This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

Recently Written

Too Big To Fail (Apr 9)

When a company piles resources on a new product idea, it doesn't have room to fail. That keeps it from succeeding.

Go small (Apr 4)

The strengths of a large organization are the opposite of what makes innovation work. Starting something new requires that you start with a small team.

Start with a Belief (Apr 1)

You can't use data to build products unless you start with a hypothesis.

Mastery doesn’t come from perfect planning (Dec 21)

In a ceramics class, one group focused on a single perfect dish, while another made many with no quality focus. The result? A lesson in the value of practice over perfection.

The Dark Side of Input Metrics (Nov 27)

Using input metrics in the wrong way can cause unexpected behaviors, stifled creativity, and micromanagement.

Reframe How You Think About Users of your Internal Platform (Nov 13)

Changing from "Customers" to "Partners" will give you a better perspective on internal product development.

Measuring Feature success (Oct 17)

You're building features to solve problems. If you don't know what success looks like, how did you decide on that feature at all?

How I use OKRs (Oct 13)

A description of how I use OKRs to guide a team, written so I can send to future teams.

Older...

What I'm Reading

• Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlitt
• The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months by Brian P. Moran
• Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot by Matt Abrahams
• The Secret (Jack Reacher #28) by Lee Child
• What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith
• Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World by Todd Rogers
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't by Jim Collins
• The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results by Stephen Bungay
• Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies by Reid Hoffman
• Lead!: How to Build a High-Performing Team by Dale Carnegie & Associates
• Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell
• Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey
• Leading Through Inflation: And Recession and Stagflation by Ram Charan
• Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson
• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt
• Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity by Frank Slootman
• Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal
• Monty Hall, Storytelling, and Planning
• Scaling Up is Hard to Do | Chasm Group
• Crazy, Unloved but Potentially Transformational – What’s in your Loonshot nursery? - Rita McGrath