Let’s say you make a product that costs the customer $.99 to buy. Your cost to make the product was $.49. Your gross profit on a product sale is $.50. Let’s say it costs you $.25 to gain a customer through marketing and advertising efforts. Your net profit is $.25, right? Those unit economics work […]
Unit Economics
If it costs $1.00 to make and market a product, and you sell the product for $.99, you have a problem. That seems obvious. What’s not so obvious is this: the more products you sell, the more money you lose. No amount of $.01 losses will add up to a profit. Make sure your unit […]
Information Asymmetry
There are many obstacles to running a remote team…. just as there are many advantages. But the single most important factor in keeping the team functional is this: information has to be shared as soon as it’s available and with as many people as possible. Information assymetry is a ticket to politics and rework in […]
What are you excited about right now?
One short, simple question. And yet, it catches people so off guard. It’s not normal to hear an open-ended question about what’s most interesting to you right now… or what’s motivating you… or what’s exciting in your life. That’s what makes it the perfect question to spark meaningful conversation. Click to tweet this post.
The Thing About Good Things
In 2015, Netflix announced an unlimited maternity and paternity leave policy within twelve months of a baby’s birth. And yet there were detractors (there always will be). “What about the people in the dvd distribution centers?” “What about the customer service representatives?” Yes, of course those parents deserve to be treated well too. Of course […]
The Parent Wars
Intentional parenting leads to more well-adjusted children and more fulfilled parents. The biggest obstacle to intentional parenting, in many cases, is the conflict between work life and home life. If you provide for a family, and your family depends on your income from your job, your incentive is to generate as much value from that […]
Fitness is Leadership
Plenty of leaders lead teams and organizations effectively while also maintaining poor personal habits… And yet there is a growing interest in the research world on the effect of physical fitness on leadership potential. In a recent article in the journal The Academy of Management Perspectives, Taking the Leadership High Road Charles Manz reviews the […]
The Work You Can’t Not Do
Somewhere deep inside of you is a wealth of talent, just waiting to be developed. With a strong set of values, a few core beliefs about the world, skills to pay the bills, and the right people to surround yourself with… you could do work you love, day in and day out. It’s not as […]
The Organizational Stack
Individual contributors are the people in your organization (you?) on the front lines. They’re the ones doing the heavy lifting, the direct customer interaction, and running the day to day operations. Most importantly, a great individual contributor has a sense of purpose, seeks mastery of her craft, and delivers results autonomously. Managers are the people […]
Where do great managers come from?
Finding an answer to the question, “Where have all the great managers gone?” starts with another question. Where do great managers come from to begin with? How, exactly, does one become a leader who is capable of developing people into high performing professionals? Presumably, before you can coach a person on the path to becoming […]