Identify what makes YOU interested in web3. Stay curious. Be an early adopter.
Find your why. Identify what makes YOU interested in web3 Stay curious. Watch videos, read news and newsletters, listen to podcasts Be an early adopter. Try new products, collect, make, and share NFTs Learn in public. Share notes and links, participate in chats and events, ask questions Build in public. Write and tweet about our work, speak publicly, educate others Look for things that work but don’t believe the hype blindly
Listen to customers. Focus on the problem side. Use our own products
Spend time with customers. Hundreds of hours, listen more than talk Focus on the problem side. Personas, needs, current solutions, painpoints, measures of success Study both direct customers (advertisers and DAOs) and customers’ customers (consumers) Get problem-side insights from competitors. What problems do they solve? Who are their core customers? Find hardcore customers. People and organizations with the highest need, urgency, and resources Use our own products, suggest improvements Seek high-frequency customer feedback loops. Try, measure, learn Scale learning. Automate feedback collection with forms, scheduling, email templates, and bots Validate customer learnings, ask questions that eliminate false positives Share customer learnings and feedback with the whole team
Solve the problem. Put all effort into tier-one problems. Measure impact
Solve the problem. Organize work on problems, not on improving solutions Have a clear picture of how “problem solved” state looks like Focus on the root problems. Why do we want to solve P? We solve P1 to help solve P2. P2 for P3. Is there an easier way to solve P3 directly? Prioritize. Put nearly all effort into tier-one problems Ask “Is this the most important thing I can work on right now?” Measure impact. We made { solution }, and customer used it to achieve { impact metrics} Do work that moves impact metrics not solution metrics Organize org chart by KPIs. Assign key goals to high performers Benchmark our work against the best in the industry Impress the customer, not the manager Frequently rebalance work towards things that make the most impact
Launch in one week. Be on a deadline. Use “strategic overburdening”
When building something new try to launch v1 in one week Ship things that you feel are incomplete Be on a deadline. Budget time for tasks. Fixed time, variable outcome Scope down. Do less, but deliver on time Optimize for time-to-impact, look for shortcuts, be impatient Say no frequently. Decline meetings, intros, features, partnerships Strong opinion, weakly held. Make the right decisions in a timely manner, despite the uncertainty When things change, update your plan Use “strategic overburdening.” Assign more tasks than an employee can do but allow to reject Appoint directly responsible individuals for top KPIs
Speak up, ask questions, criticize, debate, seek truth, but be kind
Async first. Schedule meetings only if needed and be on time Run meetings like a pro: prepare agenda, listen well, take notes, follow up Go through the agenda fast. Make 30 decisions in 30 minutes Get to the point in the first sentence. Say it with numbers and deadlines Speak up, ask questions, debate, seek the truth Express criticism at the case level, don’t generalize Discuss failures publicly, not to blame but to learn from them When arguing A vs B, look for C that is better than both Manage your manager, treat them like a permanently distracted baby Argue with your manager, reject meaningless tasks Ask for help early, connect when needed Respond quickly, unblock others Say what you need to say, but be kind
Raise the bar. Improve your taste. Learn from mistakes.
Raise the bar. Challenge yourself to do more, better, faster Improve your taste. Build your training set, learn what is good There are no stupid questions. Be curious like a baby Proactively seek critical feedback to get better Find your learning sources. People who inspire and challenge you Learn from mistakes. Find actionable lessons in every failure
Bring high energy. Do what excites. Recharge often. Optimism is a force multiplier