


January, 2019
4 Steps to Develop a Strategy:
How to Build a Strategy for a Data and Analytics-Based Startup
1 – What’s a High $ Pain Point that Keeps Someone Awake at Night?
February, 20192 – What’s Our Unique Approach to Unlock the Value Pool?
February, 20193 – Why Us? Why Can’t Two Kids in a Dorm Room Build This?
February, 20194 – How Will We Engage and Delight Our Users?
February, 2019
Close Your Eyes and Imagine an Example of a Strategy. Got Nothing?
February, 2019Is Strategy Dead?
February, 2019Why Strategy and Analytics (Together) are the Future of AI
February, 2019Lawrence of Arabia, the Original Agile Disruptor, Had Sore Feet
February, 2019Startups Should Do “Value Pool Sizing”, Not Market Sizing
February, 2019Strategy and Agility: Lessons from Toyota, Honda, Yamaha, and Tesla
February, 2019
1 – Fill Your Founding Team With “MacGyvers”
March, 20192 – Find People with No Teeth to Inform Your Product Design Process
March, 20193 – Some Strategy Mistakes I’ve Made
March, 20194 – Finding New Area of Growth: Lessons from Disney and DC Comics
May, 20195 – Does Your Product Only Need to Change the Behavior of a Few Users?
May, 20196 – How to Develop the 2nd Product Your Startup Needs: A Sales Engine
May, 20197 – How to Avoid the 7 Stages of Grief When Naming Your Company
May, 20198 – How to Create a Pitch Deck for Investors
August, 20199 – How to Raise Funds for Your Startup
September, 201910 – Why Coca-Cola’s Mission Statement is the Perfect Template for Yours
September, 201911 – Anyone Who Claims They Have “The Perfect Sales Deck” is Missing the Point
September, 201912 – How Do You Know If You Have Product-Market Fit?
October, 201913 – How “Putting the Kale in the Pancakes” Can Reconcile the Needs of Buyers and Users
November, 201914 – How to Get Users to Use Your Product
December, 201915 – How to Get Users to Use Your Product on a Daily Basis
December, 201916 – Take a Lesson from Google, Intel, and Others … Use OKRs Instead of Product Roadmaps
May, 202017 – Can You Scale Your Company Without Losing Your Identity?
June, 202018 – How to Prove that Your Product is Creating Impact
June, 2020
Do Your Marketing, Sales, and Product Materials Tell the Same Continuous Story?
July, 2020PayPal’s Strategy and How It Evolved Over Time
August, 2020Should You Sign Your First Customers for Free?
September, 2020Lessons on Corporate Growth and Culture from the American Civil War
June, 2021There are 18 Sources of Competitive Advantage. Which Ones Do You Have?
November, 2020Revenue Growth and ROIC Are All That Matter
December, 20204 Attributes of the Most Successful Companies, According to McKinsey
December, 2020Are You Avoiding “Demo Creep”?
October 4, 2019Is “Big Data” Distracting You from the Power of “Small Data”?
October 11, 201910 lessons from the German Blitzkrieg for Corporate Strategists Today (Part 1/2)
October 18, 201910 lessons from the German Blitzkrieg for Corporate Strategists Today (Part 2/2)
October 25, 2019Why Innovation Has to be Costly and Uncomfortable
TBDThe 5 Tests of How Lean/Agile Your Company Is
TBDAn Evolutionary Explanation for the Power of Startups
TBDWhat Kills Innovation in Large Companies? How Can We Fix It?
TBD1st Generation Corporations (e.g. IBM, P&G, and Kraft) are on the Cusp of Obsolescence
TBD2nd Generation Corporations (e.g. Apple) are the Equivalent of American Civil War Armies
TBD3rd Generation Corporations (e.g. Amazon and McKinsey) are the Equivalent of German Blitzes
TBDLife as an Entrepreneur
TBDWhat Startups Can Learn from Mozart
TBDStrategic Communication Lessons from Thomas Jefferson
TBDWhat the United States Can Teach Us About Centralizing Strategy and De-centralizing Execution
TBDStop Putting Startups Through “Moonshot Thinking” Exercises
TBDWhy Are You Still Doing Annual Strategic Planning?
TBDHow to Use the “4 Steps to Develop a Strategy” to Navigate Your Career
TBDWhy I Stopped Saying “Fail Fast”: When You’re Learning You Make Mistakes, But That’s Not Failure
TBDHire Agility, Team Contributors, and Strategists; Fire Hubristic Power-Grabbers
TBDAvoid These Famous Strategy Frameworks
TBDHow the Patriots Won Superbowl 51
January, 2020An Executive’s Guide to Implementing AI and Machine Learning
March, 2019How We Accidentally Fired All of Our Top Performers
June, 2019
I’ve been building startups and products since 2002. This blog shares some of the know-how I’ve learned along the way. My focus is strategy powered by analytics and vice-versa. The 2 areas are based on my experiences as a McKinsey consultant and a Chief Analytics Officer. My goal for these articles.
As of 2019, I am a founder, a Chief Analytics/Strategy Officer, an independent board director, and an entrepreneur-in-residence.
Art by Francesco Dibattista | Find me on linkedin.