity on a cosmic scale is perhaps less important than whether we seize the unique opportunities we have to do new things in our own working lives. Everything important to us — the universe, the planet, the country, your company, your life, and this very moment — is singular. Our task today is to find singular ways to create the new things that will make the future not just different, but better — to go from 0 to 1. The essential first step is to think for yourself. Only by seeing our world anew, as fresh and strange as it was to the ancients who saw it first, can we both re-create it and preserve it for the future. — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Fundamentally, there is no reason why pleasure, excitement, profound well-being and simple joy at being alive could not become the natural, default state - Published: 2023-06-10 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/fundamentally-there-is-no-reason-why-pleasure/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, product Fundamentally, there is no reason why pleasure, excitement, profound well-being and simple joy at being alive could not become the natural, default state of mind for all who desire it. - Nick Bostrom Though it is so often accompanied by descriptions of futuristic gadgets, body augmentation, and distant concerns, the Transhumanist vision provides a reminder that humanity can be far greater than it is today. The human condition is a work in progress. An early and very rough draft of what could be a masterpiece. And the evolution of society begins with the evolution of the individual mind. This evolution cannot be left to chance. It must be the result of deliberate design conducted by each person and directed toward the highest values within them. The software framework and the principles of psychitecture are basic psychotechnologies which, if provided and instilled in each individual, could radically advance our evolution. — Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture by Ryan A. Bush Source: Amazon Kindle --- > If a company wants to raise the bar for the product organization, they need to think differently about product. Instead of looking at product as just a - Published: 2023-06-09 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-a-company-wants-to-raise-the-bar-for-the/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, product If a company wants to raise the bar for the product organization, they need to think differently about product. Instead of looking at product as just a part of the technology organization (or worse, the IT organization), they need to think about product as the organization. I am not talking about power structure or even org structure. I am talking about how product needs to be the value driver of the organization as opposed to just a feature factory for the rest of the organization. As I engage with these types of organizations, another lesson I’ve learned is that, if the executive team isn’t on board with this product operating model, the chances of successful transformation are slim. — EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Sales and non-sales selling are developing along a similar path — because the stable, simple, and certain conditions that favored scripts have now given - Published: 2023-06-08 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/sales-and-non-sales-selling-are-developing-along-a/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, customer success, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, sales, strategy Sales and non-sales selling are developing along a similar path — because the stable, simple, and certain conditions that favored scripts have now given way to the dynamic, complex, and unpredictable conditions that favor improvisation. Beneath the apparent chaos of improvisation is a light structure that allows it to work. Understanding that structure can help you move others, especially when your astute perspective-taking, infectious positivity, and brilliant framing don’t deliver the results you seek. In those circumstances and many others, you’ll do better if you follow three essential rules of improvisational theater: Hear offers. Say “Yes and. ” Make your partner look good. — To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel H. Pink Source: Amazon Kindle --- > I strongly believe in the promise of technology, when directed toward the right ends, to lead to a genuinely better world for all. But I would estimate - Published: 2023-06-07 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/i-strongly-believe-in-the-promise-of-technology/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, personal mastery, product, systems thinking I strongly believe in the promise of technology, when directed toward the right ends, to lead to a genuinely better world for all. But I would estimate that ninety-nine percent of technologies created today only create new addictions. They “improve” our lives only in the sense that they become our new baseline of expectation, ultimately creating new barriers to contentment. There are technologies, like medicine, which truly improve life for people. But most of the technologies which can actually serve this end effectively are psychotechnologies. We need tools and methods for cultivating robust well-being and self-mastery. We need to find and provide the keys to the kind of flourishing which is less dependent on external things, not more dependent on them. If we want to truly improve the world, we need to train people to build systematically better minds - our emphasis on “making people happy” needs to shift to “making happy people. ” — Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture by Ryan A. Bush Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Work for goals that you and your organization are excited about and think about how your tasks connect to those goals. If you’re focused on the goal, - Published: 2023-06-06 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/work-for-goals-that-you-and-your-organization-are/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, personal mastery, team management Work for goals that you and your organization are excited about and think about how your tasks connect to those goals. If you’re focused on the goal, excited about achieving it, and recognize that doing some undesirable tasks to achieve the goal is required, you will have the right perspective and will be appropriately motivated. If you’re not excited about the goal that you’re working for, stop working for