Tools for progress #21
How Stripe crafts products, Speed versus quality, PMs handbook for AI features,
We (humans) read hundreds of articles on company building, angel investing, and self-management and curate the best ones into a weekly summary—helping founders and operators stay on the top of their game.
Better thinking
The Design of Everyday Things (8 minute read)
Don Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" emphasizes that poor design is always the designer's fault, not the user's. Products should be discoverable (what they can do) and understandable (how you do it). As consumers, we’ve gotten used to great UX. Because we know what good looks like now, poor UX stands out a lot. This is a call to action to really think about your product design. In an AI world where building things gets a little easier, it’ll be brand and design that edge out the competition.
Making the Tradeoff Between Speed and Quality (2 minute read)
Does speed inhibit quality? It depends how you make the tradeoff between the two. Opting for speed doesn’t mean you cut corners and remove things from the process. Instead, it’s about re-evaluating the process and compressing it. If you’re shipping a new feature, it doesn’t mean skipping customer discovery, it simply means running a different customer discovery process with shorter milestones.
3 Things I Learned From Owning Plants (1 minute read)
Plants can make us better people. Caring for plants teaches patience, as they grow at their own pace - unhurried by external pressures. Recognizing that different plants need different environments reminds us that individuals have unique needs too. When a plant shows signs of distress, we adjust their care, but with ourselves, we often neglect basic needs and dramatize issues. Like plants, meeting our core needs leads to greater happiness. We should notice these parallels to improve ourselves.
Operational tactics
The PM’s Handbook for Building AI Features (Resource)
The team at Basalt AI created this handbook after interviewing 150 startups to learn how they were building AI enabled features and products. This guide aims to provide product builders and executives with a practical, opinionated handbook for shipping exceptional AI features in production, creating competitive advantages, and emerging as leaders in the AI era. Thank you to Jerome for sharing this one!
Inside How Stripe Crafts Quality Products | Katie Dill (Stripe Head of Design) (12 minute read)
There seems to be a theme in this issue of Tools for progress–craft and quality in your product design really matters. Katie Dill, Stripe’s Head of Design, defines quality as a combination of utility, usability, and beauty. Product utility or beauty in isolation will only get you so far, it’s both in combination that creates an excellent product. B2B software has lacked beauty, and it feels like expectations around that are starting to change. Quality is a cultural thing, and it starts at the top.
Building vs Scaling (2 minute read)
0-1 is all about building and finding PMF. Success requires being far superior to existing solutions to overcome customer inertia. Examples include Lime’s middle-distance transport, TikTok’s engagement with Gen Z, Airbnb’s affordable stays, and Uber’s driver-rider matching. In contrast, 1-to-N products focus on scaling and continuous improvement. In this stage, companies must defend market share by delighting customers, enhancing margins, and creating hard-to-copy advantages like strong brands, network effects, and unique technology.
Refer and we’ll send you our favourite books as a “thank you” for spreading the word.
Angel investing
Consensus and Dissent in Investment Committees (10 minute read)
How do VCs make investment decisions? Each firm has their own take, but at the core, there’s really two dominant methods–Champion or Consensus based investing. The former requires an IC member to have conviction on an opportunity. The latter requires the majority of the IC committee to be in favor. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Champion investing is more common at the early-stages, whilst consensus dominates the later stage. Thank you
!Inside the Secret School for the World’s Best Founders (56 minute read)
Mario from The Generalist offers a deep dive into Avra Capital, a relatively new venture firm started by former YC Partner, Anu Hariharan. He documents Anu’s journey into venture capital and her approach to building Avra Capital and supporting founders. Avra Capital's unique approach lies in its education-first model for growth-stage startups. Before investing, Avra offers a structured program teaching crucial skills, with each class led by successful founders. This allows Avra to assess the learning velocity of a founder, before they make an investment. Whilst giving founders no strings attached access to great content.
Do VCs Need to Innovate on their Product? (2 minute watch)
“Most VCs don’t see their job as innovating on the process of venture capital. They see their job as finding great companies and giving them capital.” More have spent time refining the product of discovering companies and evaluating them, but not on the structure of the capital itself. Will the 10+2 VC business model be compatible with the types of companies we need to build over the next few centuries? Hardware, Deeptech, Biotech–many have long R&D periods and uncertain commercial roadmaps.
Managing your career
Operate at All Levels (2 minute read)
Certainly as companies scale, you see the emergence of pure managers. Someone whose sole responsibility is to manage and empower a team, rather than do the underlying work. There’s constant debate about whether that model is optimal. For Brex, exceptional leadership hinges on their ability to operate at all levels, from strategy to execution. This approach aims to ensure leaders understand the nuances of great work, earn respect, and inspire their teams. Whether you’re an IC or a full-time leader, I think this is a good reminder to jump into the trenches every now and then and get your hands dirty. You’ll learn a lot, and it’ll likely make you a better leader.
High Variance Management (9 minute read)
In Broadway shows, low variance (high consistency) is crucial, but in movies, high variance (risk-taking) can lead to exceptional scenes. Similarly, software projects benefit from balancing both: standard solutions for predictable parts and innovation for key components. Managers should identify team members suited for high variance work—those who are intrinsically motivated, offer surprising ideas, and are outcome-oriented. By framing problems to encourage ambition, adjusting constraints, and reducing processes that stifle creativity.
How to Build a Builder (104 minute listen)
Dr Gena Gorlin, a clinical psychologist who advocates for the “builder” mindset, challenges conventional views by promoting the pursuit of “psychological perfection” as a tangible and achievable state. She contrasts this with two limiting mindsets: the “Drill Sergeant”, who is driven by perfectionism and external standards, and the “Zen Master”, who avoids ambition to escape stress. Her conversation with Jim O’Shaughnessy on the Infinite Loops podcast, emphasizes positive agency, persistence, and building one’s own path to achieve a fulfilling and ambitious life.