Scaling teams is hard and it's one of the main factors why many startups fail. Team dynamics are powerful but delicate, and expansion is a surefire way to break them."It's a fallacy that bigger teams are better than smaller ones because they have more resources to draw on. As a team gets bigger, the number of links that need to be managed among members goes up at an accelerating rate." — J. Richard Hackman, Harvard sociology professor

Hiring more people breaks team dynamics

In a team, everyone has to know each other and everything that's going on in order to build trust and maintain a common purpose. This is doable in a small team, but impossible in a company where there are too many people, broken into silos, and too many things going on.In a company, the goal is for everyone to know someone on every other team, so that when they think about or have to work with another team, they envision a friendly face rather than a competitive rival.

Everyone must know someone in every team

The way you organize your office space affects how people behave. The open office was created to encourage cooperation, spread ideas, and promote interaction between employees distant from one another on the org chart. As an executive, try to be as close to the open office as feasible, ideally within it, to keep a finger on the pulse of the company."If you lock yourself in your office, I don't think you can be a good executive", said Michael Bloomberg after he became mayor of New York City and converted a big hearing room into an open office with cubicles, and put himself in the middle of it.

Put executives in the same office as the employees

As a leader, you should spend your time on decisions where you bring the most value. For everything else, empower your team to decide without waiting for your approval. It costs less to fix the errors you would have spotted than to wait for your approval and delay the decision.In the past, leaders approved everything because they had the most information, communication was slow, and companies moved at a predictable pace. But today, your team often knows more than you about what’s happening on the ground, and speed matters more than perfection.

Delegate decisions where you're not adding the most value

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.

It’s tempting to play the heroic leader that makes decisions, solves problems, and saves the day. It feels productive and wins praise from your team and boss. But it turns you into a bottleneck and trains your team to wait for answers instead of taking ownership.Your real job is to shape the culture, setting up systems (routines, habits, communication flows) that keep your team in sync and help them solve problems on their own. You get faster decisions, more ownership, and a team that runs smoothly even when you're not around.It’s a shift from short-term control to long-term scale.

Your job is to shape the culture, not solve every problem

Culture isn’t what you say. It's what you do, reward, tolerate, and repeat. And you're shaping it every day, whether you mean to or not. In a small startup, those signals are amplified and every action sets a precedent, so lead by example, even when you're moving fast.Pay attention to:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">How decisions get made</li><li class="ql-align-justify">How problems get handled</li><li class="ql-align-justify">How you communicate and share information</li><li class="ql-align-justify">The habits you reinforce</li><li class="ql-align-justify">The behaviors you call out</li><li class="ql-align-justify">The things you let slide</li></ul>

Culture is shaped by what you do every day

From the New York Times bestselling author of My Share of the Task and Leaders, a manual for leaders looking to make their teams more adaptable, agile, and unified in the midst of change. When General Stanley McChrystal took command of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in 2004, he quickly realized that conventional military tactics were failing. Al Qaeda in Iraq was a decentralized network that could move quickly, strike ruthlessly, then seemingly vanish into the local population. The allied forces had a huge advantage in numbers, equipment, and training—but none of that seemed to matter. To defeat Al Qaeda, they would have to combine the power of the world’s mightiest military with the agility of the world’s most fearsome terrorist network. They would have to become a "team of teams"—faster, flatter, and more flexible than ever. In Team of Teams, McChrystal and his colleagues show how the challenges they faced in Iraq can be rel­evant to countless businesses, nonprofits, and or­ganizations today. In periods of unprecedented crisis, leaders need practical management practices that can scale to thousands of people—and fast. By giving small groups the freedom to experiment and share what they learn across the entire organiza­tion, teams can respond more quickly, communicate more freely, and make better and faster decisions.  Drawing on compelling examples—from NASA to hospital emergency rooms—Team of Teams makes the case for merging the power of a large corporation with the agility of a small team to transform any organization.

teamwork

Teamwork

business

Business

startup

Startups

books

Books

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

General Stanley McChrystal

Tantum Collins

David Silverman

Chris Fussell

Team of Teams

Cross-functional teams that stay in the same office and solve problems together are more creative and make faster decisions. They're constantly engaging, giving feedback from different perspectives, and looking at the product as one thing.In contrast, silo teams fragment your organization and require more management for cross-team initiatives. Moreover, they prioritize their silo over the company/product, and they don't view the product as one thing.Following the 2-pizza rule, you can have a single big team until you reach 10 people, but then you'll need to split people.