it. Personally, I like visualizing exciting new and beautiful things that I want to make into realities. The excitement of visualizing these ideas and my desire to build them out is what pulls me through the thorny realities of life to make my dreams happen. — Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Objectives and Key Results are first and foremost an empowerment technique. The main idea is to give product teams real problems to solve, and then to - Published: 2023-06-05 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/objectives-and-key-results-are-first-and-foremost/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, mental models, product, team management Objectives and Key Results are first and foremost an empowerment technique. The main idea is to give product teams real problems to solve, and then to give the teams the space to solve them. This goes right to the core of enabling ordinary people to create extraordinary products. — EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: Amazon Kindle --- > So, what do we call this work of “evolving” an organization to become better adapted to the world in which it finds itself? A lot of best practices for - Published: 2023-06-04 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/so-what-do-we-call-this-work-of-evolving-an/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, startups So, what do we call this work of “evolving” an organization to become better adapted to the world in which it finds itself? A lot of best practices for reorganization fall under the general heading of change management. But this particular evolution requires something different. I’ve struggled over the years to explain why this change in particular is so difficult, so all-consuming, that it requires a special sort of person to pull it off. It requires: Leadership skills of a most distinctive kind, since transformation pits its leader against the hostile reactions of experienced people whose lives and careers are deeply invested in the status quo. Audacious experimentation, since beyond the general framework I’ve presented so far, every organization has to find its own distinctive shape, its own unique adaptations to the specific context in which it operates. The boldness to invest in sweeping, company-wide change—and the patience to wait until just the right moment to make this commitment. The discipline to start with small experiments that might hasten the arrival of the right moment without growing too big, too bloated, too fast. The most difficult kind of cross-functional collaboration: enlisting functional leaders in the creation of new and competing functions, thereby breaking down old functional silos and requiring old enemies to make common cause. But after all that backbreaking effort — it may not work. There are so many, many ways to fail: executive sponsors who get cold feet, market shifts or changes, competing internal reorganizations, a coordinated counterattack... --- > Brand is about what people aspire to be — a good mom, a capable leader, an innovator, eternally young — and the best ones make us feel good about - Published: 2023-06-03 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/brand-is-about-what-people-aspire-to-be-a-good/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing, product Brand is about what people aspire to be — a good mom, a capable leader, an innovator, eternally young — and the best ones make us feel good about ourselves. The emotional aspects of brand are often underinvested in by technology companies because it doesn’t directly correlate to sales. This is where small actions can add up to a big difference. — Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Martina Lauchengco Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Attaining alignment is not just a process of adding new things; it is also a never-ending process of identifying and doggedly correcting misalignments - Published: 2023-06-02 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/attaining-alignment-is-not-just-a-process-of/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership Attaining alignment is not just a process of adding new things; it is also a never-ending process of identifying and doggedly correcting misalignments that push a company away from its core ideology or impede progress. If the building layout impedes progress, change the building layout or move. If the strategy is misaligned with the core, change the strategy. If the organization structure inhibits progress, change the organization structure. If the incentive system rewards behavior inconsistent with the core, change the incentive system. Keep in mind that the only sacred cow in a visionary company is its core ideology. Anything else can be changed or eliminated. — Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Perfection can quickly become the enemy of great. “We don’t yet know who our ideal customers are,” or “We don’t yet know which messages are most - Published: 2023-06-02 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/perfection-can-quickly-become-the-enemy-of-great/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing, mental models, product Perfection can quickly become the enemy of great. “We don’t yet know who our ideal customers are,” or “We don’t yet know which messages are most compelling. ” A period of discovery and trial is essential, but it is equally essential to not wait for definitive data to make the right choice for right now. Timeboxing is a very simple but tried and true technique of allocating a fixed time period for a planned activity, then assessing whether or not you’ve reached a reasonable outcome at the end of it. It establishes a time boundary at the start of the process, not as a result of the process, and keeps you accountable to moving at the speed markets require. — Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Martina Lauchengco Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Building a great product isn’t enough to succeed if you don’t also take the time to position it in the market. Don’t make the mistake of assuming the - Published: 2023-06-01 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/building-a-great-product-isnt-enough-to-succeed/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, marketing, mental models, product, strategy Building a great product isn’t enough to succeed if you don’t also take the time to position it in the market. Don’t make the mistake of assuming the world knows how to think about your product and why it’s