RTB Blueprint

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:

1. 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

2. 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:

1. Self - tips from my learning mindset and attempts to get 1% better every day

2. Communication - this is perhaps the most critical skill for a knowledge worker today and the main reason why I started writing (and publishing)

3. 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

4. Talent - nothing gets done without people, and this topic is evergreen

5. Strategy - thoughtful focus and deliberate emphasis around what you choose to do (and not do) is the highest-leverage aspect of running a business

6. Execution - we (myself included) tend to default to this mode, so plenty of lessons to share based on things that went right (and wrong)

7. 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

• Personal North Star Metrics

• Imposter Syndrome / Product Vision

• Hunch Tracking

• Much TODO About Nothing

• Customer Zero

• Make Mom Proud

• Your Actual Task List

• Dear Workaholic (Note to Self)

• The Right Book at the Right Time

[2] Communication

• Pitch Your PoV

• The Myth of the “Natural” Public Speaker

• Team Brand vs Identity

• Self-Fulfilling Story-Telling & PM Protagonists

• Resume Revisionism

[3] Leadership

• Savior Syndrome

• SCARF Management

• Typing vs Tapping

• Your IC Prime

• The Ineffective Executive

• The Product Paradox

• The 5 C’s of Why We Cascade

[4] Talent

• PM Onboarding Practices

• Exponential Hires

• WMT Interview Questions

• Resume Revisionism

[5] Strategy

• Illuminating Product Strategy

• Implementing Product Strategy

• Staying Synced on Strategy

• The 7 Signs of GIGO Strategy

• Strategy Sophistication

• The Power of Layering Product Choices

• BHAG Thinking

• Strategy Spirals

[6] Execution

• 4 Ways to F Up Product Development

• OKR Myths

• Every Decision Ever

• CXBR: The Other Amazon Bar Raiser

• The Anti-Moonshot Factory

• Patience vs Progress

• Debt Relief for Product Teams

[7] Data

• South Star Metrics

• Metrics Malfunction

• Product Onions

• Data vs Intuition

update: some other recurring themes in my writing

Product Management

• Product Market Flex

• The PM Mindset Ladder

• PMs: Purists && Tweeners

• The Product Paradox

• Transitioning to PM

• PM Onboarding Practices

• The Evolving Definition of Product Management

• The Product Lexicon

• The Product Tree

• PM Collaboration vs Competition

• The 3 S’s of the Product Lifecycle

• Honing Product Judgement

• Product Delight: Brain Rewiring

• Buried Treasure

War Stories

• Amazon

  • Andon Cords

  • Customer Zero

  • How Amazon Leverages Compound Interest in Decision Making

  • CXBR: The Other Amazon Bar Raiser

• Twitter

  • Cargo Culting Culture

  • The Business Model Makes (or Breaks) the Business

• Box

  • …

B2B SaaS

• Enterprise SaaS Truisms

• Connecting B2B Products to Revenue

• Skip Step SaaS

• Enterprise Consumerization Entry

• Consumerizing Enterprise == Loop Sequencing

• Add-On Features vs New Product Lines

• Discerning Differentiators

• Why Buy?

• Onboarding Artifacts

• Span (vs Split) Personas

• Death & Taxes in B2B

• Cultivating a Revenue Mindset for B2B PMs

• Connecting B2B Products to Revenue

• B2B Telephone

Writing

• Writing is Thinking

• Writing is Creating

• Writing is Connecting

• Writing is Compounding

• Writing is Manifesting

• Writing is Iterating

• Writing is Building

Customer Centricity

• Customer Zero

• Customer Experience Loops

• Happy Customers or Healthy Scorecards

• Gathering GTM Gossip

• Notably Not

• The Layers of Customer Centricity (audio, visuals)

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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

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childish drawing / interpretation