Use cross-functional teams to keep the startup magic

Your job is not to come up with a grand vision of the product and then to dictate solutions to your teams. Your job is to clarify the whys and the problems, socialize them in your organization, and explain them so well that engineers can come up with solutions to them on their own.Product Management is a role that leads through influence instead of authority.

As a Product Manager, you don't have to solve all problems

Get feedback on your product specs and Figma wireframes as early as possible, before you spec them out completely. People are more willing to give you honest feedback on work-in-progress rather than on polished proposals. Rough drafts signal openness to changes and encourages people to give feedback, without feeling like they're criticizing completed work.This applies to your teammates as well. Get their feedback early in the process.

Get quick feedback on product and design ideas

On this episode Eric sits down with Jeff Chow, the CEO of InVision, to explore the future of collaboration, continuous improvement, and cross-functional teamwork. They discuss Jeff's unique leadership style, which involves encouraging his team to be curious, authentic, and open to learning. The two dive deep into the world of agile methodologies and change management, as Jeff emphasizes the importance of quick feedback loops, instinct, and intuition for successful collaboration.As the conversation progresses, they explore the challenges teams face when transitioning from brainstorming to execution, with Jeff sharing an innovative approach that InVision has recently introduced to address this issue. Finally, they envision the future of collaborative workspaces, aiming to break down silos and facilitate seamless cross-functional workflows on a single canvas.Join Eric and Jeff as they uncover the power of collaboration, the value of listening to customers, and the impact of a unified workspace on productivity and continuous improvement. This episode is packed with valuable insights and practical tips for leaders and teams looking to revolutionize the way they work. Don't miss it!To connect with Eric, visit fullycycleproduct.comWatch/Listen at ChaosToClarity.io

podcasts

Podcasts

product

Product & Design

With growth comes growing pains. Every great leader has faced turmoil, setbacks, and the overwhelming stress of holding together a growing company as it nearly comes apart at the seams. You are not alone. Listen in as we share the stories and guidance from entrepreneurs, executives, and thought leaders who have walked the path from chaos to clarity.

Chaos To Clarity

How to Keep the Startup Magic at Any Scale with Jeff Chow, CEO at InVision

YouTube success depends on three key metrics: Click-Through Rate (CTR) gets people to click, while Average View Duration (AVD) and Average View Percentage (AVP) keep them watching.The formula is simple, but hard to execute: create a compelling hook to grab attention, build an engaging story with zero dull moments to maintain interest, then deliver a satisfying payoff with an abrupt ending. Every second must be optimized for retention — a video's success depends on how long viewers stay engaged.

Hook, Hold, and Pay Off: The viral video formula

MrBeast videos are 13min long on average and are designed in multiple segments:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">First minute is crucial and it has to match expectations from thumbnail and hook viewers instantly.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Minutes 1-3 transition from hype to execution, showing rapid progression to invest viewers in the story.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Minutes 3-6 need frequent scene changes and simple but exciting content to make viewers fall in love with the story.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Minutes 6+ can include longer explanations since viewers are already invested, but maintain quality and save a strong ending.</li></ul>

Minute by minute formula for engaging videos

The shape of the audience retention graph can tell you which parts of your video are most and least interesting to your viewers:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Flat lines mean viewers are watching that part from start to finish.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Gradual declines mean viewers are losing interest over time.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Spikes appear when more viewers are watching, rewatching or sharing those parts of the video.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Dips mean viewers are abandoning or skipping that part of the video.</li></ul>Your goal is to minimize early dropoff and maintain the most gradual possible slope.

Retention graphs on videos

Sometimes the most valuable brand investments are seemingly illogical. Going far beyond what's necessary — like using a crane to deliver a house when a truck would work — creates memorable moments that stick in people's minds. These "wow factors" might be inefficient from a pure data perspective, but they separate you from competitors and build deeper audience connection. The key is doing things that seem unreasonably ambitious — actions that make people think "only they would do this."

Invest in Wow! moments that define your brand

A-Players are defined by their obsessive drive to learn and deliver results. They are coachable, actively seek feedback, and consistently improve their skills. Unlike B-Players (trainable newcomers) or C-Players (average performers), A-Players are exceptional at their role and deeply believe in the company's mission. They take full ownership of mistakes, don't make excuses, and transform criticism into growth.Companies seeking excellence must exclusively hire and retain A-Players, as mixing in C-Players can poison team culture and performance standards.

