Priority Setting in Business

This is how Anthropic decides what to build next—and it's brilliant. Instead of endless spec documents and roadmap debates, the Claude Code team has cracked the code on feature prioritization: prototype first, decide later. Here's their process (shared by Catherine Wu, Product Lead at Anthropic): Step 1: Idea → Prototype Got a feature idea? Skip the spec. Build a working prototype using Claude Code instead. Step 2: Internal Launch Ship that prototype to all Anthropic engineers immediately. No polish required—just functionality. Step 3: Watch & Listen Track usage religiously. Collect feedback actively. Let real behavior, not opinions, guide decisions. Step 4: Data-Driven Prioritization - High usage + positive feedback → roadmap priority - Low engagement or complaints → back to iteration This "prototype-first product shaping" flips traditional product development on its head. Instead of guessing what users want, they're measuring what users actually use. The beauty? They're dogfooding their own tool to build their own tool. The feedback loop is immediate, honest, and impossible to ignore. The takeaway: Your best product decisions come from real user behavior, not theoretical frameworks. Sometimes the fastest way to validate an idea isn't a survey or interview—it's a working prototype.

“Sales is not relevant to me, I am in [Function other than sales].” Raise your hand if you've ever thought this way. I would be the first one to raise my hand - dismissing sales as irrelevant to my role in tech. Early in my career, the very word 'sales' conjured images of a sleazy car salesman trying to sell me unnecessary options for my new vehicle. As my career progressed, however, my perspective started to shift. I realized that sales is far more than just transactions and numbers. It's about building relationships, understanding deep-seated needs, adding value and offering meaningful solutions. Sales acumen, I discovered, is like financial literacy – a universal, indispensable skill that transcends job titles, experience levels and functions. To demystify sales and showcase its broad relevance, I reached out to my friend Aaron Norris, a former Principal Account Exec at Amazon Web Services. He is now dedicated to advancing the careers of Account Execs, focusing on long-term happiness, health, and wealth. Here are 5 invaluable tips he shared with me on how sales skills can benefit any role: 1. Discovery: Identifying and understanding your customer's top priority challenges and designing unique value-adding solutions is critical in sales. This is not a one-time effort rather an ongoing process of research, obtaining insights, collaborating and establishing feedback loops to deliver the right solutions and delight customers. 2. Stakeholder Engagement: Adapting the narrative, style, channel and frequency of messaging enables sellers to effectively engage with and obtain buy-in from internal and external executives, technical, and business stakeholders at various levels. 3. Influence: Effective influence in sales hinges on clear, honest communication and a deep understanding of customer needs and team dynamics. It's about building trust by consistently delivering on promises and showing commitment to customers’ and colleagues' success. This approach not only drives decision-making but also strengthens team collaboration, accounting for their unique skills, needs and interests. 4. Resilience: Navigating a high-pressure and target-driven environment, sales professionals often face rejection and must rebound after losses. To remain composed and resilient during challenging times, they prioritize customer focus, engage the executive team early, and make decisions with a long-term perspective. 5. Relationship Building: Building authentic relationships in sales requires prioritizing your customers' success over closing a deal. It involves becoming their most trusted advisor by investing time in building the partnership, understanding their goals and strategy, providing value at every opportunity, and celebrating their wins. Looking for additional insights on the topic? Follow Aaron. He posts daily on the topics of enterprise sales, personal development and leadership. PS: Just for a bit of fun, share a ‘sales horror story’ below!

Why Do Teams Chase Sales and Not Service? How often have you found yourself being pursued by sales teams and not enough by the service team? Sales teams relentlessly pursue potential customers with offers, discounts, and information to influence buying decisions. Yet, once the sale is closed, the same fervour is rarely seen in customer service. I am curious to understand why this happens? In my experience - ↳ New customer acquisition + customer retention = Growth in customer base While sales and marketing teams are responsible for bringing in new customers, it is the customer service team that retains them. According to me, the benefits of customer service being more ‘aggressive’ than sales has a lot of benefits; I have witnessed all of them in my organisation. It was a matter of pride for us to be recognised for our customer experience. 👉Retention Beats Acquisition:  ↳ It's far cheaper to keep existing customers than find new ones.  ↳ Great service is key to retention. 👉Customers as Advocates:  ↳ Satisfied clients become our best marketers.  ↳ Their word carries more weight than any sales pitch. 👉Long-Term Value:  ↳ A customer's worth isn't just in their first purchase.  ↳ Excellent service drives repeat business. 👉Reputation Matters:  ↳ In the digital age, service can make or break our brand's image. 👉Service as Differentiator:  ↳ In competitive markets, service quality sets us apart over price or features. 👉Happy Employees, Happy Customers:  ↳ A service-focused culture creates more fulfilling jobs, boosting employee satisfaction. 👉Continuous Improvement:  ↳ Engaged customers provide invaluable feedback, helping refine our offerings. The solution? Companies need to shift their focus: ↳ Invest in customer service training and resources.  ↳ Implement customer success programs. ↳ Create systems for regular follow-ups.  ↳ Reward excellent service as much as sales achievements.  ↳ Use customer satisfaction metrics as key performance indicators. For example: Oberoi Hotels have one of the highest NPS ratings in the hospitality industry. Apparently, every team member is empowered to provide customer delight at their individual discretion, up to a certain budget. Imagine, what a culture of building ownership in customer service! Remember, sales is just the beginning of the customer relationship, not the end. I would love to know from you - ✅How can we encourage businesses to prioritise service as much as sales?✅Do you have a measure for customer experience (like NPS) in your organisation? ♻️Repost to spread the message. PS: I love to guide young minds in their entrepreneurial journey via 1:1 mentoring, workshops, and as a guest speaker. Look forward to collaborating and exploring these opportunities.

