I eagerly soaked up frameworks and tools at the beginning of my career. I read Blue Ocean Strategy. I dreamed of a calm, competitive play like Southwest Airlines. In my first job, employees obsessed over Amazon’s “internal press release.” It all felt like a magical formula for success.
But the more I worked, the less I saw these frameworks used. Over time, they became an anti-criterion. Those who held too firmly to certain tools or models seemed stiff and lacking creativity. They could not adapt to real-world complexities.
After years at startups, including three as employee #3, I found a simple framework. It guides almost all early-stage product decisions. It’s for productivity software, a game like Dragon Slots, or anything else.
Frameworks can help when starting. They give you a sense of direction in unknown territory. But the truth is that frameworks are only as good as the context in which they’re applied. Startups in their early stages thrive on creativity and flexibility. They also need to iterate quickly. A fixed set of rules can’t capture any of these qualities. Success often comes from blending frameworks with intuition and experience. You must grasp the unique dynamics of your product, team, and market.
What are we trying to do, and why? Is it essential? Have we laid out and evaluated the options? Have we made a clear decision?
Most startups struggle to make decisions and execute. This is critical, as their main advantage is speed. These four questions help root out some of the most common issues.
What are We Trying To Do, and Why?
All good product management starts with defining the problem, the challenge, and the opportunity. Then, we must diagnose why it exists. This helps us move “Should we add an AI chatbot?” to the underlying conversation.
Is it Essential?
Startups live briefly and have to stay focused on the existential questions. If this isn’t one of our top three problems in building a real business, it isn’t essential.
Is it important right now? Timing is critical for early-stage companies. Those who migrate to startups from larger firms often worry about scalability. Most startups never have a chance to address this problem. Things “12–18 months away” are worth some thought. But, not much more than that.
Have We Laid Out and Evaluated the Options?
It’s easy to jump to the first solution we think of when moving fast. Have we actually explored the whole set of solutions? Have we slowed down enough to consult with some cross-functional people? They might have a different view of the solutions.
What dimensions of these solutions are essential? Which dimensions are more important than others? For example, are we willing to absorb higher costs to improve our time to market? Have we scored the potential solutions or validated that some should not be included? Where do we need data to test? Has it been collected? Where do we need conviction to proceed (e.g., on a subjective evaluation of potential impact)? Have we discussed it?
Have We Made a Clear Decision?
Is it clear to everyone in the room what path we chose? Is it documented and disseminated with a shared sense of urgency?
I love startups because they present many interesting decisions to make. What should we build? How should we build it? How should we go to market? What roles should we hire, and in what order? What profiles should we seek? How do we confront this challenge? How do we capitalize on this momentum? To name a few.
Making prompt and assured decisions is a superpower for your early team. Laying out your rationale helps drive absolute alignment. You can create a team aligned not only on what to do but also on what we believe and how we move from belief to creation.
