Software Alone Isn’t Enough
Edition #014
Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The Newsletter shares the source code, through quick snapshots, for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done.
The Cold Start Problem
by Andrew Chen
Andrew Chen is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz and an investor focusing on consumer products, marketplaces, and bottoms up SaaS. Previously, he had led growth teams at Uber.
In this book, The Cold Start Problem, Andrew Chen writes and shares his experiences on the components of the Network Effects and elucidates in great detail the various factors that go into scaling and building network effects for platform-enabled product start-ups.
More interesting is that Andrew Chen draws learnings from pre-internet era products like Credit Cards, Consumer products, etc. That is beyond the much-hyped technology-related products of today that successfully created and leveraged networked effects. He writes about the importance of the Atomic Network and the need to solve the complex problem of the supply side with a strong execution focus on the metrics that are critical in driving robust acquisition, engagement and economic value for these products. He outlines a theoretical framework of the cold start problem, strategic imperatives, and interventions needed for such firms at every different growth stage.
Leading Change Through Radical Product Thinking
Radhika Dutt is an entrepreneur and product leader who advises organisations from high-tech startups to government agencies on building radical products that create a fundamental change.
In the conversation, she makes an interesting analogy of how a country like Singapore thinks like a product which leads to some immersive and memorable experiences for citizens and businesses, on product diseases afflicting companies, why the current product building processes don’t work, how to set a compelling product vision, how to think of product vision like a source code amongst many other things.
Listen to the full episode on:
Why specialising early doesn't always mean career success
In this fascinating talk, David Epstein shatters some deeply held myths and beliefs about geniuses, 10,000 hours rules, the importance of deliberate practice, starting at an early age etc.
David talks about the importance of the Sampling Period, where some of the best musicians, sportsmen etc., typically explore many other things before zeroing in on what they went out to do and excel at it.
In his research, he tries to find answers to the differences in career achievement of early specialisers versus late specialisers.
Software Alone Isn’t Enough
As we went through the book by Andrew Chen, one thing that became clear is that many of the largest technology or platform companies who are leaders today were not the ones who invented the idea and were also not the first ones off-the-block to the market.
The ones who succeeded fixed many things on the hard side of their business, not just the software code. If it was Uber, the supply side had to be set on the ground - the drivers had to be recruited and managed, and every city or country was a different challenge. It required much attention to execution - what Andrew Chen calls ‘keeping an eye on the ground truth’. Ground truth like average ETA - ‘Expected Time Arrival’ of the vehicle on booking, number of active cars on the road, how the other rideshare companies were compensating or incentivising the drivers on that day or in the case of Airbnb - focusing on the complete experience - not just listing the accommodation but looking at the entire booking-to-the-checkout experience which is the reason they were able to ward off competition from Wimbu or in the case of Microsoft which was battling the browser war or office suite war etc. So, is the case with Google+, which could not take on the might of social media giants like Facebook and the like.
Cross-functional teams seemed to succeed in reviewing the business, looking at operational issues, and building an action plan. These included operations, product, engineering, sales, and marketing teams, which were interdisciplinary to win customers and grow market share.
For the business to be successful, the right balance, alignment, collaboration & appreciation of software code and business code is critical!
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
To jumpstart Cold Start problems of product companies, look at the critical components of the product, network, community, supply-buy sides and accompanying business metrics together.
Customers come for the tool in most product platform businesses but stay for the network.
The hard side is as important as the soft side when building products.
The first step in curing product diseases is to be honest and acknowledging them transparently.
When it comes it careers, don’t shortlist a career early and burn early. Explore different areas early but specialise late by being entirely convinced first about the chosen area.