Postmates

Assume the Disruptor Is Right

During an existential threat, assume the disruptor is playing an optimal game and respond with overreaction

Back-Channel Reference Digging

Trust peer back-channels over provided references, and probe harder than feels comfortable.

Leadership3 steps

Best-for-the-Role, Not Best-in-Market

Hire for the specific mandate at this specific stage, not the most impressive resume available.

Build AND Buy

Reframe build-vs-buy as build-and-buy: buy 90% off the shelf, build the 10% that differentiates.

CDP vs Reverse-ETL Stack Decision

Choose a centralized CDP stack or a warehouse-plus-reverse-ETL stack based on your engineering resources.

Entrepreneurship4 steps

Consumer Subscription Viability Test

Freemium-plus-paid-acquisition consumer subscriptions fail without ~60-70%+ retention or a network effect

Define the Mandate Before You Search

Get granular on the outcome, spike, and 90-day plan before opening a product-leader search.

Founder Intuition vs Team Expertise Handoff

Delegate to hires only once they consistently make better calls than you would — and signal in both directions

Marketing4 steps

Future-Proof MTA Data Collection

Instrument first and last UTMs on day one so you can move to multi-touch attribution without waiting.

Happy GMV and Minimum Viable Happiness

Track only the GMV that produced a retained customer, and boil the thimble until it clears the bar

Self-Mastery4 steps

Leave It Better Than You Found It

Build career capital by making visible, others-verifiable impact — not by collecting logos.

Strategy3 steps

Market Map, Then Go a Layer Deeper

Start from the best companies for a skill, but never assume a great logo means a great individual.

Innovation4 steps

Markets as Currents, Not Bodies of Water

Chase the change dynamic pulling the market, not the size of the market

Productivity3 steps

Problem-People-System (PPS)

Diagnose a systems request by problem and people first, never jump straight to the tool.

Entrepreneurship4 steps

SaaS-Marketplace Transition Test

A SaaS business can add a marketplace only if it touches its customer's customer and those customers need multiple suppliers

Scenario-Based PM Interviewing

Interview PMs by making them do the real job under real constraints, not recite prepared stories

Productivity3 steps

Ship-to-Learn Research Allocation

Reserve scarce user research for high-uncertainty, high-leverage problems; ship to learn everywhere else

Leadership3 steps

The Calibration Test for Recruiters

Vet a recruiter by testing whether they can play back your brief and name candidates on the spot.

Strategy5 steps

The Hierarchy of Engagement

Three stacked levels — core action, accruing benefits, self-perpetuation — that decide if a consumer product endures

Entrepreneurship5 steps

The Hierarchy of Marketplaces

Focus, tip, dominate — the only sequence that produces a marketplace worth owning

The Pre-Need Talent Pipeline

Build relationships with great people long before you have a role open, with no agenda.

The Three Network Effects (and Why Social Products Must Evolve)

Classify defensibility as direct, cross-side, or data network effects — and know social products must add the latter two

Strategy5 steps

The Tippability Test

Check supply fragmentation, supply heterogeneity and incumbent competition before you fund a marketplace

Mindset3 steps

Thinking Gray

Defer black-or-white judgments about decisions and people until the last responsible moment.

Innovation4 steps

Three Ways to Find Marketplace Whitespace

Unbundle a low-NPS segment, own an ignored niche, or change the atomic unit of supply

Marketing5 steps

Tipping Loops: Growth Loops and Happiness Loops

Two symbiotic loop types — one grows the marketplace, one keeps it happy as it grows

Tool-Agnostic Hiring Test

Screen martech candidates for curiosity, engineering scrappiness, and freedom from tool bias.

Productivity4 steps

Top-Down / Bottoms-Up Core Action Analysis

Cross two analyses — return-propensity ranking and product purpose — to find the one action worth optimising

When to Centralize a Martech Function

Use the 100-150 person threshold and b2c/b2b axis to decide when and where to own martech.