Build

by Tony Fadell • Read on January 17, 2023

Text in black are quotes; text in green are my notes. I sometimes write in Spanish.

Adulthood is your opportunity to screw up continually until you learn how to screw up a little bit less. #
Traditional schooling trains people to think incorrectly about failure. You’re taught a subject, you take a test, and if you fail, that’s it. You’re done. But once you’re out of school, there is no book, no test, no grade. And if you fail, you learn. In fact, in most cases, it’s the only way to learn—especially if you’re creating something the world has never seen before. #
So when you’re looking at the array of potential careers before you, the correct place to start is this: “What do I want to learn?” Not “How much money do I want to make?” Not “What title do I want to have?” Not “What company has enough name recognition that my mom can brutally crush the other moms when they boast about their kids?” #
The best way to find a job you’ll love and a career that will eventually make you successful is to follow what you’re naturally interested in, then take risks when choosing where to work. Follow your curiosity rather than a business school playbook about how to make money. Assume that for much of your twenties your choices will not work out and the companies you join or start will likely fail. Early adulthood is about watching your dreams go up in flames and learning as much as you can from the ashes. Do, fail, learn. The rest will follow. #
“The only failure in your twenties is inaction. The rest is trial and error.” —ANONYMOUS #
In early adulthood you have to learn to embrace that—to know that the risks might not pan out but to take them anyway. You can get guidance and advice, you can choose a path by following someone else’s example, but you won’t really learn until you start walking down that path yourself and seeing where it takes you. #
This is your window. This is your time to take risks. When you’re in your thirties and forties, the window begins to close for most people. Your decisions can no longer be entirely your own. That’s okay, too—great even—but it’s different. The people who depend on you will shape and influence your choices. Even if you don’t have a family to support, you’ll still accumulate just a little more each year—friends, assets, social standing—that you won’t want to risk. #
That’s what you’re looking for when you’re young, when you think you know everything then suddenly realize you have no idea what you’re doing: a place where you can work as hard as you can to learn as much as you can from people who can make something great. #
If you’re not solving a real problem, you can’t start a revolution. #
To do great things, to really learn, you can’t shout suggestions from the rooftop then move on while someone else does the work. You have to get your hands dirty. You have to care about every step, lovingly craft every detail. You have to be there when it falls apart so you can put it back together. You have to actually do the job. You have to love the job. #
If you’re passionate about something—something that could be solving a huge problem one day—then stick with #
What you do matters. Where you work matters. Most importantly, who you work with and learn from matters. Too many people see work as a means to an end, as a way to make enough money to stop working. But getting a job is your opportunity to make a dent in the world. #
“I can’t make you the smartest or the brightest, but it’s doable to be the most knowledgeable. It’s possible to gather more information than somebody else.” #
Make a connection. That’s the best way to get a job anywhere. #
The key is persistence and being helpful. Not just asking for something, but offering something. You always have something to offer if you’re curious and engaged. You can always trade and barter good ideas; you can always be kind and find a way to help. #
It’s easy to mistake navigating processes, red tape, job leveling, and politics for real personal growth. #
So don’t think doing the work just means locking yourself in a room—a huge part of it is walking with your team. The work is reaching your destination together. Or finding a new destination and bringing your team with you. #
So before you decide to be a manager, you should think hard about whether it’s the right path for you. Because you don’t have to do it. Especially if you don’t really want to, but believe the management ladder is the only way to move up in your career. A lot of people shouldn’t be forced into management—if you’re not really a people person, or you only want to focus on the work, or you thrive on having regular day-to-day successes and accomplishments and the murky maybe-your-team-will-succeed-one-day style of management is less motivating to you. #
You have to tell the team why. Why am I this passionate? Why is this mission meaningful? Why is this small detail so important that I’m flipping out right now when nobody else seems to think it matters? Nobody wants to follow someone who throws themselves at windmills for no reason. To get people to join you, to truly become a team, to fill them with the same energy and drive that’s bubbling within you, you need to tell them the why. #
