Join 📚 Felicity's Weekly Book Highlights
A batch of the best highlights from what Felicity's read, .
What Strategic Thinking Actually Looks Like
Strategic thinking means turning from the strategic process to the actual core questions:
**Instead of:** "What features should we build?"
**Ask:** "Which customer problems, if solved, would most directly contribute to our company's current priorities?"
**Instead of:** "Leadership hasn't told us who to focus on."
**Ask:** "Based on what we know about business goals, which segments would we focus on if we had to choose today?"
**Instead of:** "Which of [Helmer's 7 Powers](https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/8kuokvewzehoh29wkx5akhk6g2g99s3hxqgw2/owhkhwuwgz7do5tq/aHR0cHM6Ly83cG93ZXJzLmNvbS8=) is the right one to focus on?"
**Ask:** "How can we convince audiences to choose us over alternatives?"
Notice the pattern? Strategic thinking means making explicit choices within your context, even when that context is imperfect.
Why Strategic THINKING Matters More Than THE Strategy
Tim Herbig
How do you organize this way? First you begin with the customer or user—whomever is consuming your product at the end of the day. What is the value that you are providing them? Then work backward. What are the touchpoints they have with your company on the way to receiving that value? Having identified these, how do you organize to optimize and streamline that journey for them? How do you optimize to provide more value, faster?
Escaping the Build Trap
Melissa Perri
In my tenure at Amazon I heard him say many times that if we wanted Amazon to be a place where builders can build, we needed to eliminate communication, not encourage it.
Working Backwards
Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
...catch up on these, and many more highlights
Readwise