These are the soundbites that really stuck with me from Business of Software Europe 2019.
“A/B testing doesn’t measure the morality of the means”
“The natural conclusion of A/B testing is often a dark pattern”
“We can’t overcome the bad in the world just by not doing it – we have to actively work against it by doing good”
“What’s the opposite of dark patterns? Mensch Patterns”
“If you were the last person on earth, would you still do your current job?”
“Identify the heroes in your organisation and put in place processes to replace them”
“Early on we made a decision to avoid huge clients with long sales cycles because speed is of the essence”
“Because I could deal with change, I enjoyed change and could make change happen”
“A life worth saving”
“Cambridge is a low-risk place to do high-risk things”
“Simplicity is really valuable”
“What would you do if you knew you could not fail”
“Reduce friction wherever you find it!”
“Make boxes with ribbons”
“A product is something that serves a need and yields enough value to justify its existence”
“What’s important is that you keep making your users feel powerful”
“Know whether you’re solving a puzzle or a mystery”
“Beware the word ‘just’ – it means ‘my effort is different to yours'”
“Kindness and generosity is measured by the recipien’ts effort:experience ratio, so you can be generous with very little effort”
“Loneliness and isolation are the biggest problems in remote working”
“You should work on your best idea”
“A team of 6-8 costs ~£1M/year, so you have an implied revenue commitment of ~£6M/year”
“Incremental cost per unit should be <3%”
“All of the profits are after the nth unit sold”
“Pricing starts by computing customer value”
“How does your customer describe value?”
“Assume that you can capture 15% to 25% of the value you generate for your client”
“You’re a vendor, so they instantly halve your claims of value generated, and want to see that they still get keep half of what’s left”
“Good pricing isn’t interesting, so no conversation is needed”
“Avoid one-off’s and specials like the plague”
“With GDPR we are much more confident about sharing data, because they can’t abuse it”
“Don’t ask ‘how can I help you’ – it puts the burden on the other party.”
“Ask “What are your biggest time wasters?””
“[As a manager] If you’re too busy doing the work, that’s a huge mistake”
“The best uses of a leader’s time are recruiting & hiring, long-term culture & vision and communicating direction”
“Vision ≠ Mission ≠ Purpose ≠ Values” Vision is a place.
“Nice backfires”
“The number one predictor of startup success is speed of iteration”
“Write your roadmap backwards”
“A good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow”
“Never underestimate the ego depletion of sales”