Andy Lykens

Innovating and operating through growth

Do it for the algorithm

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Get lots of likes, clicks, and link-backs. And shares, shares are important for network effects.

Definitely don’t ask people what they think of the result – and if they tell you anyway, just ignore it. Feel free to ignore the tradeoffs too. Only apologize if you have to. Definitely avoid responsibility at all costs.

Forget about the person that needs it. Forget about what’s good for the team. Don’t do it because it will make the product better. And that vision you started with? Who cares.

Do it at the right time, with the right link, and the right keywords. Do it to be the top hit in search.

Make it faster. More swiping. Less thinking. Shorter. Catchier. Easier. Make sure notifications are enabled.

Do it for the algorithm.

So the algorithm can sell more ads.

What are you squeezing in?

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Is it a meeting? An email? Is it getting your full attention? Are you doing it because you have 4 minutes before your Lyft gets here? Are you responding with your opinion, or did you do the legwork?

Are you squeezing in a vacation? A hike? A walk around the block? Does it feel like you shouldn’t be doing it? Do you feel guilty for enjoying it? Do you feel better because you squeezed in an email in the meantime?

Is it a family dinner? A date? Drinks with a friend? Are you squeezing in time with someone you care about? A FaceTime with mom?

We are constantly pulled in different directions, with activities in our lives bleeding into each other at every moment if we let them. There’s always an opportunity to put something down, set it aside, or resign ourselves to the fact that it is literally not possible to show up like we want if we take on this additional thing.

Squeezing it in is a signal that our plate is already full, and that maybe, we should squeeze it out instead.

Differentiation and statistics

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You would be hard pressed to go through a day in your life without bumping into statistics. Most products and companies you interact with are built because those companies are very good at figuring out what works for most people. Apple discontinues iPhone sizes because most people don’t want the small one.

But at some point we will be outliers within the realm of a given statistical model. Maybe you’re a size 15 shoe or you really like the idea of having a smaller iPhone. It’s at these times when we might feel frustrated. It’s hard to find shoes when you’re a size 15, especially if you live somewhere that people have statistically smaller feet. You’re stuck if they discontinue the phone that’s right for you because you have small hands.

At exactly these times, feeling seen is important. It creates the differentiation that we love about a product, a service, or a community. It gives people a chance with big feet or small hands a chance to get something that feels like its just for them. They probably tell their friends about how great it is too.

The catch is that as companies attract people by differentiation, they start to grow. If growth is a company goal, they need to tailor their offering to more and more people. More and more people who are less likely to have big feet or small hands.

Because as the company grows, they have to start making shoes in more sizes. This makes sense (because you can only sell so many size 15 shoes), and causes internal trade-offs. Designing those new shoes, marketing them, distributing them, providing customer service for them – all of this eats up resources that may at a previous point have been available for big-feet shoes.

And so the target market become outliers, and become dissatisfied, maybe moving on to a new differentiator or accepting something that is pretty good, instead of great. Certainly not telling their friends about it.

Who wins in this scenario? Probably not the people with big feet. Also probably not the people with “normal” sized feet because let’s face it, the new shoes aren’t for them either, they’re for everyone – just wearable enough by the most people possible. The company may win for a period, at least until new differentiators crop up and eat into market share.

The more growth-oriented the current players are, the more opportunity we have to create something that starts out as differentiated. But trying to balance differentiation while growing fast is the rub. It requires remembering that statistics aren’t the same as individuals, and that more growth isn’t the same as product-market fit.

A case for intuition

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You don’t always have the luxury of time, tools, experts, measuring devices and focus. Sure the engine doesn’t run perfectly, but then again you don’t need it to run perfectly – you need it to run well enough to do its job so you can focus on bigger problems. You’re also unlikely to ever know everything about a given problem, especially under constraints.

Intuition is useful in the moments when we need to act fast, and when we have the experience necessary to make something that’s good enough for now.

