All this while I have read books on Zappos, Amazon, Walmart, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks and MacDonalds. They mostly spoke about companies created in America. Bigbasket is a homegrown company and the author happens to be HR of the book Saying No to Jugaad: The Making of Bigbasket. The book talks about a similar element of …
Category Archives: startups
Crossing the Chasm
After 3 years of the purchase, I finally finished reading Crossing the Chasm. It was one of my favorite reads in 2019. The book talks about types of customers, the journey of product development and crossing the chasm. The author identifies customers in 5 different types, from my understanding I have shortened it to just …
feature
Your customer is going to use 30-40% of what you have sipped in your product features religiously. Rest is just for a parity set of features with your competitors. In case you are building an enterprise product, minimalism, and simplicity can go against you and surprise your users. Since incarnation users have been conditioned to …
value proposition
Each product is built on providing a value proposition to its consumers. What you as a product wants to be and how you are perceived by the customer has to be in sync. If Uber will not provide you a cab, what will you do with its app? Its value proposition is the premise of …
stages
Product development has many levers. A customer will not just switch to your product on your premise of being better. They would like a first-hand experience. At the same time, not all customers are equal, each has its unique pain and desire to progress. It is important to stay in a bigger vision while listening …
sales
I am into sales now, since the product has matured and we are getting some traction via word to mouth. One of my key learning has been, being honest makes life better for both parties. Sales are more about a relationship than profit. People are generally helpful and good. They appreciate your effort if you …
Moving
Crossing road, moving on to a new journey in personal and professional life is difficult. A lot of this has to do with emotional quotient. The rage, blame, and commitment everything goes for a toss. All a sudden companies vision, founders drive comes in question. It is a great learning for someone who has been …
legitimacy
In the book David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the principle of legitimacy. The principle of legitimacy is based on three things. First, is the mass voice being heard by the masters. Second, the law has to be predictable. Third, the authority has to be fair. I found it worth sharing, a lesson for …
Communicate
In the book what you do is who you are, Ben Horowitz talks about keeping open communication with organization heads with the team. These are his advice: State the facts clearly Openness to bad news Encourage the bad news This kind of reminds me of Ray Dalio’s Principle of Radical Transparency. This ensures everyone in …
When smart people are bad employees
Ben Horowitz in his book: Hard Things about Hard Things, talks about smart employees who also happen to be responsible for breaking company culture. The Heretic These are the employees who find faults to take the case of management or co-workers. They can go to an extent claiming the company is run by morons and …