valuable. You must frame its value. If you don’t do it, other market forces will. That said, positioning a product well is much harder to do than it looks. It’s more than just data, stories, claims, or a positioning statement. It’s the collective outcome of everything you do to bring your product to market over time. Positioning and messaging are both important and often get conflated with one another. The differences are: Positioning is the place your product holds in the minds of customers. It’s how customers know what you do and how you differ from what’s already out there. Messaging includes the key things you say to reinforce your positioning, making you credible so people want to learn more. Positioning is your long game. Messaging is your short game. — Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Martina Lauchengco Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Whether professionals have a chance to develop intuitive expertise depends essentially on the quality and speed of feedback, as well as on sufficient - Published: 2023-06-01 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/whether-professionals-have-a-chance-to-develop/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, personal mastery Whether professionals have a chance to develop intuitive expertise depends essentially on the quality and speed of feedback, as well as on sufficient opportunity to practice. Expertise is not a single skill; it is a collection of skills, and the same professional may be highly expert in some of the tasks in her domain while remaining a novice in others. — Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Source: Amazon Kindle --- > What psychologists do believe is that all of us live much of our life guided by the impressions of System 1 — and we often do not know the source of these - Published: 2023-05-31 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/what-psychologists-do-believe-is-that-all-of-us/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models What psychologists do believe is that all of us live much of our life guided by the impressions of System 1 — and we often do not know the source of these impressions. How do you know that a statement is true? If it is strongly linked by logic or association to other beliefs or preferences you hold, or comes from a source you trust and like, you will feel a sense of cognitive ease. The trouble is that there may be other causes for your feeling of ease — including the quality of the font and the appealing rhythm of the prose — and you have no simple way of tracing your feelings to their source. — Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Source: Amazon Kindle --- > System 1 is gullible and biased to believe, System 2 is in charge of doubting and unbelieving, but System 2 is sometimes busy, and often lazy. Indeed, - Published: 2023-05-31 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/system-1-is-gullible-and-biased-to-believe-system/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models System 1 is gullible and biased to believe, System 2 is in charge of doubting and unbelieving, but System 2 is sometimes busy, and often lazy. Indeed, there is evidence that people are more likely to be influenced by empty persuasive messages, such as commercials, when they are tired and depleted. The operations of associative memory contribute to a general confirmation bias “... ” A deliberate search for confirming evidence, known as positive test strategy, is also how System 2 tests a hypothesis. Contrary to the rules of philosophers of science, who advise testing hypotheses by trying to refute them, people (and scientists, quite often) seek data that are likely to be compatible with the beliefs they currently hold. — Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Source: Amazon Kindle --- > The manager role is the “catalyst” role. As with all catalysts, the manager’s function is to speed up the reaction between two substances, thus creating - Published: 2023-05-31 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-manager-role-is-the-catalyst-role-as-with/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, personal mastery, team management The manager role is the “catalyst” role. As with all catalysts, the manager’s function is to speed up the reaction between two substances, thus creating the desired end product. Specifically, the manager creates performance in each employee by speeding up the reaction between the employee’s talents and the company’s goals and between the employee’s talents and the customers’ needs. When hundreds of managers play this role well, the company becomes strong, one employee at a time. No doubt, in today’s slimmed-down business world, most of these managers also shoulder other responsibilities. They are expected to be subject-matter experts, individual superstars and sometimes leaders in their own right. These are important roles, which great managers execute with varying styles and degrees of success. But when it comes to the manager aspect of their responsibilities, great managers all excel at this catalyst role. — First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Gallup Press Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Our project in the years to come will be to advance a positive vision of what liberal democracy can deliver with the new tools that technology is placing - Published: 2023-05-30 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/our-project-in-the-years-to-come-will-be-to/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, data, ethics, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, strategy Our project in the years to come will be to advance a positive vision of what liberal democracy can deliver with the new tools that technology is placing at our disposal. Its pillars must be: Broadly shared prosperity. Democratic accountability. Scientific inquiry and truth-telling. Long-term thinking. Universal entrepreneurial opportunity. Profound investment in the public goods that benefit everyone: basic science, R&D, education, health care, infrastructure. We must be guided by real research into which solutions are likely to work for society’s greater good. We must harness all of the tools of human culture and creativity to this vision: the arts, rhetoric, leadership, and education. And, of course, we must embrace change and disruption. We should understand technological development as a constant source of renewal and enlarged possibilities. We must plant the seeds of this new vision