It’s also useful to determine when those moments are and what to do with them – because even if we don’t have any information about a problem, we certainly have plenty of information about ourselves.

(Hat Tip: Alex)

Do the legwork.

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Understanding how something works is complicated. Imagine someone gives you a car engine…ok, they give you a car engine and also take away your cell phone. Then they put you in a garage and tell you that the engine runs, but it doesn’t run as well as it should. You can tell when the engine is running correctly because you’re given a device that measures the number of times the engine’s pistons cycle in a minute (I don’t know if such a device exists, but humor me). You are incentivized to fix this engine with a significant reward (like ice cream).

You have all the tools you need, an instruction manual for the engine, and…ok fine, a cell phone, but one that only connects to an intranet with information on the engine and allows you to call some mechanics for advice. I repeat, the cell phone does not allow you to access the social medias.

After about 30 minutes of trying to login into Twitter and realizing its futile, you decide to get to work.

Given this task, most people who don’t have familiarity with an engine would probably spend some time on the phone with a mechanic. They’d peruse the engine schematics and instructions, and they’d probably also practice using the measuring device. There would also be other things to try like watching the engine run for a while. This is likely to occur in a different order depending on the person.

At some point they will have gathered enough information to make a decision about where to start. Should they take apart the whole engine? Focus on tweaking some part of the engine involved in the cycle time? Maybe they’ll just smack it with a wrench to see if that works? Where they start doesn’t really matter. The key is they have enough information to make a decision about where to start, they are unlikely to make a correct fix on their first try, and so they’ll need to measure the result and then decide what to do next.

Organizations are essentially engines within engines. The components work together in a specific way and you can adjust them and tweak them to try and change the result derived from the current arrangement of components. Similarly, you’re unlikely to nail it on your first try and the opportunity for perfection does not exist.

So then a question: if you have the tools, an expert resource, a manual, a way to measure your outcomes, and the ability to adjust your process after measuring, when is it appropriate to rely solely on your intuition?

Milestones

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Sometimes I get stuck in a trap. I think to myself: “Ah, once I achieve this next thing, then all will be well!” This is of course ridiculous.

Imagine pushing a boulder up a steep hill. When starting out on the journey, you can see some of the long, arduous path in front of you. You expect the other side of the hill should be much easier though you aren’t quite sure exactly what will happen between here and there. But you begin to push the boulder up the hill having a general expectation for the future.

Up and up you go, leaning into the boulder, sometimes changing positions to give muscle groups a break. Assuming no major unexpected events (which are entirely possible), at some point you get to the peak and think “It’s all downhill from here!” This too is folly – predicting a future that may never arrive. And then you can push once more, just like you did every step of the way to reach this point.

But the next thing that happens probably isn’t that you win the game of life and have everything you’ve ever wanted and feel completely fulfilled.

It may be that your journey is on a new course, that things are easier, or that you finally see something that your previous perspective blinded you to. Things could also be more difficult, or the next push may send the boulder on an unexpected turn. You may also get to that peak and decide you’d rather not push boulders anymore, and leave the boulder at the peak to pursue basket-weaving.

What’s certain is at the moment on top of the hill, ready to push the boulder down the other side, was only made possible because you already put in so much effort. In fact, the next push is only possible because you decided to begin in the first place and then kept showing up to push the boulder. The hill’s peak may seem like a significant milestone, and you may appreciate it as one, but it is no different than all the previous pushes except that you’re stopping to appreciate it.

No matter what happens, you reap at least some benefits of all the pushing (exercise, problem-solving, determination) even if you walk away from boulders altogether for the rest of your life. Even if you quit the boulder-pushing before you’re done, you at least know that boulder-pushing isn’t for you.

Most of the time, to achieve anything that is meaningful to us, it is a long, slow climb and we wind up at the end of the achievement (should we accomplish it) much the same as we were at its outset – perhaps even missing the scenery.