Essential reading for product builders—part 2

A product succeeds because it solves a problem for people, and the problem should be easy to communicate in a sentence or two that resonates with the target audience.

The best executive communication follows the SCQA structure: Situation (unambiguous facts), Complication (what's changed), Question (almost always 'What should we do?'), and Answer (resolves the complication 100%).

A startup is a company designed to grow fast -- being newly founded, working on technology, or taking venture funding are not essential; the only essential thing is growth.

Schlep blindness causes founders to avoid hard, messy problems in favor of easy ones, but ambitious ideas are doubly valuable because they have intrinsic value and less competition since everyone else is frightened off.

The best way to manage scaling is to give away your Legos -- resist the instinct to grab back responsibilities from new hires and instead find a bigger, better tower to build.