This is one of the most overrated mental models in the world. People often miss this because it’s not clear that kindness is helpful to achieving goals. We live most of our lives in cutthroat competition with other people, companies,…
This is one of the toughest challenges that organizations face as they grow from the startup phase. In my experience, and from what I’ve read, it’s difficult to implement, stressful for employees and usually value diminishing in the short term.…
Our company has been experimenting with an educational session for our internal staff as a form of onboarding. Leaders and specialists from the different parts of the business present to new starters on what their teams do. It’s been a…
Some awesome news coming out of the fintech scene yesterday as Branch raised $170 million from some top tier venture capital firms. I met Matt Flannery 8 years ago when I was at the GSBI incubator in Silicon Valley. He’s…
Go follow @Buster on Twitter. He’s an ex-Twitter, ex-Amazon, and ex-Slack product manager. His writing on cognitive biases informs a lot of what I try an use in the workplace and in my life. He’s also super responsive on Twitter,…
Since I’ve worked in Africa I’ve had the opportunity to lead strategic partnerships teams. I led the first integration of a bank into JUMO’s savings and loans platform, effectively kicking off our pivot into a marketplace. After that, I led…
I hear this a lot from product manager blogs and people who read them. I think it’s a bit contrived, honestly. Delight means great pleasure, or something incredibly pleasing, and I’m cynical enough that I think we should seek delight…
Lots of people recommend Robert Cialdini’s book Influence, The Art of Persuasion. I read it a few years ago and I liked it. I’m revisiting it now with a different perspective, and the first couple chapters are great. I think…
This story is actually one of mine. Before I moved to JUMO I was Head of Product for a company I cofounded in Tanzania. We ended up building a great prototype which we dog fooded around the streets of Dar…
Telco operators (MNOs) across Africa are experiencing declining revenues in their core businesses. Generally, in the past seven years, OTT players have taken up to 40% of the market in messaging, 25% in fixed voice, and 7% in mobile voice.…
This week’s mental model is pulled directly from the great Shane Parish. His weekend post on “knowledge compounding” is similar to how I’m structuring my year. This year over each quarter I am doing a ‘crash course’ in some topic…
Last week I wrote about the struggling Nigerian eCommerce companies. QZ had recently put out on article stating that there were several eCommerce companies either shutting down or downsizing. It’s compelling. There doesn’t seem to be product market fit yet,…