BrainPint - How To Prioritize

Hi everyone,

This week we're diving into startup lessons, meaningful questions and how to prioritize, alongside other fun pieces!

Cheers,
Janel

57 Startup Lessons

An insightful list of lessons you can apply to building and/or working in a startup. My favorites:

• Learn the difference between people who might buy your product and people who are just commenting. Pay obsessive attention to the former. Ignore the latter.
• Product comes first. If people love your product, the tiniest announcements will get attention. If people don’t love your product, no amount of marketing effort will help.
• Working on the wrong thing for a month is equivalent to not showing up to work for a month at all.
• Pick the initial team very carefully. Everyone should be pleasant to work with, have at least one skill relevant to the business they’re spectacular at, be extremely effective and pragmatic.

Ask Yourself These Questions
It's always good to take a pause and reflect on life, happiness and the path you're on by asking good questions. Here's a list of meaningful questions you can ponder.

How QR codes work
Fun look into how QR codes work. Super nerdy, but equally fascinating.

Radical Prioritization aka How To Prioritize (When Everything's Important)
We all know that prioritization is key, but how do we really do it when everything seems to be important? My friend Khe from Rad Reads wrote an excellent article that I'm internalizing this week.

• #1: Assign a value to every task. What is the actual impact, or leverage completing this task creates?
• #2: Use “Even-Over” statements. Even-over statements can help make life's trade-offs explicit, e.g. "In my team, we value shipping fast EVEN OVER accuracy."
• #3: Measure Return on Effort. Not all effort produces an equal return. Prioritize things that can move the needle more.
• #4: Understand the dependencies. This is my favorite heuristic: "How do you unblock others' high-value work?"

A Guide To Networking
A useful guide to networking for people who normally shudderat the mere mention of the word. Big tip: "Be curious, and connect over what you have in common". Also, be helpful. Listen closely to pick up cues on what people might need help with, and look for ways to support.

aQRoss - Send files across devices using QR codes. No logins needed, so it's like a low-tech version of Airdrop!

Boring Avatars - Instead of using human faces in your product mockups, why not use cute avatars generated for free in this playground? The ones with the smiley faces spark joy.

Excel Formula Bot - Transform your text instructions into Excel (or Google Sheets) formulas in seconds with the help of AI.

Product Manager Wiki - Useful wiki to learn about Product Management.

WTFcrypto is a newsletter that helps beginners understand crypto in a way that makes sense. Join thousands of readers who aren't falling behind in crypto by signing up now!

Height - Project management that works for the whole team. From marketing to engineering to operations, share one tool across the company to track your work. Get started for free.

The Playbook helps creators, freelancers, coaches, and consultants attract profitable audiences and develop multiple revenue streams.

Share your work with >5.5k curious BrainPint readers by reserving a spot in Brain Snacks!

Rank A Day - Rank a random subject each day. Today's pick is "Who is the best Superhero?"

Short Trip - A hand-drawn scenic tram simulator.

Identifying Generational Gaps In Music - Fun interactive exercise to test your knowledge about music. Do you really know all the songs from a different generation?