Category: Business

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Acting Business

Creation to Consumption Ratio

A few weeks ago I attended an industry panel for the performing arts. It had 4 professional actors who all spoke candidly about the business of, well, show-business but it also yielded something that I considered to be really valuable for Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Managers, Project Managers etc.

The panel consisted of 4 attendees including

At some point during the Q&A an audience member asked the question

How do you occupy your time when you are not working between jobs?

This question is highly relevant to actors but may not seem as relevant to the world of business. I mean, how could a question about being an out of work actor apply to feature teams? There may be some tangential aspect as a contractor but the link is not immediately clear.

Each panel member answered; one said that they are learning a musical instrument, another is into health and fitness but then Mona Goodwin said something really interesting.

If you want act, you need to watch actors, so watch everything you can. Watch films and television and theatre. Consume content. Spend time watching Netflix.

Now, far be it from me to disregard a successful actors advice, but as I looked around the room I saw many of the audience members nodding and I began to think that they were misinterpreting the message. Mona was correct but she was working regularly.

The audience, like myself, were all very early in our journeys, and time is the most valuable resource we possess.

That is why in lean startup we always assign the highest value to time.

Finance can be raised, staff can be hired, scope can be cut, customers can be found but you cannot generate time.

The runway is the binary pass-fail metric of the startup.

Monthly Running Costs divided by Money = Runway. Most startups have a runway of 18 months or less; many 1 year or less. The race is always on to validate quickly, raise finance or sales and find product-market fit.

So while it does make sense to use down time as an actor to consume content we should not actually have that much down time.

New actors have so much to do to make inroads into the industry; headshots, auditions, agents, self-marketing, practice, accents, self-taping, training, finding work etc.

This means that the value of consuming is infinitely less than the value of creating. They could be devising new work or applying for grants or starting theatre companies.

Which led me to consider, what is the ratio of your consumption to creation?

It is really easy when you are early in your career to spend a lot of your free time consuming the thoughts and content of others.

Of course you want to read Marty Cagan (as I have) and you will subscribe to Stefan Wolpers newsletter (as I have) and you will buy bundles of ebooks from Humble Bundle and you will build an impressive library of physical books and you will read more content (such as this) on LinkedIn and the content train will never end.

But not all content consumers are created equal.

The most valuable learning experience I had was in those the initial first few years trying to launch tech companies in London (and failing). It was a mini-MBA crammed into a condensed window.

We were pitching, marketing, creating, coding, testing, launching, selling, failing, learning, iterating, networking.

Don’t be so focused on other peoples content that you stop creating your own thing.

Ultimately, everyone else is just a person and they have ideas. So don’t feel that you need to fill your time with thought-leaders.

The difference between a thought leader and a person who thinks for themselves….is the size of the audience.

Really evaluate what your ratio of Creation to Consumption is.

You always learn more from creating (even if you fail) than you do from consuming.

You will definitely reach a point in your career where you stop prefacing sentences with [Industry leader] says this and simply say I think we should do this because it is the right thing to do because of reasons.

Be bold and confident in your thoughts and humble in learnings. Try new ways of working, experiment with new patterns. Literally everything in the Agile space was invented by someone who simply had an idea.

Lastly, you might be wondering; Steve, why did you address this post to Product Managers and Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches etc?

Well, because Developers really have that ratio dialed in. The developer default mentality is to create. It is momentum. That is why we have so many open source projects and accessible git repos around the world.

At any time, 10’s of millions of developers are experimenting or tinkering with code somewhere rather than talking about it or arguing about it or watching someone else do it.

Creation to Consumption Ratio. Have a self-check in and make sure you are getting the most value from your time.

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Business Thoughts

A 73 Year Old Letter to Entrepreneurs

A Photo of Bill Bernach

The following letter was written to the associates of the aptly-named Grey Advertising in 1947 by Bill Bernbach, the then Creative Director.

Our agency is getting big. That’s something to be happy about. But it’s something to worry about, too, and I don’t mind telling you I’m damned worried. I’m worried that that we’re going to fall into the trap of bigness, that we’re going to worship the techniques instead of substance, that we’re going to follow history instead of making it, that we’re going to be drowned by superficialities instead of buoyed by sudden fundamentals.

I’m worried lest hardening of creative arteries begin to set in.