now. “... ” entrepreneurship can be part of this solution by: Creating new sources of growth and prosperity. Cultivating a new cohort of leaders among all generations who are not bound by convention or obligation to the ideas of the past yet are yoked through long-term incentives and mindset to the possibilities of the future. Integrating scientific thinking into every kind of work. Providing new opportunities for leadership to people of every background and circumstance. Helping public policy become more long-term in its objectives. The good news is, this new organizational form is more effective, treats talent and energy as a precious resource, and is designed to harness the true source of competitive advantage... --- > Even with its imperfections, our evidence-based approach to learning about people, guiding them, and sorting them is much fairer and more effective than - Published: 2023-05-30 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/even-with-its-imperfections-our-evidence-based/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, systems thinking, team management Even with its imperfections, our evidence-based approach to learning about people, guiding them, and sorting them is much fairer and more effective than the arbitrary and subjective management systems that most organizations still rely on. I believe that the forces of evolution will push most organizations toward systems that combine human and computer intelligence to program principles into algorithms that substantially improve decision-making. — Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Those with more creativity invent ways to do things more effectively (for instance by finding good people, good technologies, and/or good designs). Those - Published: 2023-05-29 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/those-with-more-creativity-invent-ways-to-do/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery Those with more creativity invent ways to do things more effectively (for instance by finding good people, good technologies, and/or good designs). Those with more character are better able to wrestle with their challenges and demands. And those with more wisdom can maintain their equanimity by going to the higher level and looking down on themselves and their challenges to properly prioritize, realistically design, and make sensible choices. — Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio Source: Amazon Kindle --- > The homogeneity principle states that the outputs of a system are always directly proportional to the input. In other words, twice as much in results in - Published: 2023-05-29 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/the-homogeneity-principle-states-that-the-outputs/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, systems thinking The homogeneity principle states that the outputs of a system are always directly proportional to the input. In other words, twice as much in results in twice as much out. This principle, however, can’t predict the effect of the previous states of the system on the outputs. Often previous states have a significant effect on present or future conditions. In other words, linearity can’t capture feedback; inputs and outputs come and go without any connection between them. Systems operating in space and time will inevitably be affected by feedback loops from their environment as every action the system takes will drive some sort of consequence. This consequence will feed back to the future state of the system that in return will elicit a reaction from the system. Therefore, as soon as we position our system into the real world, things unavoidably turn nonlinear. The more feedback loops we capture and include in our system mapping model, the more realistic of a picture we get about reality — and the more nonlinear the world becomes. — The Systems Thinker – Dynamic Systems: Make Better Decisions and Find Lasting Solutions Using Scientific Analysis by Albert Rutherford Source: Amazon Kindle --- > If all of the goals you set for yourself run counter to your own passions “…” question the goals you have set in the first place. Satisfaction is not - Published: 2023-05-29 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-all-of-the-goals-you-set-for-yourself-run/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery If all of the goals you set for yourself run counter to your own passions “... ” question the goals you have set in the first place. Satisfaction is not found in the achievement of goals, but in their pursuit, so many of the steps along the way to your goals should be enjoyable. The most proficient and prolific artists, authors, and architects all achieved what they did because they found a way to capitalize on what they already loved. Set goals that fit who you are, what you enjoy, and what you value. — Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture by Ryan A. Bush Source: Amazon Kindle --- > When we combine the behavioral realm with the cognitive and emotional realms, the full picture of self-mastery comes into view. These domains represent - Published: 2023-05-28 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/when-we-combine-the-behavioral-realm-with-the/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, personal mastery When we combine the behavioral realm with the cognitive and emotional realms, the full picture of self-mastery comes into view. These domains represent the ability to become the self of your highest vision. To resist the many forces which would lead you away from it. Self-mastery represents the degree to which you are capable of aligning with your own ideals. In other words, it is your ability to become a great individual and live a great life - by your own standards. The capacities found in the various forms of self-mastery like wisdom, equanimity, and self-control are not merely important virtues. They are the prerequisite, second-order virtues that enable all other strengths to emerge. — Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture by Ryan A. Bush Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Use tools to collect data and process it into conclusions and actions. Imagine that virtually everything important going on in your company can be - Published: 2023-05-27 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/use-tools-to-collect-data-and-process-it-into/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, data, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, systems thinking Use tools to collect data and process it into