Hire only A-Players

Success requires relentless follow-up on every project component. Simply delegating tasks and waiting for completion guarantees failure. Instead, check in daily with everyone involved, demand progress updates, and proactively identify potential issues. When working with contractors, treat their work as your responsibility — their failure is your failure. The key mindset is zero excuses: act as if nothing in the universe can stop your project from succeeding. This means obsessive oversight and refusing to leave any room for error.

Daily checkins are essential for project success

Mistakes are bound to happen to anyone and they're okay as long as you learn from them. Take responsibility when you mess up, without making excuses or trying to save face. Focus on quick solutions rather than defending yourself, and never repeat the same mistake twice.What separates A-Players isn't their absence of mistakes, but their response to them.

Own your mistakes to become an A-player

Promote your employees based on their impact and capability instead of an arbitrary time period they've been at your company.When an employee wants to grow, give them clear paths: handle bigger responsibilities, solve complex problems, and take ownership of risky projects. Create opportunities for them to prove their value through challenging work. Your A-players will stay longer if they know their growth potential is limited only by their drive and ability.

Promote based on drive instead of tenure

Avoid getting trapped in short term, day-to-day work. When you spend days focused only on immediate fires or only on one project, you create a dangerous snowball effect where other projects fall behind and become tomorrow's emergencies.Work on both short and long-term projects every day, even if just for 30 minutes, to keep the momentum alive and prevent future projects from becoming emergencies.

Keep both short and long-term projects moving every day

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

problemsolving

Problem Solving

entertainment

Entertainment

How to Succeed in MrBeast Production (Leaked PDF)

Performance marketing is marketing that you can measure the performance of. It's used for customer acquisition and it can involve:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Search ads that show up when users type queries relevant to your business (e.g. Google Search)</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Social media ads that show up in social media feeds, interleaved between content posts (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Affiliate marketing, where other people market your product and you give them a commission on every purchase they generate.</li></ul>

Performance marketing

If you're just starting out with performance marketing, it's faster to work with an ad agency or a consultant because they can quickly set things up and get the ball rolling. This will also help you remain focused on sales, client meetings and other important things.However, bear in mind that agencies often use generic playbooks and don't go deep into data analysis. They might miss key optimization opportunities like ad relevance and conversion tracking. Avoid this by ensuring detailed and frequent performance checks.

Start out with an ad agency

When: Once you reach $50k/mo in ad spend.Hire someone in-house to run and optimize campaigns full-time. They should be a data-driven person that can distinguish between signal and noise. They should understand the objective of your campaigns and what it means for your business such that they will know which campaign metrics are relevant and which matter less.

First hire: Growth Marketing Manager

When: Once your campaigns show a consistent need for new and refreshed creatives.Hire a creative specialist to produce new ideas more rapidly and more aligned with your brand tone. They should have graphic design and video editing skills, good branding sense, and an ability to produce ad copy and creative assets.

Second hire: Creative Specialist

When: Once you start needing more sophisticated analyses and deeper insights for your campaigns and overall marketing efforts.Hire a data scientist with advanced data analysis skills to build custom analytics frameworks. They should support the team with in-depth analytics, manage attribution models, and create reports to support campaign optimizations.

Third hire: Data Scientist

Use a 1% look-alike campaign with a small budget to test a new advertising platform. This will target the top 1% of users that most closely match your current customers based on their behaviors, interests, and demographics.If this campaign works, consider expanding the audience to the 2-4% look-alikes and later to broader audiences. This helps in gradually scaling your campaigns while maintaining relevance.

Test new platforms with look-alike audiences

Contact your Google, Meta or LinkedIn account manager, provide them with a list of your top competitors, and ask them to give you anonymized benchmarks on metrics like CPC, click-through rate, and conversion rate. This will help you understand where you stand relative to your competitors.

