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8.5 x 11–inch paper, single-spaced in 11-point type,
The format forces presenters to condense their ideas so far that important information is omitted.
a presenter—having spent considerable time pruning away content until it fits the PP format—fills it back in, verbally.
The slide deck alone is usually insufficient to convey or serve as a record of the complete argument at hand.
These narratives may sometimes include graphs and bulleted lists, which are essential to brevity and clarity,
A switch to narratives places the team’s ideas and reasoning center stage,
It should go without saying—sound decisions draw from ideas, not individual performance skills.
We can give back the time and energy now wasted on rehearsing one’s time at the podium and relieve a major, unnecessary stressor for many team leaders.
Last, the narrative document is infinitely portable and scalable.
This means a written narrative would contain seven to nine times the information density of our typical PowerPoint presentation.
The act of writing will force the writer to think and synthesize more deeply than they would in the act of crafting a PP deck; the idea on paper will be better thought out, especially after the author’s entire team has reviewed it and offered feedback.
Writing persuasively requires and enforces clarity of thought that’s even more vital when multiple teams collaborate on an idea.
We know that people read complex information at the rough average of three minutes per page, which in turn defines the functional length of a written narrative as about six pages for a 60-minute meeting.
The second optional section, perhaps more commonly used, is the inclusion of an FAQ.
Adding the FAQ to address these saves time and gives the reader a useful focal point for checking the thoroughness of the authors’ thinking.
Jeff has an uncanny ability to read a narrative and consistently arrive at insights that no one else did, even though we were all reading the same narrative. After one meeting, I asked him how he was able to do that. He responded with a simple and useful tip that I have not forgotten: he assumes each sentence he reads is wrong until he can prove otherwise. He’s challenging the content of the sentence, not the motive of the writer.
The PR gives the reader the highlights of the customer experience. The FAQ provides all the salient details of the customer experience as well as a clear-eyed and thorough assessment of how expensive and challenging it will be for the company to build the product or create the service.
The PR/FAQ process creates a framework for rapidly iterating and incorporating feedback and reinforces a detailed, data-oriented, and fact-based method of decision-making.
The press release (PR) portion is a few paragraphs, always less than one page. The frequently asked questions (FAQ) should be five pages or less. There are no awards for extra pages or more words. The goal isn’t to explain all the excellent work you have done but rather to share the distilled thinking that has come from that work.
Heading: Name the product in a way the reader (i.e., your target customers) will understand. One sentence under the title.
Subheading: Describe the customer for the product and what benefits they will gain from using it. One sentence only underneath the heading.
Summary Paragraph: Begin with the city, media outlet, and your proposed launch date. Give a summary of the product and the benefit.
Problem Paragraph: This is where you describe the problem that your product is designed to solve. Make sure that you write this paragraph from the customer’s point of view.
Solution Paragraph(s): Describe your product in some detail and how it simply and easily solves the customer’s problem. For more complex products, you may need more than one paragraph.
Quotes and Getting Started: Add one quote from you or your company’s spokesperson and a second quote from a hypothetical customer in which they describe the benefit they are getting from using your new product. Describe how easy it is to get started, and provide a link to your website where customers can get more information and purchase the product.
Leadership and management are often about deciding what not to do rather than what to do. Bringing clarity to why you aren’t doing something is often as important as having clarity about what you are doing.
What’s really important is to focus on the “controllable input metrics,” the activities you directly control, which ultimately affect output metrics such as share price. All too often, companies pay attention to the wrong signals,
Before you can improve any system … you must understand how the inputs affect the outputs of the system. You must be able to change the inputs (and possibly the system) in order to achieve the desired results. This will require a sustained effort, constancy of purpose, and an environment where continual improvement is the operating philosophy.2
Amazon takes this philosophy to heart, focusing most of its effort on leading indicators (we call these “controllable input metrics”) rather than lagging indicators (“output metrics”).
You’ll notice a pattern of trial and error with metrics in the points above, and this is an essential part of the process. The key is to persistently test and debate as you go.
Finding exactly the right one is an iterative process that needs to happen with every input metric.
If things are operating normally, say “Nothing to see here” and move along. The goal of the meeting is to discuss exceptions and what is being done about them. The status quo needs no elaboration.
Output Metrics Show Results. Input Metrics Provide Guidance.
It’s therefore critical to differentiate normal variation (noise) from some fundamental change or defect in a process (signal).
At Amazon, understanding what’s normal is the responsibility of the metrics owner,
If we can identify a customer need and if we can further develop conviction that that need is meaningful and durable, our approach permits us to work patiently for multiple years to deliver a solution.”
The other key is frugality.
The reason: invention works well where differentiation matters.
First, even with the PR/FAQ process, the Fire Phone did not solve a sufficiently important customer problem or create a notably wonderful customer experience.
Second, the phone sold at a premium price.
Finally, the Fire Phone came late to market and with only a single carrier, AT&T.
The magnitude of your inventions, and therefore your mistakes, needs to grow in lockstep with the growth of your organization. If it doesn’t, your inventions will likely not be big enough to move the needle.
In other words, his first action was not a “what” decision, it was a “who” and “how” decision. This is an incredibly important difference. Jeff did not jump straight to focusing on what product to build, which seems like the straightest line from A to B. Instead, the choices he made suggest he believed that the scale of the opportunity was large and that the scope of the work required to achieve success was equally large and complex.
Establish the Bar Raiser hiring process.
Focus on controllable input metrics.
Articulate the core elements of the company’s culture,
Define a set of leadership principles.
Depict your flywheel.
