014 - What does RottenTomatoes have to do with focus?
As part of the Mozilla Builders Incubator, we had Patrick Lee, the founder of RottenTomatoes host a session on focus. One of the statements that really struck out to me was that focus means saying 'no' to a 100 other good ideas. I took this to mean that saying no to those 100 good ideas is not a signal that you think it’s a bad idea, rather it’s that the idea doesn’t currently fit in the current plan. Keeping focus is an important part of prioritizing work in order to achieve a goal, and as a startup founder that goal is usually growing and launching your product.
While discussing the concept of saying no and turning away good ideas, the question of how to balance keeping focus and knowing how or when to pivot came up. One of the hardest things for a founder is to figure out how and when to make a product pivot. They’re especially important when trying to identify product market fit - whether you’re pivoting your idea, entry market, or problem space all together.
I actually find that focusing and pivoting are complementary skills. If you are focused on the right goal for your product, then you’re doing all the work for your product. Part of that work means conducting user interviews and testing to identify if what you’re building solves the problem you’re tackling. If you’re focusing on your users and their feedback you’ll be able to identify when you do and don’t have product market fit. If you don’t have product market fit, then it’s time to pivot your idea.
If you’re interested in watching Patrick’s talk, here’s a video of the same talk from a different event.
New Blog Posts
Set a Default Git Branch Name For New Repositories - Git just launched a new flag that allows you to set a default branch name. This is a great way to avoid using master and start using other names such as main. Not sure why that’s important, check out this article on using main instead of master.
Little Plugs
I like the idea of plugging interesting articles that I see around the internet.
- Hype Docs - the best way to combat imposter syndrome
- Extendo.App - Speaking of Focus, check out the focus used to built this product over the weekend as part of the On Deck Build Weekend
- Equity For All? - A lawsuit filed against Carta for gender discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination and more.
- My company sold for 100m and I got zilch - A good reminder to really understand what stock and options are when they’re part of your compensation package
- Finding Product Market Fit - by Rahul Vohra from Superhuman.
Question
What are you focused on at the moment?