If you’re a good manager and build a good team, that team will blast off. So lean into it. Cheer them on when they get promoted. Glow with pride when they kick ass at a board meeting or present their work to the entire company. That’s how you become a good manager. That’s how you start to love the job. #
If a product is really new, there’s nothing to compare it to, nothing to optimize, nothing to test. #
We made decisions. I made decisions. This is in. This is out. This is how it’s going to work. Not everyone on the team agreed with me. That’ll happen sometimes when one person has to make the final call. In those moments it’s your responsibility as a manager or a leader to explain that this isn’t a democracy, that this is an opinion-driven decision and you’re not going to reach the right choice by consensus. But this also isn’t a dictatorship. You can’t give orders without explaining yourself. #
Storytelling is how you get people to take a leap of faith to do something new. It’s what all our big choices ultimately come down to—believing a story we tell ourselves or that someone else tells us. Creating a believable narrative that everyone can latch on to is critical to moving forward and making hard choices. It’s all that marketing comes down to. It’s the heart of sales. #
Most decisions we make are data-informed, but they’re not data-made. #
But pushing for greatness doesn’t make you an asshole. Not tolerating mediocrity doesn’t make you an asshole. Challenging assumptions doesn’t make you an asshole. Before dismissing someone as “just an asshole,” you need to understand their motivations. #
The bullshit-asymmetry theory, Brandolini’s law, will be at play here: “The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude higher than to produce it.” #
And I want to make it very clear: hating your job is never worth the money. I need to repeat that: hating your job is never worth whatever raise, title, or perks they throw at you to stay. #
Every product should have a story, a narrative that explains why it needs to exist and how it will solve your customer’s problems. A good product story has three elements: » It appeals to people’s rational and emotional sides. » It takes complicated concepts and makes them simple. » It reminds people of the problem that’s being solved—it focuses on the “why.” #
To find that “why,” you need to understand the core of the problem you’re trying to solve, the real issue your customers face on a regular basis. [See also: Chapter 4.1: How to Spot a Great Idea: The best ideas are painkillers, not vitamins.] #
That’s another thing I learned from Steve Jobs. He’d always say that analogies give customers superpowers. A great analogy allows a customer to instantly grasp a difficult feature and then describe that feature to others. That’s why “1,000 songs in your pocket” was so powerful. #
Even starting something new in a big company won’t protect you. You’ll have to deal with politics, jealousy, and fear. You’re trying to change things, and change is scary, especially to people who think they’ve mastered their domain and who are completely unprepared for the ground to shift under their feet. #
But that’s the tricky thing with disruptions—they’re an extremely delicate balancing act. When they fall apart it’s usually for one of three reasons: You focus on making one amazing thing but forget that it has to be part of a single, fluid experience. #
Predictability allows your team to know when they should be heads down working and when they should be looking up to check in with other teams or to make sure that they’re still headed in the right direction. [See also: Chapter 1.4: Don’t (Only) Look Down.] Predictability allows you to codify a product development process rather than starting from scratch every time. It allows you to create a living document with checkpoints, milestones, schedules, and plans that trains new employees and teaches everyone: This is how we do it. This is the framework for how to build a product. Ultimately, that predictability is how you’ll actually make your deadline. #
So you’ll still need to go through at least three generations before you get it right. You make the product. You fix the product. You build the business. You make the product. You fix the product. You build the business. You make the product. You fix the product. You build the business. Every product. Every company. Every time. #
The best ideas are painkillers, not vitamins. Vitamin pills are good for you, but they’re not essential. You can skip your morning vitamin for a day, a month, a lifetime and never notice the difference. But you’ll notice real quick if you forget a painkiller. Painkillers eliminate something that’s constantly bothering you. A regular irritation you can’t get rid of. And the best pain—so to speak—is one you experience in your own life. Most startups are born from people getting so frustrated with something in their daily experience that they start digging in and trying to find a solution. #