During my racing career I’ve have the privilege to work with several mental performance coaches. Even though they all had different philosophies and different ways of coaching. There was one message they were all incredibly consistent on… Peak performers focus on execution over results. When I first met with Fellow Canadian Jacques Dallaire , he told me the number one thing athletes complain about, or wish to improve on, is their lack of focus. Then he challenged that idea. “Focus isn’t the problem. You’re probably focused…You’re just focused on the wrong things.” He went on to say: “Results should be the goal of our performance, but when we are engaged in the performance, our goal should be directed to execution—the specific actions and tasks that are directly relevant to the performance itself. This is the key.” This hit hard because I realized how many races I had lost due to being more focused on what position I was going to cross the finish line, than the driving itself. When we’re under pressure, it’s easy to obsess over the outcome. Will I win? Will the client say yes? Will this event be successful? Will this meeting go well? The problem is… None of those thoughts improve your performance. So What does? Focusing on the execution. The next action. The next decision. The next thing that’s actually within your control. I’ve now realized the same is true outside of racing. Whether you’re giving a keynote, leading an event, pitching a client, interviewing for a job, or building a business… Your best performance doesn’t come from obsessing over the outcome. It comes from giving your full attention to the next action that’s directly in front of you. Ironically, the less attention you give the outcome in the moment…the more likely you are to achieve it. When you focus on the execution. The things that are directly within your control at the present moment… The results will take care of themselves. Take this thought into the rest of your week!

Throughout my recruitment career, I've observed a consistent disconnect between what candidates emphasize and what actually influences hiring decisions.   Elaborate job titles might look impressive on LinkedIn, but they rarely drive hiring decisions.   What Hiring Managers Overlook:   Complex titles like "Senior Vice President of Strategic Digital Transformation" or "Principal Customer Experience Innovation Lead" sound important but provide little insight into actual capabilities or achievements.   What Drives Hiring Decisions:   1. Quantified Impact: Specific metrics that demonstrate business value - revenue generated, costs reduced, efficiency improved, problems solved. 2. Transferable Skills: Core competencies that apply across industries and organizations rather than company-specific role descriptions. 3. Problem-Solving Evidence: Concrete examples of challenges identified and solutions implemented with measurable outcomes. 4. Results-Oriented Communication: The ability to articulate achievements in terms of business impact rather than job responsibilities.   The Strategic Shift: Instead of: "I'm a Marketing Director" Position as: "I help B2B companies generate 3x more qualified leads through data-driven campaigns"   Instead of: "I'm an Operations Manager" Position as: "I streamline processes that reduce costs by 25% while improving quality"   Why This Matters:   Hiring managers evaluate candidates based on potential contribution to their specific business challenges. Titles describe past roles; results predict future value.   When you lead with measurable achievements rather than hierarchical labels, you immediately differentiate yourself from candidates who rely on impressive-sounding titles.   What strategies have you found most effective for communicating your professional value beyond job titles?   Sign up to my newsletter for more corporate insights and truths here: https://lnkd.in/ei_uQjju   #deepalivyas #eliterecruiter #recruiter #recruitment #jobsearch #corporate #valueproposition #resultsdriven #careerstrategist

Too many product decisions still happen in silos. Strategy gets separated from delivery. Roadmaps drift away from outcomes. Backlogs turn into long wish lists. As a result, teams stay busy but create little value. While that's always been an issue, it is now more important than ever with AI. Without clear strategic directions, teams are at risk of building products that nobody wants or needs, that have the wrong features, and offer the wrong UX—at an ever-faster rate. Great products, however, aren’t built by separating strategy from execution. They’re created by connecting them. That’s exactly why I developed my product strategy model—a powerful way to link product vision, strategy, roadmap, and backlog. In my article, I describe the framework in its latest, revised version, and I explain how you can systematically connect four critical elements: → Product Vision ⭐️ → Product Strategy ♟️ → Product Roadmap 🎯 → Product Backlog 📦 Additionally, I discuss who should own the elements, how the product strategy relates to portfolio strategy and business strategy, and how you can apply the framework: ✅ Strategy means making deliberate choices—including what NOT to build. ✅ Outcome-based roadmaps create far more clarity than feature-based plans. ✅ Product teams work best when they own both strategy and execution. ✅ Strategy and execution must be closely aligned: strategy guides execution, and execution informs strategy. ✅ The best strategy is useless if it doesn’t shape day-to-day product decisions. I hope you'll find the article helpful. Let me know your thoughts and questions in the comments. #productmanagement #ProductStrategy #productvision #ProductRoadmap #productteam