Ask your account manager for benchmark metrics

Timothy Davis has led performance marketing for all of Shopify for the past 2.5 years, and as a consultant has helped companies like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Redfin, and Eventbrite kickstart and scale their performance marketing teams. In every one of those cases, he got them so performant at paid growth that they significantly scale spend and investment in these channels. In our conversation, we cover:• When and how to start investing in performance marketing• Common mistakes companies make with paid ads• How to build and structure a performance marketing team• How to get your creatives performing better• Strategies for optimizing workflows and team efficiency• How AI will change performance marketing• Much more — Brought to you by: • ⁠BuildBetter⁠—AI for product teams • ⁠OneSchema⁠—Import CSV data 10x faster • ⁠Eppo⁠—Run reliable, impactful experiments — Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/performance-marketing-timothy-davis — Where to find Timothy Davis:  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothypatrickdavis/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Timothy’s background  (02:31) Understanding performance marketing  (06:31) The importance of paid search  (08:39) Identifying growth potential  (09:54) Case studies: Hairstory and Ipsy  (12:22) Experimenting with new platforms  (18:57) Choosing the right platforms  (20:23) LinkedIn for B2B marketing  (27:56) When to start investing in paid growth  (33:33) Common mistakes in performance marketing  (37:41) Working with agencies and consultants  (40:36) Hiring for performance marketing  (47:33) Metrics that matter  (54:43) Competitor analysis and CPC insights  (56:15) Custom reports and data visualization (56:38) Understanding impression and click share  (59:10) True competition metrics  (01:02:14) Attribution and incrementality  (01:08:52) Building a performance marketing team  (01:10:53) Creative and ad copy collaboration  (01:15:48) Managing workload and hiring strategy  (01:20:52) Training and onboarding new hires  (01:24:41) Impact of ATT on performance marketing  (01:25:56) The power of creative in ads  (01:29:47) Using AI in performance marketing  (01:37:16) Lightning round  — Referenced: • Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/ • What Is Performance Marketing?: https://www.shopify.com/blog/performance-marketing • Google AI: https://ai.google/ • Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ • Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/ • Booking.com: https://www.booking.com/ • Credit Karma: https://www.creditkarma.com/ • Hairstory: https://hairstory.com/ • Google Display Network: https://www.semrush.com/blog/google-display-network/ • SoftLayer Becomes Part of IBM’s SmartCloud: https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/deals/softlayer-becomes-part-of-ibm-s-smartcloud • Coca-Cola Freestyle: https://www.coca-colafreestyle.com/ • Monday.com: https://monday.com/ • How to sell your ideas and rise within your company | Casey Winters, Eventbrite: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-sell-your-ideas-and-rise-within • Thinking beyond frameworks | Casey Winters (Pinterest, Eventbrite, Airbnb, Tinder, Canva, Reddit, Grubhub): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/thinking-beyond-frameworks-casey • The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don’t: https://www.amazon.com/Signal-Noise-Many-Predictions-Fail-but/dp/0143125087 • Courtney Wenneborg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cwenneborg/ • PPC Hero: https://www.ppchero.com/ • Another Deep Dive into Auction Insights, by Jacob Brown: https://www.ppchero.com/another-deep-dive-into-auction-insights/ •Multitouch: https://multitouch.app/ • What is time decay attribution?: https://growthmethod.com/what-is-time-decay-attribution/ • Linear: https://linear.app/ • Consumer Heterogeneity and Paid Search Effectiveness: A Large-Scale Field Experiment: https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/stadelis/BNT_ECMA_rev.pdf • ADT: https://www.adt.com/ • Shopify Bursts: https://focus.business/blog/shopify-bursts/ • The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter: https://www.amazon.com/First-90-Days-Strategies-Expanded/dp/1422188612 • Kat Nguyen on Shopify: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katngy/ • Dollar Shave Club ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI • The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living: https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Stoic-Meditations-Wisdom-Perseverance/dp/0735211736 • Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Choice-Uncertainty-Luck-Why-Despite/dp/0062120999 • X-Men ’97 on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/series/x-men-97/vc1XIz90ZNH5 • RRR on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81476453 • The Playlist on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81186296 • Welcome to Wrexham on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/welcome-to-wrexham-c6906d50-d06c-40d1-a57c-1885d9dc2fef • The Billion Dollar Code on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81074012 • Magic Mind: https://magicmind.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover concrete, actionable, and tactical advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product. www.lennysnewsletter.com

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

The ultimate guide to performance marketing | Timothy Davis (Shopify)

If you're often complaining about your workplace or romantic relationships, there's a high chance that you're not communicating what you want to happen differently. This leads to resentment and it damages your relationships.Instead, you should be honest about your desires and boundaries and ask for what you want. Even if you don't get what you want, you'll maintain your integrity and your relationships will improve over time.

Ask for what you want to avoid resentment

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Articulate what you want → Get clear on what you want to happen and why you want it.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Ask for what you want → Don’t expect others to read your mind. Ask clearly and directly, while being open to their response.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Accept the response → Sometimes you won't get what you want. Treat it as an opportunity to get curious, iterate and try again.</li></ol>

How to ask for what you want

View it as a sign that you need to change your approach to get a Yes. Don't under-accept or over-accept it. This means neither treating it as invalid and refusing to learn from it, nor treating it as too valid, to the point where you assume you'll always hear No's in the future.