conclusions and actions. Imagine that virtually everything important going on in your company can be captured as data, and that you can build algorithms to instruct the computer, as you would instruct a person, to analyze that data and use it in the way you agreed it should be used. In that way, you and the computer on your behalf could look at each person and all the people together and provide tailored guidance. — Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Algorithms are principles in action on a continuous basis. I believe that systemized, evidence-based decision making will radically improve the quality of - Published: 2023-05-27 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/algorithms-are-principles-in-action-on-a/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, data, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, team management Algorithms are principles in action on a continuous basis. I believe that systemized, evidence-based decision making will radically improve the quality of management. Human managers process information spontaneously using poorly thought-out criteria and are unproductively affected by their emotional biases. These all lead to suboptimal decisions. Imagine what it would be like to have a machine that processes high-quality data using high-quality decision-making principles and criteria. Like the GPS in your car, it would be invaluable, whether you follow all of its suggestions or not. I believe that such tools will be essential in the future. — Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Envisioned future — the second primary component of the vision framework — consists of two parts: a ten-to thirty-year “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” and - Published: 2023-05-27 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/envisioned-future-the-second-primary-component/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, strategy Envisioned future — the second primary component of the vision framework — consists of two parts: a ten-to thirty-year “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” and vivid descriptions of what it will be like when the organization achieves the BHAG. We selected the phrase “envisioned future,” recognizing that it contains a paradox. On the one hand, it conveys a sense of concreteness — something vivid and real; you can see it, touch it, feel it. On the other hand, it portrays a time yet unrealized — a dream, hope, or aspiration. — Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras Source: Amazon Kindle --- > “I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company’s existence, we have to - Published: 2023-05-26 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/i-think-many-people-assume-wrongly-that-a/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, strategy “I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company’s existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being. ” (Core) Purpose, which should last at least 100 years, should not be confused with specific goals or business strategies, which should change many times in 100 years. Whereas you might achieve a goal or complete a strategy, you cannot fulfill a purpose; it is like a guiding star on the horizon — forever pursued, but never reached. Yet while purpose itself does not change, it does inspire change. The very fact that purpose can never be fully realized means that an organization can never stop stimulating change and progress in order to live more fully to its purpose. — Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Core values are the organization’s essential and enduring tenets — a small set of timeless guiding principles that require no external justification; they - Published: 2023-05-26 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/core-values-are-the-organizations-essential-and/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, product, strategy Core values are the organization’s essential and enduring tenets — a small set of timeless guiding principles that require no external justification; they have intrinsic value and importance to those inside the organization. “The core values embodied in our Credo might be a competitive advantage, but that is not why we have them. We have them because they define for us what we stand for, and we would hold them even if they became a competitive disadvantage in certain situations. ” The key point is that an enduring great company decides for itself what values it holds to be core, largely independent of the current environment, competitive requirements, or management fads. — Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Core ideology provides the bonding glue that holds an organization together as it grows, decentralizes, diversifies, expands globally, and attains - Published: 2023-05-26 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/core-ideology-provides-the-bonding-glue-that-holds/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, strategy Core ideology provides the bonding glue that holds an organization together as it grows, decentralizes, diversifies, expands globally, and attains diversity within. Think of core ideology as analogous to the principles of Judaism that held the Jewish people together for centuries without a homeland, even as they spread in the Diaspora. Or think of it like the truths held to be “self-evident” in the United States Declaration of Independence, or the enduring ideals and principles of the scientific community that bond scientists from every nationality together with the common purpose of advancing human knowledge. Any effective vision must embody the core ideology of the organization, which in turn consists of two distinct sub-components: core values and core purpose. — Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras Source: Amazon Kindle --- > If the technology is new, you very likely don’t have anyone on the teams who has been trained on this new technology. This fact ends up scaring off many - Published: 2023-05-26 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-the-technology-is-new-you-very-likely-dont/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, product, team learning If the technology is new, you very likely don’t have anyone on the teams who has been trained on this new technology. This fact ends up scaring off many leaders, or they occasionally think they have to partner with a third party that does have the necessary experience. But if the technology is important to you, your company needs