🚦 3-2-1 Traction — let’s freaking do this!

In this issue: a challenge for the new year; how to find product-market fit faster; why learning does not make progress; completing your customer’s life; career aspirations; and a 2023 reflection.

Welcome to 2024, my friend 👋

I hope the new week, new quarter, new month, and new year give you the swift kick in the pants they gave me. I’ve got big plans, and I hope you do too.

This is 3-2-1 Traction — 3 ideas from me, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question to help you focus in your startup journey.

Let’s crush it together. 💥

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3 ideas from me

one: learning is not progress.

When I ask entrepreneurs what they’ve done lately, I often get answers like:

• Watched an interesting talk or panel;

• Participated in a flashy accelerator;

• Talked to a cool advisor/mentor;

• Read an insightful book;

• etc.

But thinking and learning aren’t doing.

None of them make progress, because they’re about the entrepreneur, and not about the customer.

So here’s my New Year’s Challenge: what can you do this month — this week, maybe even this day — to get out of your head and make substantive progress?

What’s your “one click forward”? Leave a comment and let me know.

two: but why tho?

During discovery, founders ask customers what problems they have or what solutions they’re looking for.

But what is the cheap part. World-changing companies find out why.

three: close your TTC to zero.

Want the fastest route to product-market fit?

Measure your team’s "time-to-customer" (TTC) — the time it takes to go from your idea to testing it with customers. And optimise for it.

Why? Time equals risk, and the longer it takes to validate your ideas, the riskier it becomes.

Conversely, quick validation means quick feedback — more value, less cost, faster cycles.

So for any effort, ask two questions:

1. Is this the most important thing to learn?

2. And is this the fastest way to learn it?

And don’t overcomplicate it.

Want to dive deeper? Here you go →

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2 ideas from others

Yasmine Khosrowshahi on the goal of any product:

Business executive Jay Ferro offers perspective on aspirations (paraphrased):

The three stages of career development are:

1. I want to be in the meeting

2. I want to run the meeting

3. I want to avoid the meeting

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1 question for you

What’s something that worked for you in 2023 that’s worth doubling-down on in 2024? Just as importantly, what’s something that didn’t work that’s worth abandoning?

That’s it for this week. Let’s have a freaking awesome 2024!

And as always, thanks for reading.

—jdm

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