Thinking process first can be powerful.

It’s like cooking a huge meal to see if you can handle the pressure before deciding if you’re hosting Thanksgiving.

The process will tell you if you need takeout.

Process First Then Goals  

• Why Read:

  • Learn how to prioritize and optimize controllable processes over just setting goals, leading to more achievable and sustainable growth for their business.

• Featuring:

  • David Cummings (@davidcummings), CEO, Founder at Atlanta Ventures

• Link: 

  • ”Think Process First, Goals Second”

Key Concepts and Tactics:

• Prioritize Processes Over Goals:

  • Point: Focus more on refining processes within your control than just setting goals.

  • "Goals are important because they help us focus on where we're going and how we're measured (especially SMART goals). However, it is much more important to spend time on the process, especially the processes within your control, that will ultimately help you achieve those goals."

• Break Down Goals into Controllable Processes:

  • Point: Break down high-level goals into granular processes and actions within your control.

  • "For this sales example, the process would involve the number of cold calls made per day, the number of emails sent, the number of meetings scheduled, the number of meetings attended, the number of proposals sent, the number of proposals moved to the next stage, and the number of proposals closed as deals, and so on."

• Assess Feasibility of Goals Based on Processes:

  • Point: Evaluate whether your goals are achievable based on the underlying processes required.

  • "Over the years, I've seen many entrepreneurs set goals without having the underlying process. Even if they did, the process might not have been feasible to achieve those goals."

• Top-Down vs Bottom-Up Goal Setting:

  • Point: Consider a top-down approach of setting goals first and developing processes, or a bottom-up approach of defining processes first and setting goals based on projected outcomes.

  • "Two ways to approach this are top-down and bottom-up. The top-down approach involves setting a goal, such as signing up 10,000 users, and then working backward to develop a process to achieve it...The bottom-up approach starts with identifying a reasonable process at the current time and for a given duration."

• Prioritize Controllable Processes for Achieving Goals:

  • Point: Focus primarily on optimizing the processes within your control to ultimately achieve your goals.

  • "Entrepreneurs would do well think process first, goals second. Goals are important and part of achieving great things, but a process that is within your control is more important."

• Continually Refine Processes:

  • Point: Continuously refine and improve your processes to ensure alignment with desired goals and outcomes.

  • "Continually refine the processes and ensure the outcomes are aligned with the goals."

Finding Breakthrough Startup Ideas

Why Read: 

• Gain insights on identifying non-obvious market inflections, creating unique value propositions, envisioning the future, and building a movement around an idea. These concepts can help founders develop more innovative and impactful startups.

Featuring:

• Lenny Rachitsky (@lennysan), Author at Lenny’s Newsletter and Lenny’s Podcast interviews Mike Maples, Jr (@m2jr), Founding Partner at FLOODGATE

• Link:

• “Pattern Breakers: How to find a breakthrough startup idea”

Key Concepts and Tactics:

• Develop insights into how inflections can change people's behavior in non-obvious ways: 

  • "Inflections happen external to any startup or any company for that matter. So we brought up Lyft a little bit ago. So the inflection that enabled Lyft was the iPhone 4S shipped with a GPS locator chip."

  • "An insight, I like to say, is a non-obvious truth about how one or more inflections can be harnessed to change people's behavior."

  • "The insight needs to leverage inflections, but this is the subtle part. It needs to be non-consensus and right, not just right. So in the world of opportunities, if you're right and consensus, you still don't do that well, right?"

• Force a choice for customers, not just a comparison to incumbents: 

  • "If everybody's selling apples, I can't be a 10 times better apple. I want to be the world's first banana. And I want to say to people, you may not want bananas. You may not like them. You may not value the advantage of bananas. But if you value banana-ness, I'm the only person that's got it."

• Live authentically in the future you envision by spotting what's missing: 

  • "What you do to come up with great startup ideas is you live in the future. and you notice what's missing in the future. And it's like, it's axiomatic. If you're living in the future, there will be unbuilt missing things because if it was all built, you'd be living in the present."

  • "We need to describe the world that is. We need to describe the world that could be, which is that different future. We need to understand, and this is important, that your job as the founder is to be Obi-Wan, not Luke."

• Be willing to sacrifice to fulfill the mission rather than fitting in: 

  • "The great founders are kind of like Jonathan Livingston Seagull. They're willing to pursue something that they're obsessed with, that they think has to happen in this world. And they're willing to sacrifice everything their status, you know, in the socioeconomic, sometimes, dominance hierarchy. Because fulfilling the mission is ultimately more important to them than fitting in."

• Create a movement, not just marketing, to animate early believers: 

  • "A movement is basically a set of people with the same belief moving together to a different future. And when you think about it, it's equally the same, right, for the civil rights movement."

Subscribe to Tactician:

Tactics and strategies for building tech startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.