to learn that technology. And the sooner the better. The good news is that this is rarely that difficult. Your best engineers are probably already considering this technology and would love to be able to explore further. In the best organizations, it is the empowered engineers that often identify these enabling technologies and proactively bring the possibilities to the leaders, usually in the form of a prototype. — EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: Amazon Kindle --- > It’s about shared learning. One of the keys to having a team of missionaries rather than a team of mercenaries is that the team has learned together. They - Published: 2023-05-25 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/its-about-shared-learning-one-of-the-keys-to/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, product, team learning It’s about shared learning. One of the keys to having a team of missionaries rather than a team of mercenaries is that the team has learned together. They have seen the customer’s pain together, they have watched together as some ideas failed and others worked, and they all understand the context for why this is important and what needs to be done. — INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: svpg. com --- > Above all else, my wishes for you are that: You can make your work and your passion one and the same. You can struggle well with others on your common - Published: 2023-05-24 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/above-all-else-my-wishes-for-you-are-that-you/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, personal mastery Above all else, my wishes for you are that: You can make your work and your passion one and the same. You can struggle well with others on your common mission to produce the previously mentioned rewards. You can savor both your struggles and your rewards and; You will evolve quickly and contribute to evolution in significant ways. — Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio Source: Amazon Kindle --- > User research is all about insights, which is why I’m such a fan of having strong user researchers in the organization. Mostly the insights they generate - Published: 2023-05-24 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/user-research-is-all-about-insights-which-is-why/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, product, user research User research is all about insights, which is why I’m such a fan of having strong user researchers in the organization. Mostly the insights they generate are qualitative and therefore not “statistically significant,” but don’t let that bother you — qualitative insights are often profound and can literally change the course of your company. The user research community generally breaks down insights into two types. The first is evaluative, which essentially means, what did we learn from testing out this new product idea? Did it work or not, and if not, why not? The second type of insights are generative. This means, did we uncover any new opportunities that we aren’t pursuing, but maybe we should? — EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: Amazon Kindle --- > A well-conceived vision consists of two major components — core ideology and an envisioned future. Notice the direct parallel to the fundamental “preserve - Published: 2023-05-24 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/a-well-conceived-vision-consists-of-two-major/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, strategy A well-conceived vision consists of two major components — core ideology and an envisioned future. Notice the direct parallel to the fundamental “preserve the core/stimulate progress” dynamic. A good vision builds on the interplay between these two complementary yin-and-yang forces: it defines “what we stand for and why we exist” that does not change (the core ideology) and sets forth “what we aspire to become, to achieve, to create” that will require significant change and progress to attain (the envisioned future). To pursue the vision means to create organizational and strategic alignment to preserve the core ideology and stimulate progress toward the envisioned future. Alignment brings the vision to life, translating it from good intentions to concrete reality. — Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Soon enough, virtual reality environments may overtake our physical world as the primary locus of our experience, which means every aspect of our - Published: 2023-05-23 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/soon-enough-virtual-reality-environments-may/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, mental models, metaverse, personal mastery, systems thinking, virtual reality Soon enough, virtual reality environments may overtake our physical world as the primary locus of our experience, which means every aspect of our environment will have been designed by someone. Even today, it is hard to go anywhere that has not been deliberately shaped by human design. The concept of ontological design posits that in the act of designing our environments, we actually design ourselves, as the human mind is shaped greatly by its experiences. Hence there is a continual cycle of shaping between the individual and his environment. The earliest opportunity we have to shape our own behavioral algorithms is through the active structuring of our environments. This process allows us to avoid the inputs which trigger unwanted behaviors or ensure that we encounter those that trigger desired behavior. However, the purpose of environmental design does not just lie in avoiding negative cues, but in using cues to condition habits, making us invulnerable to threats when they inevitably come along. — Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture by Ryan A. Bush Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Surround your disruptive core product, the thing that got you to the dance, with a whole product that solves the target customer’s problem end to end. - Published: 2023-05-23 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/surround-your-disruptive-core-product-the-thing/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, product, strategy Surround your disruptive core product, the thing that got you to the dance, with a whole product that solves the target customer’s problem end to end. That will keep you on the dance floor for a long time to come. The way you design a whole product is to work backward from the target customer’s use case, filling in the blanks as you go along, either with new R&D, an acquisition, a partnership, or an alliance. — Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore Source: Amazon Kindle --- > If you’re not actively taking what employees learn from their networks and bringing that knowledge back into the company to help solve challenges, it’s as - Published: 2023-05-22 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/if-youre-not-actively-taking-what-employees-learn/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, people If you’re not actively taking what employees learn from their networks and bringing that knowledge back into the company to help solve challenges, it’s as if you’re flying millions of miles a year without bothering to attach your frequent flyer number to the reservations. The asset is there, but you have to claim it. — The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, et al. Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Building a visionary company is a design problem, and great designers apply general principles, not mechanical lock-step dogma. Any specific how-to will - Published: 2023-05-22 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/building-a-visionary-company-is-a-design-problem/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, design thinking, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, strategy Building a visionary company is a design problem, and great designers apply general principles, not mechanical lock-step dogma. Any specific how-to will almost certainly become obsolete. But the general concepts — adapted, of course, to changing conditions — can last as guiding principles well into the next century. — Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras Source: Amazon Kindle --- > People cannot reliably predict where they are going and how their lives will unfold, especially in today’s unpredictable world. Those who built visionary - Published: 2023-05-21 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/people-cannot-reliably-predict-where-they-are/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, personal mastery, strategy People cannot reliably predict where they are going and how their lives will unfold, especially in today’s unpredictable world. Those who built visionary companies wisely understood that it is better to understand who you are than where you are going — for where you are going will almost certainly change. It is a lesson as relevant to our individual lives as to aspiring visionary companies. — Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Functionality, design, and technology are inherently intertwined. In the old waterfall model, the market drove the functionality (aka the requirements), - Published: 2023-05-20 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/functionality-design-and-technology-are/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, product Functionality, design, and technology are inherently intertwined. In the old waterfall model, the market drove the functionality (aka the requirements), which drove the design, which drove the implementation. Today, we know that the technology drives (and enables) the functionality as much as the other way around. We know that technology drives (and enables) design. We know that design drives (and enables) functionality. You don’t have to look further than your own phone to see numerous examples of both. The point is that all three of these are completely intertwined. This is the single biggest reason we push so hard for the product manager, product designer, and tech lead to sit physically adjacent to each other. — INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: Amazon Kindle --- > While product strategy starts with focus, it then depends on insights. And insights come from study and thought. These insights come from analyzing the - Published: 2023-05-19 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/while-product-strategy-starts-with-focus-it-then/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, product, strategy While product strategy starts with focus, it then depends on insights. And insights come from study and thought. These insights come from analyzing the data and from learning from our customers. The insights might pertain to the dynamics of our business, our capabilities, new enabling technologies, the competitive landscape, how the market is evolving, or our customers. — EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan Source: Amazon Kindle --- > When you start a new business you do not need to envision accurately the details of your strategy or predict foresightedly how technology will evolve. - Published: 2023-05-18 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/when-you-start-a-new-business-you-do-not-need-to/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, business, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, strategy, systems thinking When you start a new business you do not need to envision accurately the details of your strategy or predict foresightedly how technology will evolve. Rather, you need to focus primarily on getting the initial conditions right. If you start from a good place, then the choices that lead to success will look like the right choices. In order to exploit these choices, you need to create a business model whose resources, processes, and values can harness these forces so that they propel you toward success rather than blow you away. — The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by Clayton M. Christensen, et al. Source: Amazon Kindle --- > Personal recommendations go a long way. We trust the judgment of others. It’s part of the fabric of strong cultures. But we don’t trust the judgment of - Published: 2023-05-18 - Modified: 2023-07-17 - URL: https://raffiapalm.gokepelemo.com/personal-recommendations-go-a-long-way-we-trust/ - Categories: Excerpts - Tags: books, building shared vision, ideation, kindle, kindle quotes, leadership, marketing, product Personal recommendations go a long way. We trust the judgment of others. It’s part of the fabric of strong cultures. But we don’t trust the judgment of just anyone. We are more likely to trust those who share our values and beliefs. When we believe someone has our best interest in mind because it is in their benefit to do so, the whole group benefits. The advancements of societies were based a great deal on the trust between those with a common set of values and beliefs. — Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek Source: Amazon Kindle --- ---