Comments on: Supermac War Story 8: Cats and Dogs – Admitting a Mistake

By: Customer Development Gut Checks « Market By Numbers - Brant Cooper

Customer Development Gut Checks « Market By Numbers - Brant Cooper — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:38:46 +0000

[...] (uncontrollable) conditions or internal scapegoats, than admit mistakes. (Blank talks about this, [...]

By: heykeenan

heykeenan — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:29:49 +0000

I agree with Jerry Ji. A lot of credit must be given to the CEO and the culture of the company. I recall a moment similar and the response was “Great, that doesn’t do me any good. I don’t have time for anyone falling on the sword, just go fix it.” No group effort and certainly no room for saying, I don’t know what to do.

Good for you for saying it, even better for your organization allowing you to say it.

By: Bill Allred

Bill Allred — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:00:42 +0000

It seems to me that if a startup has followed the Customer Development process with executive buy-in from day 1, there’s less reason for Sales and Marketing to be at each other’s necks when something unexpected happens. True? Or simply wishful thinking?

By: Jerry Ji

Jerry Ji — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:33:29 +0000

“”"When they discovered that the sky didn’t fall and they still had their jobs”"” — hum, seems like the corporate culture (or the perceived/assumed one) was also partially responsible.

But where does this corporate culture come from? I believe it’s just like a family trait, which starts from the characteristics of the top C-level executives and cascades all the way down, from the type of mid-management they hire, to who the mid-management hires, and then the way everyone is supposed to walk and talk.

So after practicing Steve’s Zen, it might also be fun to find something else to blame other than one’s own testosterone.

By: Chris Hopf

Chris Hopf — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:47:04 +0000

Thanks for sharing Steve. Looking forward to reading your book.

By: Michael F. Martin

Michael F. Martin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:28:53 +0000

Have you read Carol Dweck's Mindset. In her terms, you're talking about moving from a fixed to a growth mindset. Not coincidentally, the growth mindset has been found in a study of race car drivers to be correlated with increased flow experience. And if you haven't read anything about Csikszentmihalyi's flow, then go read Creativity immediately. Completely blew my mind. But as C. acknowledges somewhere, this all goes back to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.

By: David

David — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:58:35 +0000

Excellent!