There are a lot of great technicians in advertising. And unfortunately they talk the best game. They know all of the rules. They can tell you that people in an ad will get you greater readership. They can tell you that a sentence should be this sort or that long. They can tell you that body copy should be broken up for easier reading. They can give you fact after fact after fact. They are the scientists of advertising. But there is one little rub. Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.

It’s that creative spark that I’m so jealous of for our agency and I am so desperately fearful of losing. I don’t want academicians, I don’t want scientists. I want people who do the right things, I want people who do inspiring things.

In the past year I must have interviewed about 80 people — writers and artists. Many of them were from so-called giants of the agency field. It was appalling to see how few of these people were genuinely creative. Sure, they had advertising know-how. Yes, they were up on advertising technique.

But look beyond the technique and what did you find? A sameness, a mental weariness, a mediocrity of ideas. But they could defend every ad on the basis that it obeyed the rules of advertising. It was like worshipping a ritual instead of the God.

All of this is not to say technique is unimportant. Superior, technical skill will make any good man better. But the danger is a preoccupation with technical skill or the mistaking of technical skill for creative ability.

The danger lies in the temptation to buy routinized men who have a formula for advertising. The danger lies in the natural tendency to go after the tried-and-true talent that will not make us stand out in competition but rather make us look like all of the others.

If we are to advance we must emerge as a distinctive personality. We must develop our own philosophy and not have the advertising philosophy of others imposed upon us.

Let us blaze new trails. Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art and good writing can be good selling.

Respectfully,

Bill Bernbach
May15, 1947

Bernbach was 38 at the time he wrote his famous inter-departmental memo and due to the lack of enthusiasm he left to start his own agency; Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB).

By 1986 the agency group had worldwide billings of $1.7 billion, 54 offices in 19 countries, and 3,400 employees.

In 1982, at the time of his death, Harpers Magazine wrote that Bernbach “probably had a greater impact on American Culture than any of the distinguished writers and artists who have appeared in the pages of Harpers in the last 133 years.”

When asked about the secret of his agency’s success he responded that

I had a tremendous advantage in having with me partners who do what I don’t do well. We would have been bankrupt if we were all creative. I’ve always felt fortunate that I was released to think purely in terms of the work itself; that I had as my partners men who gave me a completely free hand to run my end of the business. I was able to develop a philosophy of advertising that was never bastardized and therefore had a certain purity and effectiveness.

His words are as applicable today to the startup industry as they were back then to advertisers.

I have tweaked it slightly…

Our company is getting big. That’s something to be happy about. But it’s something to worry about, too, and I don’t mind telling you I’m damned worried. I’m worried that that we’re going to fall into the trap of bigness, that we’re going to worship the techniques instead of substance, that we’re going to follow history instead of making it, that we’re going to be drowned by superficialities instead of buoyed by sudden fundamentals.

I’m worried lest hardening of creative arteries begin to set in.

There are a lot of great technicians in software engineering. And unfortunately they talk the best game. They know all of the rules. They can tell you that waiting times in an app will lose you users. They can tell you that a UX should be this sort or that colour. They can tell you that body copy should be below the fold for easier reading. They can give you fact after fact after fact. They are the scientists of organisations. But there is one little rub. Startups are fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.

It’s that creative spark that I’m so jealous of for our company and I am so desperately fearful of losing. I don’t want academicians, I don’t want scientists. I want people who do the right things, I want people who do inspiring things.

In the past year I must have interviewed about 80 people — coders and business developers. Many of them were from so-called giants of the startup field. It was appalling to see how few of these people were genuinely creative. Sure, they had coding know-how. Yes, they were up on engineering technique.

But look beyond the technique and what did you find? A sameness, a mental weariness, a mediocrity of ideas. But they could defend every app on the basis that it obeyed the rules of software. It was like worshipping a ritual instead of the God.

All of this is not to say technique is unimportant. Superior, technical skill will make any good man better. But the danger is a preoccupation with technical skill or the mistaking of technical skill for creative ability.

The danger lies in the temptation to buy routinized men who have a formula for startups. The danger lies in the natural tendency to go after the tried-and-true talent that will not make us stand out in competition but rather make us look like all of the others.

If we are to advance we must emerge as a distinctive personality. We must develop our own philosophy and not have the startup philosophy of others imposed upon us.

Let us blaze new trails. Let us prove to the world that good ideas, good coding and good design can be good selling.

I have hijacked the work of a titan like Bernbach to which I would only add one improvement. He stated that

“persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.”