How to accept a refusal

Ask for what you want to avoid getting caught up in your partner's whims and wishes and ending up frustrated

Kenneth Berger coaches startup leaders on how to prevent burnout, advocate for their desired lifestyle, and make a meaningful impact on the world. He’s spent more than 20 years in the tech industry, is a former founder backed by top investors, and was the first product manager at Slack. Kenneth’s core mission is to help startup leaders change the world by learning to ask for what they want, living with integrity, and building genuine relationships even with the people they find most challenging. Currently he is writing a book, Ask for What You Want, in which he aims to share his actionable strategies for creating change in the world. In our conversation, we explore: • Why asking for what you want is so impactful • Three steps to effectively ask for what you want • Challenges that arise when people struggle to ask for what they want • Why hearing “no” is a normal part of the process • The “dream behind the complaint” technique for uncovering desires • Kenneth’s experience of being fired three times from Slack • How embracing fear and discomfort is key to getting what you want • Why discipline is overrated — Brought to you by: • ⁠Sidebar⁠—Accelerate your career by surrounding yourself with extraordinary peers • ⁠Webflow⁠—The web experience platform • ⁠Vanta⁠—Automate compliance. Simplify security — Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/ask-for-what-you-want-kenneth-berger — Where to find Kenneth Berger: • X: https://twitter.com/kberger • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@kberger • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kberger/ • Website: https://kberger.com/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Kenneth’s background (04:31) The importance of asking for what you want (06:36) Challenges that arise when people struggle to ask for what they want (08:09) A personal example of failing to ask for what you want (09:17) Signs this is a skill you need to work on (10:49) How to get better at knowing what you want (15:28) Why hearing “no” is a normal part of the process (17:29) Getting a “yes” vs. a “hell yes” (19:20) Step 1: Articulate what you want (24:07) Doing an integrity check (26:56) Step 2: Ask for what you want intentionally (30:45) Understanding your influence (34:48) Using complaints as inspiration (36:24) Internal family systems (38:00) Giving feedback (41:24) Step 3: Accept the response (45:22) Kenneth’s experience of being fired three times from Slack (57:30) Advice on being the first PM at a company or startup (01:04:58) Contrarian corner: anti-discipline (01:05:52) Lightning round — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

career

Career

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)

In their early days, Instagram treated all followers the same. This worked great for new users because they could follow and keep up-to-date with many celebrities. But, in 2016, IG noticed many people would leave the app after 7-8 months. This happened because when new users started posting photos of their own nobody would react to them. It felt like posting in an echo chamber.IG fixed it in 2017 by prioritizing posts from friends and ensuring new users connected to a few friends early on. It helped users get reactions from their friends and feel validated, and led to a 2x retention.

Instagram doubled their retention by prioritizing friends

Bangaly Kaba was an early growth PM at Facebook, head of growth at Instagram, and VP of Product at Instacart and is currently Director of Product at YouTube overseeing a global team working on creator monetization. Bangaly has also been a growth advisor to dozens of companies, including Twitter, on the board of multiple companies, and is an active angel investor. In our conversation, we discuss: • ⁠⁠A simple framework for choosing where to work and what to work on • ⁠⁠The importance of “understand work” • ⁠⁠The “adjacent users” theory and how it can help you drive growth • ⁠⁠Advice for coaching product managers • ⁠⁠Invaluable lessons from his time at Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube • ⁠⁠Much more — Brought to you by: • ⁠Uizard⁠—AI-powered prototyping for visionary product leaders • ⁠Mercury⁠—The powerful and intuitive way for ambitious companies to bank • ⁠Vanta⁠—Automate compliance. Simplify security. — Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/frameworks-for-growing-your-career-bangaly-kaba — Where to find Bangaly Kaba: • X: https://twitter.com/iambangaly • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iambangaly/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambangaly/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Bangaly’s background (06:31) Choosing where to work and what to work on (08:39) The impact factor (10:53) Evaluating the environment (15:53) The manager component (18:27) The skills part of the equation  (23:49) Advice on finding a mentor (25:42) The power of “understand work” (31:17) Operationalizing understand work (37:55) Balancing understand work  (41:25) Managing complex change (45:26) Effective management of product managers (51:35) The role of product managers as coaches and team leaders (54:52) Driving growth through flywheels and value proposition (01:03:14) Understanding adjacent users (01:08:41) The role of partnerships and SEO in Instagram’s early growth (01:16:08) The secret behind Instagram’s growth (01:25:37) Lessons from Facebook (01:29:15) Failure corner (01:31:58) Lightning round — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Unorthodox frameworks for growing your product, career, and impact | Bangaly Kaba (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Instacart)

