Details Matter
People gravitate towards new, exciting things.
Whether the goal is getting in shape for the new year, building something great, or making money off bitcoin — you will find an article written by an author who preaches how to be successful.
It’s overwhelming. People keep telling you what you’re missing — and how you’re only 3 steps away from success! Just get up at 4:00am every day and do these 30 things before breakfast! That’s it!
I find all of this to be troubling.
First, stop thinking that reading these articles (or books… or interviews…) make you any closer to your goals. They do not.
Second, I would really consider whether or not you need to make a change in your life. People may come to realize that nothing needs to change, and that is a wonderful thing to realize.
And third, if you do want to make a change, then you should realize that what you want to do is not nearly as important as how you do it.
The communication platform Slack is taking businesses by storm. Slack is the fastest ever business-to-business application to reach $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
They reached $100M ARR in less than 3 years after launching.
Despite all of their recent success, critics dismiss Slack’s growth by saying “it’s just messaging.” And sure, we’ve had IRC and chat platforms from AOL, Microsoft, Atlassian, and others for years.
But this, in my opinion, makes Slack’s success more impressive. How did this product enter a crowded market and convince everyone that they were better?
Slack’s first product manager, Kenneth Berger, has some insights to share. Ken shares that you need to intentionally design peaks and valleys. The peaks (high parts) make your product stand out and make the valleys (low or absent parts) acceptable.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has similar advice to founders who are looking to recruit executives. They advise that you forget the perfect “well-rounded” circle and look for spikes.
Co-founder and managing partner Ben Horowitz writes it’s “imperative that you hire for strength rather than lack of weakness”. This is a beautiful phrase.
When you are looking for an engineer manager, you want someone who is excellent at managing engineers. It doesn’t matter whether they went to school, who they vote for, or whether they understand marketing.
It’s human nature to hedge your bets and go with a safe option. But, in both cases, you are making a mistake.
To learn more about Slack’s philosophy, this interview with CEO Stewart Butterfield does a great job. Note how he takes time to describe, in detail, how they decide when to send a push notification to a new account.
Truthfully, it’s only the details that matter. For example…
It does not matter what you do, it matters how you do it.
It does not matter if you’re 95% water, that extra 5% makes you a jellyfish.
It does not matter if people dismiss you as “just” messaging if you’re the fastest ever company to reach $100,000,000 in annual revenue.
There will always be a new, exciting thing vying for our attention — but that’s not what we need more of.
We need more intense focus. We need more people who concentrate on the details. We need more people with opinions, people who care.
As my university professor said:
In general, it is the specifics — and only the specifics — that matter.
