SJO.com

Category: Quick Thoughts

  • 3 traits (in how to think) good leaders have

    The past few years have kicked my ass in ‘leadership’ — from Examine almost dying in 2019 to COVID crushing 60% of our revenue — it’s been a whirlwind. (With that said, Examine’s revenue is up more than 3x from the nadir of 2019, so good progress!) I recently talked to an employee about the…

  • Own your mistakes publicly

    I’ve done a fair number of JTBD (jobs-to-be-done) customer interviews. It’s been super interesting seeing the patterns of what people say (and don’t say). Here’s a random one to share: a few months ago Kamal had the idea of (inspired by GiveWell) to publish an “Our Mistakes” page. When talking to customers, they LOVE bringing…

  • Experience is a fantastic filter

    I have an almost limitless supply of bad ideas. It’s experience that helps me filter them out more effectively.

  • Own up to your mistakes

    I posted earlier this week how I was 100% focused on Examine.com for the indeterminate future. Here’s something we just released today that I’m super proud of: Our Mistakes. Inspired by GiveWell, we are publicly disclosing the mistakes we’ve made, and our progress in fixing those mistakes. Check it out: https://examine.com/about/our-mistakes/

  • Find A solution.

    There’s a big difference between ‘a’ solution and ‘the’ solution. Far too many people obsess over “the.” Try to find ‘a’ more often instead of always going for the best.