Recently, a reader asked how how I choose what to write about; basically, it comes down to whatever is on my mind. I have 2 primary modes when it comes to creating:
Seeking - when a topic intrigues me, I go hunting for as much information as I can find on it and write about it as a way to clarify my own understanding
Surfacing - I randomly read the n-th article on a topic, and since I tag everything I read, through serendipity I have a critical mass of notes I can synthesize
But what the reader who reached out was struggling with was the randomness of it all. Wasn’t there a blueprint of the types of topics I would consider writing about?
So here we go - a mindmap of how I’m (currently) thinking about this newsletter:
As you can see, there are 7 major buckets my writing falls into:
Self - tips from my learning mindset and attempts to get 1% better every day
Communication - this is perhaps the most critical skill for a knowledge worker today and the main reason why I started writing (and publishing)
Leadership - a lot of my observations and advice around things I notice in companies (both ones I’ve worked in / studied from afar) fall into this category
Talent - nothing gets done without people, and this topic is evergreen
Strategy - thoughtful focus and deliberate emphasis around what you choose to do (and not do) is the highest-leverage aspect of running a business
Execution - we (myself included) tend to default to this mode, so plenty of lessons to share based on things that went right (and wrong)
Data - I love to quantify things, and this is less of a stand-alone grouping but rather something that gets woven into lots of brackets
I’d love to hear from readers on what branches I should add / dive into more - please chime in via comments👇. And if you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing.
update: based on reader feedback, I’m going to bucket my posts into these categories - laid out below since Substack doesn’t support tagging (yet)
[1] Self
[2] Communication
[3] Leadership
[4] Talent
[5] Strategy
[6] Execution
[7] Data
update: some other recurring themes in my writing
Product Management
War Stories
Amazon
Twitter
Box
…
B2B SaaS
Writing
Customer Centricity
further reading / references
here are my top posts from the last year in each category
Self: Your Actual Task List and Much TODO About Nothing
Communucation: The Myth of the “Natural” Public Speaker and Writing is Connecting
Leadership: Savior Syndrome and The Ineffective Executive
Talent: SCARF Management and It’s the Silence that Suffocates
Strategy: Illuminating Product Strategy and Implementing Product Strategy
Execution: The Power of Layering Product Choices and 4 Ways to F Up Product Development
Data: South Star Metrics and OKR Myths
childish drawing / interpretation
Would love to hear more of your thoughts on the talent space, especially on the topic of "Career Planning!"
PS - any tools you prefer for tagging what you read?