Binder
On people and belief
The financialization of the software industry produced enormous wealth and also a lot of people who don’t understand what makes software companies work. It’s not the capital. It’s not the tech stack. It’s not the methodology.
It’s belief. People need to believe what they’re doing will work. They need to believe in each other and in the mission of the day. When that’s gone — when employees sense the pastor is drunk and spending time at the casino — the drivers stop driving and burrow in. After a few quarters you’ve lost the best people.
Selection matters more than training
The best PMs self-select for using the system to solve real problems versus hiding behind process theater. You can’t train that. You recognize it and get out of its way.
Mission focus creates alignment
Championship teams put company goals ahead of individual goals. Be laser-focused on the mission. Activism and initiatives unrelated to the mission are distractions that create division. This is not a popular opinion. It’s also right.
- Hire for curiosity and judgment, not credentials. Pattern-matching to past resumes selects against the trait you actually need.
- Defend the belief layer. When leadership stops articulating the mission, people stop believing it. The narrative is the work.
- Cut the distractions. Anything that isn’t the mission is competing with it. The longer you tolerate competing missions, the weaker the real one gets.
People are capable of great things if they perceive it’s worth it. Make it worth it.