First, determine your baseline level by measuring your HRV at rest for 4-6 weeks. Measure it the same way every day, preferably first thing in the morning because that's the most stable part of your day.After this, compare your HRV to your rolling average and to the same day in the previous weeks:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">If it drops too much, you're in fight-or-flight mode likely due to a lot of stress</li><li class="ql-align-justify">If it rises too much, you're in rest-and-digest mode, but you're experiencing too much recovery due to accumulated stress, overtraining or sickness</li></ul>Either way, if your HRV is outside your baseline levels, you should rest.

How to interpret your HRV at rest stats

A higher HRV is generally a good thing, but there are exceptions that the app picks up on. You want your HRV to gradually increase over time (weeks, months, yea

health

Health

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

longevity

Longevity

Is a higher Heart Rate Variability always better?

Your heart rate is constantly changing to adapt to what you're doing and keep your body in a steady state (homeostasis). As such, your Heart Rate Variability reflects your body's capacity to adapt to physical and psychological changes.In general, a higher HRV indicates better fitness, but too much variation means you're wasting energy. Worse even, too little variation indicates chronic health problems, where the body is struggling to adapt to changes.

A healthy heart is not a metronome

Heart Rate Variability: New Perspectives

If you are under pressure and your Heart Rate Variability is too high, your body goes into fight-or-flight mode and shuts down the brain's frontal lobe, which handles sophisticated thinking. This leads to poor thinking and hence to poor performance.Although this is an unconscious automatic process, you can control it. You have to notice such stressful situations and control your breathing rhythm. You want a smooth rhythmic breath with a fixed ratio of inhale to exhale (e.g. 4sec in, 6sec out). This regulates your HRV, making your brain's frontal lobe work better and helping you think better.

Breathe rhythmically to improve your thinking and performance

Your Heart Rate Variability is the one that affects your performance, not your Heart Rate. You can perform well both with a high HR and a low HR, as long as your HRV is optimal. However, if your HRV gets too high, your heart rate is erratic and your performance suffers.Your HRV depends on the emotional state you're in. Positive emotions such as excitement and contentment have an optimal HRV and thus enhance your performance, whereas negative emotions like anger and apathy have an abnormally high HRV and impair your performance.

Negative emotions impair your performance because their HRV is too high

Alan Watkins Performance Model

Alan is the founder and CEO of Complete Coherence Ltd. He is recognised as an international expert on leadership and human performance. He has researched and published widely on both subjects for over 18 years. He is currently an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Psychological Medicine at Imperial College, London as well as an Affiliate Professor of Leadership at the European School of Management, London. He originally qualified as a physician, has a first class degree in psychology and a PhD in immunology.

Website: http://www.complete-coherence.com

- About TEDx -

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

mindfulness

Mindfulness

meditation

Meditation

TEDx is an international community that organizes TED-style events anywhere and everywhere -- celebrating locally-driven ideas and elevating them to a global stage. TEDx events are produced independently of TED conferences, each event curates speakers on their own, but based on TED's format and rules.

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). 

For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request here: https://media-requests.ted.com.

TEDx Talks

TEDxPortsmouth - Dr. Alan Watkins - Being Brilliant Every Single Day (Part 1)

Dr. Alan Watkins - Being Brilliant Every Single Day

What we value determines what we do and what we buy. For example, if you value family, you will be drawn to anything that will be good for your family. If you value status, you will be drawn to anything that improves your status.If you know the values of your audience, you know what they are looking for.

Personalize marketing campaigns based on the values of your audience

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Family</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Relationships</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Financial security</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Belonging</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Community</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Personal growth</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Loyalty</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Religion/Spirituality</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Employment security</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Personal responsibility</li></ol>

Top 10 values shared across cultures

You are not your demographics. You are your values.

How do you find out what values your target audience shares? The most 
accurate way in the world is to use the Valuegraphics Database.

Team of Teams

How to Keep the Startup Magic at Any Scale with Jeff Chow, CEO at InVision

How to Succeed in MrBeast Production (Leaked PDF)

The ultimate guide to performance marketing | Timothy Davis (Shopify)

Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)

Ovidiu Podariu