Steve Jobs was clear about the lesson he’d learned and made sure we all learned it, too: any company that tries to do both B2B and B2C will fail. #
Your startup or the project you’re leading is your baby. And babies roll down stairs, eat extension cords. They need constant attention. That’s what work can feel like. Even if you take a vacation—and if you’re starting a major project you won’t go on vacation for a good long while—it’s like leaving your kid with a babysitter for the first time. #
Everyone thinks they can do your job better—until they actually have to do it and deliver. #
There are moments where you simply cannot function as a human, never mind a leader, and you need to recognize them and walk out the door. Don’t make a bad decision because you’re frustrated and overworked—get your head on straight and come in fresh the next day. #
Nobody works in a vacuum. Everybody has internal customers—people they need to deliver to. App designers, for example, create designs for engineers to implement. In this instance, engineers are their customers. So if you’re hiring an app designer, you’d better make sure they interview with an engineer. #
So when bringing in new employees—especially execs—you shouldn’t just throw them in the deep end, hand them a branded company notebook, and think you’re done. The first month or two are crucial and should be a period of positive micromanagement. Don’t worry about getting too in the weeds or not giving them enough freedom. Not at first. A brand-new person needs all the help they can get to become really well integrated. Explain how you do things in detail so they don’t make mistakes and alienate the rest of the team right off the bat. Talk to them about what’s working and what isn’t, what you would do in their position, what’s encouraged and what’s verboten, who to ask for help and who to treat with kid gloves. #
Just remember there’s a difference between coaches and mentors: Coaches are there to help with the business. It’s all about the work: this company, this job, this moment in time. Mentors are more personal. They don’t just help with people’s jobs, they help with their lives, their families. A coach helps because they know the company; a mentor helps because they know you. #
If the product manager is the voice of the product, the project manager is the voice of the project—their job is to alert the team to potential problems that could stall or derail the project and to help find solutions. #
Engineers like to build products using the coolest new technology. Sales wants to build products that will make them a lot of money. But the product manager’s sole focus and responsibility is to build the right products for their customers. That’s the job. #
Mostly they empower the team. They help everyone understand the context of what the customer needs, then work together to make the right choices. If a product manager is making all the decisions, then they are not a good product manager. #
Rather than focusing on rewarding salespeople immediately after a transaction, vest the commission over time so your sales team is incentivized to not only bring in new customers, but also work with existing customers to ensure they’re happy and stay happy. Build a culture based on relationships rather than transactions. #
When you truly give a shit, you care, you don’t let up until you’re satisfied, you pick things apart until they’re great. People will hand you something that they worked on tirelessly for weeks, that they’ve thought through and are proud of, that’s 90 percent amazing. And you will tell them to go back and make it better. Your team will be shocked, stunned, possibly even dejected. They’ll say it’s already so good, we’ve worked so hard. You’ll say good enough is not good enough. So they’ll march out the door and do it again. And, if necessary, again. They might get so tangled up that it’ll be simpler to just start from scratch. But with each iteration, each new version, each regroup and reimagining, they’ll discover something new. Something great. Something better. #
You don’t have to be an expert in everything. You just have to care about it. No matter your leadership style, no matter what kind of person you are—if you want to be a great leader, you have to follow that one cardinal rule. #
They realize that nothing should be theirs, even if the genesis was with them. It all has to be the team’s. The company’s. They know their job is to jubilantly celebrate everyone else’s successes, to make sure they get credit for them, and hold little for themselves. #
A parent’s job isn’t to be friends with their kids all the time—it’s to build them into independent, thoughtful humans who will be ready and able to thrive in the world one day without their parents. #
If something happens only rarely, it’s special. If it happens all the time, the specialness evaporates. #
In the end, there are two things that matter: products and people. What you build and who you build it with. The things you make—the ideas you chase and the ideas that chase you—will ultimately define your career. And the people you chase them with may define your life. #