OverHeard

Overheard : On cutting down “stuff”

We’re good as humans to committing to things that are positive. That’s very motivating for us. We’re bad at trying to avoid things that are negative

– Cal Newport in conversation with Tim Ferriss

Cal was speaking about how we are good at adding things that seem good to to us (facebook is good because we can communicate on the fly), but bad at avoiding negative things (being on facebook and doom scrolling is a bad thing). He instead suggests, just using technology for things you like (I will have facebook, but only follow and read messages from folks I want to).

February 27, 2022 by OverHeard 0

Overheard : Watermelon Metrics

Watermelon Metric : Green (good) on the outside and red (bad) once you dig in.

– Daniel Shapero (LinkedIn COO) on a post on LinkedIn

Some examples

  • If churn is down (looks green)… but when you look into why it’s down is because all of your customers left last year (very bad)
  • A manager’s EVS scores are up because everyone who was unhappy left
  • Brand awareness could be considered watermelon if it’s high but brand perception is poor.
  • The click-through rate of an email campaign is high, but when you dig in you learn that it’s because so many users are clicking in the footer to change their email preferences or opt out.
  • YOY Revenue is increasing (Green) – especially currently as businesses are raising prices to accommodate inflation – but when you dig in, you see profits are actually suffering (red)
January 20, 2022 by OverHeard 0

Oveheard : Pain

our ability to deal with pain is directly proportional to our ability to see pain elsewhere.

Subroto Bagchi

April 16, 2021 by OverHeard 0

Overheard : Services vs Product businesses

In the services business, you get paid to say yes to everything.

In the product business, you get paid to say no. By convincing the customer that you are not going to give what they want, but what they need.

– Sanveet Singh (CEO of $PAR) on a podcast with Richard Sosa

April 8, 2021 by OverHeard 0

Overheard : On appreciation

Everyone needs to feel appreciated. It doesn’t matter what they do, it doesn’t matter who they are, that’s a need in everybody.

– Grace McNiel (Hugh Jackman’s mom)

Hugh Jackman mentioned this quote on a podcast with Tim Ferriss. Highly recommend listening to the podcast. Hugh shared a lot more such wisdom in it. My admiration for Hugh went up a couple more notches after listening to it.

July 5, 2020 by OverHeard 0

Overheard : Process

Love this quote about process attributed to Tobi Lutke in multiple interviews. He said it in different ways, but here is the gist

There are three kinds of processes

  • Process that makes things that were previously impossible to do, possible. That’s good.
  • Process that makes something that was previously possible significantly simpler, which is also good.
  • Remaining 99.9% of all process that exists in corporate America is the third category, which is actually just telling people to behave slightly different from what common sense tells them to do.

Source :

May 12, 2020 by Management OverHeard 0