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On Re-Reading and The Book Quantity Trap
It seems like more people are reading actual books these days. Admittedly, I have no data to back this up outside of my observations of friends in-person and on social media. However, more people I...
View ArticleListen, Learn, and Help. Then, Lead.
I’m constantly drawn to leaders in military settings. I suspect it’s because of the immense gravity surrounding their specific situation. It’s hard to fathom what it’s like to lead a country being...
View ArticleBuild Your Own Red Team
At some point or another, I’d imagine virtually all of us have answered some form of the “money is no object” question. Essentially this: If you didn’t have to worry about money at all, what would you...
View ArticleHow to Respond When Your Teammate Makes a Mistake
One of my colleagues at Zapier has been diving deep on the ins and outs of coaching. A few weeks back, she put out a prompt to our team. How do you respond when a teammate makes a mistake? My brain...
View ArticleGive Your Team a Way to Say No
Using broad strokes, there are two ways to generate more output from your business. You can hire more people.You can increase the capacity of your current team. The latter obviously allows you to get...
View ArticleGreat Intentions Can Lead to Unpredictable Outcomes
We build goals and processes with the best intentions, but often times, the outcomes aren’t what we expected. In some cases, they actually run counter to the original intention. Let’s look at a...
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Finding the Sweet Spot in Your Checkout Process
Recently, I was helping a friend review and optimize the checkout experience on their website. One of the first metrics we honed in on was how easy it was for someone to pay. We talked through an...
View ArticleBuilding a “Battlefield-Like Sense of Camaraderie”
Without a doubt, my favorite leadership book of all time is The Score Takes Care of Itself by Coach Bill Walsh. I shared my overall notes awhile back and my two favorite leadership takeaways as well....
View ArticleLeave Decision Breadcrumbs for Your Team
Last year, I went through several rounds of interviews at various companies before landing at Zapier. Since my primary role day-to-day is surrounding people leadership, I’m often asked about decision...
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Examining Grammarly’s (Quiet) Growth Loop
Listing out the unicorns of the past decade, Zoom, Slack, TikTok, Instagram all probably come to mind. Lately, though, I’ve been curious about Grammarly, a company oddly missing from the everyday...
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“Delight” in Customer Support
This week, I came across a Twitter discussion about the term “delight” in Customer Support. The word has had a precipitous rise and (depending on who you talk to) fall within the industry. After Tony...
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Writing on the web
TL;DR: I’m going to start blogging again. If you’d like, you can follow along via old-fashioned RSS or get the email. Following the common pattern for born-again bloggers, let’s talk a bit about...
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Essence of a strategy
I’ve been reading and taking notes on strategy for the past year. What does it mean to be strategic? What does a good strategy look like? I started this process because “strategy” was everywhere. Job...
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Carrying capacity
I’m republishing some posts from Substack with some minor edits. This is one of them! In 2018, I became the co-owner of a CrossFit gym in Westminster, Colorado. Over two years, we doubled the revenue...
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Learning Log: October 2023
Several years back, I sent a monthly emailed titled “Let’s Get Coffee.” The premise was simple—a periodic update of what I’m working on, thinking about, and reading across the internet. Inspired by...
View ArticleGravity, incentives, and outcomes
In interviews, Peter Thiel apparently asks, “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?” Phrased differently, “What’s your core unpopular opinion?” This question has lingered in the...
View ArticleDigesting Chesky’s playbook
Several months ago, Brian Chesky took the stage at Config and described how the product management role has shifted towards product marketing at Airbnb, causing a flurry of blog posts, opinion pieces,...
View ArticleField notes from the job hunt
My time at Ness ended on July 17th. After roughly four months, I’m excited to share I start my new full-time role on Nov 27th with Paytient. I honestly couldn’t have found a better fit; more on that...
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Business maps
Thanks to Tom Critchlow’s writing, I’ve had maps on the mind. Compared to text, maps expose connections and provide a method of visualizing how components intersect. His own blog map provides a great...
View ArticleClimbing the career Y-axis
During my recent job search, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my career. Specifically, my past experiences, how they tied together and how they prepared me for future roles. In particular, I kept...
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