Articles

Rigorous thinking

• Rigorous thinking: No lazy thinking

• Asking questions = no skin in the game. If you ask, try to answer

• Rigorous thinking starts by eliminating this question

• Why A-players make assertions

• Strategy, not self-expression

• How to be more analytical

Strategic positioning and messaging

• Turn bugs into features

• Inception is real. Here’s how to plant your ideas.

• How to market a product you wouldn't use

• Use affirmative phrases: “Do this” vs. “Don’t do that”

• Spiky point of view: Let’s get a little controversial

Understand human nature

• Drawing someone in vs getting them to stay

• People don't trust their own judgment

• Diminishing returns of talking to customers

• Encourage your customers to take risks

Appeal to customer worldviews

• Concentric circles of customers: Focus on people who already share your worldviews

• “What will I tell my boss?”: Why leaders should understand the worldview of bureaucrats

• When product features are merely a justification: Why people buy $200 trash cans

Validate your ideas

• Stop A/B testing everything: Only run experiments that inform your future actions

• Determine the activation energy before you choose a tactic

• Read this before your next experiment

• Nobody likes sporks. Is your product a bad mashup?

Assess customer demand

• Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget.

• How to pick up on weak signals when you have imperfect information

• Why the best technology doesn't always win [Future Tech podcast]

Embrace uncertainty

• No one knows the right answer

• The future belongs to people who straddle “should” and “is”

• Make Maps, Don't Just Follow Them [Accidental Creative podcast]

• What didn’t exist before you built it?

End-to-end marketing fundamentals

• The rise of the end-to-end marketer

• To become a better marketer, study these non-marketing topics

• The Law of Brand vs Performance Marketing

Marketing strategy

• Spiky point of view: Let’s get a little controversial 🌵

• My spiky points of view: 15 examples to inspire your SPOV

• Activation energy and why it matters for product launches

• Focus on increasing desire—not just decreasing friction

• Reverse engineer your marketing strategy

• Drawing someone in vs getting them to stay

Experimentation

• Stop A/B testing everything: Only run experiments that inform your future actions

• Read this before your next marketing experiment

• No one knows the right answer

Pitch and frame your ideas

• Setting the emotional tone of a conversation

• How to get an enthusiastic yes

• The question behind the question

• Strategy, not self-expression – Use this framework to strategically decide what to say.

• Frustrated by rejection? How to plan before you ask

Storytelling

• Eyes light up (ELU)

• Technical leaders make these 3 common storytelling mistakes

• Start right before you get eaten by the bear: Why you should cut backstory

• Case study: Dissecting an everyday story

• Comparisons heighten drama

Writing

• How to fix limbo copywriting

• Take 3 minutes to delete these words and improve your writing forever

• Read your messaging in a robot voice

• When bad grammar is okay

• Assume your reader will skim, not read

• The Texting Method: Get past writer’s block

• Using affirmative phrases: "Do this" versus "Don't do that"

• Use accurate language: List of strengthening & softening words

Hiring and team building

• My favorite interview questions for marketing candidates

• How to interview marketing candidates quickly and carefully

• Your team should be getting 20% smarter every year [ActiveCampaign podcast]

• Ignore these interviewing rules

• How to attract high performers

Course creation strategy

• In Online Ed, Content Is No Longer King—Cohorts Are

• Course Mechanics Canvas: 12 Levers to Achieve Course-Market Fit

• The Super Specific How: How to make your cohort-based course more rigorous

• The State Change Method: How to deliver engaging live lectures on Zoom

Building course communities

• How to design an online course with a 96% completion rate

• Analyzing cults to build edtech communities

• Unbundling course communities

• Lessons from the past 5 years building cohort-based courses

• How to grow a community from 0 to 2,000+ active alumni

• How to design engagement triggers for your new community

• Learning first, community second: The juicy challenges of building course communities

Fuel engagement

• Increase desire, don’t just decrease friction

• How to design engagement triggers for your new community

• How to grow a community from 0 to 2,000+ active alumni

• Add fuel to the fire because few things happen purely organically

• How to Design an Online Course with a 96% Completion Rate [Written by Steph Habif, interviewing Wes Kao]

Career

• Create proof points to show evidence of your work

• You don’t need to start at entry level

• How to write your own job description (and invent your role)

• Why most cover letters are terrible & how to make yours better

• How to win a salary negotiation before it starts

• Unconventional career paths & taking risks [PermissionLESS podcast]

• How to upgrade your career with marketing strategies [YouTube]

• Rigorous Thinking, Brand Marketing, Product Launches, Career Decisions, and Spiky Points of View [The Louis and Kyle podcast] and YouTube video

Personal credibility

• Build your personal credibility, not your personal brand

• The problem with glorifying failure

• People judge the average of your achievements, not the cumulative

• To decide your niche, imagine you’re on stage with 3 of your heroes

Leadership fundamentals

• If you’re in a position of power, use accurate and precise language

• What's the decision you need to make?

• Everything takes longer than you think

• How to train your team to think rigorously and systematically

Feedback

• How to give better advice: Ask this one question

• Stop learning to give feedback. Learn to receive it

• Strategy, not self-expression: How to decide what to say

Hard-earned wisdom

• Why I have a love/hate relationship with scripts

• How I read books

• Insecure vibes are a self-fulfilling prophecy

• Be your own mentor

• The Osmosis Fallacy

• Do your situational best

• Do things your Future Self will thank you for

• How to sharpen your mental models over time

• Is this making me smarter?

Navigating conflict

• Set expectations to increase perceived value

• Match your CEO’s pace—and they will think you’re the best hire

• Your boss called. They want you to manage up

• Speak up before the train crashes

• Give your boss context when you ask for approval

• How to give the right amount of context

Managing up

• 15 principles of managing up

• Your boss called. They want you to manage up.

• Just ask… but do some preparation first

• How to regain control in a meeting

• What to say when you’re caught off guard

• Yes you should apologize at work

• How to deliver bad news when it's not your fault

Add more value & stand out

• Use the minimum effective dose

• How to on-board yourself when you join a new team

• Be a perfectionist for customer-facing material

• How to give the right amount of context

Principles of building new products

• Second and third order consequences

• Everything takes longer than you think

• Strategy, not self expression

• Simplify first, not last

• Raise the ceiling or lower the floor

• New situation, new decision

• A deadline is looming

• Threshold of happiness

• Zz plants: The beauty of low overhead

• Proximity in decision-making

• Why incremental polishing is a waste of time