Product Habits - Spotify's long-term strategy

Passive Productivity: Get More Done by Default

Most conversations about productivity revolve around things like time blocking and morning routines. But there are so many things you can do or learn once that will save you an infinite amount of time over the long run. A few of them include typing faster, learning keyboard shortcuts, becoming better at search, and using filters. Here’s a complete list of ways you can maximize passive productivity.

Privacy Concerns Around Every Journalist's Favorite App

Many journalists turn to Otter.ai for automatic transcription services, but the app's convenience comes with meaningful privacy and security considerations. Consider how this dilemma trickles down to the average person giving their data away in ways that would probably surprise them. It'll be interesting to see how data privacy laws transform in the coming years as concerns like this grow.

Is Your Startup on Fire?

There are moments for pretty much every startup where things feel like they are hitting rock bottom. This is an inevitable phase of the startup journey, but it isn’t easy to figure out how to get through it once you’re in it. This is a helpful thread of ideas for thinking logically and strategically when things get tough. One of my favorites: “Remove single points of failure.”

Spotify's Long-Term Strategy

Spotify is working overtime to become the most significant player in the “hearing” attention economy. The company just purchased two podcast analytics companies, which tells us a lot about its business strategy. In a few years, we’ll see what a big deal these quiet acquisitions were.

The Huge Benefit of Building in Public

People are afraid to build in public. While I don't think a founder should share every startup detail, there's a significant benefit to building your product publicly: faster, tighter feedback loops. Arvid Kahl captures it perfectly in this quick read. If you're willing to make mistakes in public, your startup will benefit enormously from it down the road. 

The Magic of Marketing

Marketing is powerful—but sometimes deceptive. I saw this graphic and thought it was a good snapshot of how marketing can trick people. We don’t talk about it enough, but if you’re a marketer, make sure you understand the impact of your product and present it as honestly as you can to the world.

Writing for Comprehension and Engagement

I read so much web content, but much of it isn’t well-written or engaging. Even for long, comprehensive pieces, it often takes time to get to the main point. If you want to make web content clear and interesting, try the inverted pyramid exercise. This will not only help you distill your main points but trim any fat in your writing to shorten it without losing important context.

Introducing Enterprise Sales to a PLG Organization

I'm a proponent of PLG business models and believe that starting with a bottom-up approach is a capital-efficient traction strategy. But companies that want to reach a much more significant revenue number—$1 billion ARR—have to leverage enterprise sales. Here's what the step-by-step implementation looks like.