I would argue it is neither art nor science but an art we should apply scientifically.

Stay warm, stay hungry

Categories
Business Thoughts

The Importance of Staying Warm

Golf Player British Open

Are you a golf fan?

The most prestigious golf tournament in the world is held in Scotland every year; it is called British Open or, colloquially, The Open.

It is the oldest of the four major championships in tournament golf and played across a links course (coastal sand dunes). The ferocious winds and undulating terrain require extreme levels of skill. It is considered the finest test in professional golf.

Why is this important?

In July 2015 the final round of The Open was played on the historic old course of St. Andrews and subsequently won by 39 year old Zach Johnson for a prize purse of a little under £1.2 million.

However, Johnson had finished his round earlier than the other golfers which included South African golfer Louis Oosthuizen, the American Jordan Spieth and the Australians Marc Leishman and Jason Day.

With a final score of 15 shots under par he had to wait patiently on the other golfers finishing several holes before he would know whether he had won or lost the oldest golf trophy in history.

Of course, there was a looming third option.

One, or all of the golfers may tie with Zach Johnson and the game would go to a play off consisting of replaying the same 4 holes until a clear winner emerged. If no winner emerged the play off would be repeated until someone did win.

Zach Johnson, potentially, had another full day of golf in front of him.

What would you do in such a situation?

To frame this conundrum the final holes of the St. Andrews Old Course are in full view from several grandstands, hotels and vantage points.

Most individuals would have watched the final holes with bated breath.

Instead, Johnson retired to the practice range, out of sight, until called forward with the news of whether he had won or lost.

A runner would deliver him a message letting him know whether he would have to fight for his share of a £6 million prize fund and, more importantly, his name engraved into the history book of golf.

The camera watched him casually hitting practice drive after practice drive and chip after chip as the crucial shots being played by Oosthuizen, Day, Spieth and Lieshman were played out on the course itself.

Except Johnson was doing something else.

Something other than practising. Something crucial.

He was staying warm, and in sport, warmth is the ultimate preparation for victory.

Why is this important to entrepreneurs?

In 2013, I was returning from the IP Expo conference, held in London. The conference had been a success and my own talk was well received but our start-up had received some bad news.

A supplier had pulled out of our service arrangement putting the product in jeopardy. I was with my co-founder at the time and we were just jumping onto the Tube (London Subway) to head back to the co-working space.

My co-founder was Operations Director whilst I handled product, marketing and investment. I remember trying to maintain positivity; we have failed and we need to learn from it, it’s just a setback, lean startup etc

Suddenly I had a tap on the shoulder and two well-dressed gentlemen were standing there. They were both early to late fifties.

“Gee” they said in a thick American accent.

“That sounds like tech startup talk. Would you guys happen to know the way to Farringdon?”

I blinked in surprise.

“Sure. We are going back to Farringdon. We have an office in the Innovation Warehouse.”

The individual stuck out his hand;

“Hi, I am Will Bunker, the founder of (what eventually became) Match.com and this is my investment partner Lee McNutt. He served in the Reagan administration. We are part of Silicon Valley Growth Syndicate. How long till Farringdon?”

“A few mins” I replied, shaking his hand enthusiastically.

“Great. Then you can pitch me. Right here. Let’s do it.

And I did. I elevator pitched my startup idea right there in the crowded swaying Subway car.

Will scratched his chin.

How much you fellas need?

£400K. Pre-revenue.

That sounds doable. Here is my card, maybe get you boys out to Dallas. They would love this in the USA.

Unfortunately our startup died prior to reaching the investment stage, for reasons I will cover in another post. We never did get to go to Dallas but the point was that I knew our product inside and out. I could pitch it anywhere under any conditions.

I was comfortable and in my element.

I knew the potential market and the initial target market. I knew the unique selling point and the differentiator between other industry products.

I knew the elevator pitch and I knew what I needed.

In sporting terms, I was warm. I stayed warm always.

Today, in my career, I am comfortable discussing the finer points of the Agile Manifesto, Scrum or delivery management. I stay warm. I rarely watch other players as the compete.

Are you staying warm in your career? Have you refreshed your investment deck or training materials? Are you networking enough to take your platform or product to the next level? Do all of your employees know your company mission statement?

Are you so warm that you can pitch an investor should you ever find yourselves standing next to them on a crowded subway car?

Stay warm, stay hungry.