Accountability Without Shame
Accountability sticks when it’s specific and small. Replace “Do better” with “Ship draft by Wednesday 5pm.” If it slips, ask what constraint blocked it and shrink the next commitment. No moralizing, just design.
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Japanese Study: Input Before Output
For Japanese, heavy input first (listening and reading) makes output less painful. Short daily reps beat long weekly sessions. Track minutes, not streaks. If you can’t understand native content yet, graded readers and slow podcasts are fine—just keep the pipe flowing.
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Roadmaps as Bets, Not Promises
Good roadmaps state the bet, the evidence, and the kill criteria. If new evidence arrives and nothing changes, you don’t have a roadmap; you have a schedule.
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Service Blueprint vs Journey Map (Use Both)
Journey maps are user-facing narratives that show what the person sees and feels. Service blueprints add the “backstage” layers: people, processes, and systems that create those moments. A practical pattern is: map one critical path end-to-end as a journey, then layer a blueprint to expose owners and measurement. That’s usually enough to run a focused…
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Coaching Cadence: Weekly, 45 Minutes, Agenda‑Light
Weekly 45‑minute sessions compound. Start with a quick check‑in, review last commitment, then pick one constraint to work. End with a concrete next action. Heavy agendas kill presence; keep it light and focused.
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Journey Maps for Fun and Retention
Almost every organization has attempted customer journey mapping at some point. Too often, the result is an eye-pleasing visualization that soon sits forgotten in a slide deck. This happens because we don’t use CJMs in a way that guides us in solving real business problems. This methodology takes a different approach. It focuses on creating…
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Risk Reviews That Don’t Waste Time
Keep risk reviews to three questions: what moved this account’s health since last review, what’s the next intervention, and what evidence says it will work. Ban status theater. If we can’t state the risk and the counterfactual clearly, log an assumption and test it.
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NDR vs. GRR: The Two Retention Numbers That Matter
Two canonical formulas: – Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) = (Starting ARR − Contraction − Churn) ÷ Starting ARR – Net Dollar Retention (NDR) = (Starting ARR + Expansion − Contraction − Churn) ÷ Starting ARR GRR shows how well you keep what you have. NDR shows whether existing customers grow enough to offset losses. They…
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Simple Funnel Math for Planning
Basic planning math: Leads × SQO% × Win% × ASP = New ARR PQLs × Sales‑assist rate × Win% × ASP = Product‑led ARR Sanity check: NDR × Starting ARR + New ARR = Ending ARR (ignoring one‑offs). If targets don’t reconcile, fix assumptions before fixing people.
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Experience and Outcomes are all that matter.
Churn is a lagging indicator. By the time a customer cancels, the problem started months earlier, usually as low engagement or stalled adoption. If you’re reacting to churn risk at renewal time, you’re already behind. The simplest formula for keeping customers I have been able to validate is below: Retention = Experience + Outcomes(Adoption(Engagement)) Work…