Achievement goal theory offers a bridge from technical, tactical and physical to psychological. It’s the theory so many top coaches don’t necessarily know about, yet it’s one that can be used as an evidence-informed approach that links training/practice with game-day, and can help players retain focus and motivation through tough game moments. Let me explain more… Evidence (principally from education) suggests that achievement settings are best met in a task or mastery orientation, rather than ego. When being assessed (when in competition), focusing primarily on yourself and engaging in the specific skills you have (or are developing) is more appropriate than comparing yourself to others. How does this play out in sport? I don’t think anyone denies that a focus on outcome and high performance can help some competitors some of the time. Achievement motivation is…well, motivating! Wanting to beat another person or another team can drive a player(s) on. But, with Achievement Goal Theory in mind, a focus on specific, controllable (or as controllable as possible), and positive tasks is likely optimal. Perhaps the best narrative for a sports competitor entering the arena is as follows: “I want to win, and I’d like to perform at or close to my best. I know what this looks like, and I’ve practiced hard to accomplish this, so now I have to focus on the specifics of my performance…the tasks I can control and the tasks I want to accomplish” That may seem like a bit of a mouthful at first glance, but when you start to strip things back things become a lot simpler… If you’re a footballer, rather than “I want to score” why not “Keep scanning for space” or “Non stop movement” or “Attack the six yard area” (depending on what tasks are relevant to you). Specific, controllable, positive. This is a technique I call a Match Script. I coined this term back in 2012 when I wrote my first book Soccer Tough, and without sounding embarrassingly ‘name-droppery’ I was delighted when Gareth Bale recently named it a book that changed his life (in the Guardian newspaper). If you’re a coach, it’s so simple to help a player develop a Match Script, and for those of you in the workplace, you can develop something similar for your performance moments (I call these Task Scripts). Now, we can go also broader and deeper…. Goal Achievement Theory is related to something called Motivational Climate. In simple terms, Motivational Climate refers to the social side of Goal Achievement - basically, the coach’s language, communication, and actions that promote either a task or ego orientation. Coaches who talk about winning and high performance a lot promote an ego orientation. Coaches who talk about the tasks, mastery, effort, enjoyment etc promote a task orientation. So, as a coach, helping players develop Match Scripts (and maybe even having a Team Script) helps to promote a task-oriented environment. It helps promote a healthy and safe environment

Your biggest growth driver is already on payroll. Here’s why customer success is the key to growth. Too many businesses think customer success is just about troubleshooting or minimizing churn. But here’s the truth: Companies that prioritize customer success see higher retention rates and more referrals, transforming existing relationships into exponential growth. As we head into 2025, now is the perfect time to rethink how customer success can become your strongest growth engine. Here’s how to make it happen: 1. Align Metrics with Growth: Tie customer success metrics directly to revenue outcomes like retention, upsells, and referrals. For example, companies with strong customer success strategies see retention improve by over 30%. 2. Be Proactive, Not Reactive: Customer success isn’t just about fixing problems. It’s about anticipating needs and creating value before issues arise. Customer success isn’t just about keeping the lights on. It’s about turning retention, referrals, and upsells into your biggest revenue streams." P.S. Does your business treat customer success as a cost or a growth?

We all know the temptation of setting too many goals at once. On paper, it feels productive as a burst of ambition or an eagerness to do everything. But in practice, it almost always leads to frustration. Instead of steady progress, we scatter our energy across competing priorities, and nothing moves forward in the way we hoped. So how do we decide what really deserves our focus? The first step is to make sure our goals align with the bigger picture. If you’re part of an organization, that means asking your boss what they view as your most important contribution this year. Not only does it ensure your efforts are relevant, but it also helps you build political capital by showing you’re invested in what matters to them. And if you’re the leader, the responsibility shifts: you need to work backwards from your company’s long-term vision. If you know where you want the business to be in three years, the goals you set today should act as stepping stones toward that future. Once you’ve identified what’s strategically important, sequencing becomes essential. Think of it as a “goal timeline.” Years back, I knew I wanted to create my own online courses. But I realized I couldn’t start there. I didn’t yet have the right skills, the right audience, or even clarity on what people wanted to learn from me. So instead, I spent three years building those foundations: learning the process by creating courses for others, growing my email list, and piloting ideas. Only then did I launch my first course. That patience and sequencing made all the difference. It also helps to identify a “keystone goal.” A goal that makes other ambitions easier to achieve. For me, writing for high-profile publications not only supported my consulting business, it also opened doors for speaking engagements and book sales. By focusing on one keystone, multiple other goals fell into place. And finally, once you’ve chosen your focus, you have to stick with it. I often see clients second-guess themselves because they notice peers succeeding with completely different strategies. It’s easy to get distracted. The antidote is what I call “willful myopia”: committing to a goal for at least six months. That consistency gives your work the runway it needs to bear fruit. The truth is, in our culture, there’s always pressure to do more, and to do it faster. But lasting success often comes from doing less, with greater intention. By carefully choosing the right goal and giving it the focus it deserves, you create the conditions for meaningful, long-term results.