#startup #growth #development #product
Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky are bestselling authors of the books Sprint and Make Time. They have helped more than 300 teams design new products and bring them to market, including those at YouTube, Gusto, One Medical Group, and Slack. Jake and JZ are co-founders of the venture capital firm Character, where they support startups with capital and sprints. Previously, they were operating partners at Google Ventures and, before that, design leaders at Google, where JZ worked on Google Ads and YouTube and Jake helped build Gmail and co-founded Google Meet. In our conversation, we discuss: • “Busy bandwagon” and “infinity pools” • Creating one “highlight” each day • Their four-part framework for productivity • How to use the calendar to design your day • How creating friction can help you avoid distractions • Tips on creating a distraction-free phone • Strategies for managing email and distractions • The importance of reflecting on the day and making time for meaningful work • Design sprints — Brought to you by: • Sidebar—Accelerate your career by surrounding yourself with extraordinary peers: https://www.sidebar.com/lenny • Whimsical—The iterative product workspace: https://whimsical.com/lenny • WorkOS—The modern API for auth and user identity: https://workos.com/lenny Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-time-for-what-matters-jake Where to find Jake Knapp: • X: https://twitter.com/jakek • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-knapp/ • Website: https://jakeknapp.com/ Where to find John Zeratsky: • X: https://twitter.com/jazer • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnzeratsky/ • Website: https://johnzeratsky.com/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) About Jake and John (04:10) Recording the audiobook for Make Time (06:06) What people often get wrong when trying to become more productive (11:24) The busy bandwagon and infinity pools (15:22) Real talk: Jake and John’s productivity levels (20:10) The four-part framework for getting more done: Highlight, Laser, Energize, Reflect (25:15) Step 1: Highlight (28:08) Designing your day with a calendar (30:52) The Groundhog Day mentality (35:10) Tactical advice for implementing the highlight method (39:30) An example of a failed highlight (48:08) Step 2: Laser (51:12) Creating intentional friction to avoid distractions (57:28) Curating a distraction-free phone (01:07:58) Resetting expectations and slowing your inbox (01:14:51) Systems over willpower (01:18:14) Managing email distractions (01:18:49) Step 3: Energize (01:22:05) Step 4: Reflect (01:26:30) Introduction to Sprint Referenced: • Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Time-Focus-Matters-Every/dp/0525572422 • Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days: https://www.amazon.com/Sprint-audiobook/dp/B019R2DQIY • Make Time blog: https://maketime.blog/ • Make Time blog on X: https://twitter.com/maketimeblog • Character: https://www.character.vc/ • Google Ventures: https://www.gv.com/ • Character Labs: https://www.character.vc/labs • Strategies for becoming less distracted and improving focus | Nir Eyal (author of Indistractable and Hooked): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/strategies-for-becoming-less-distracted-and-improving-focus-nir-eyal-author-of-indistractable-and/ • Groundhog Day on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Groundhog-Day-Bill-Murray/dp/B000SP1SH6 • Reclaim.ai: https://reclaim.ai/ • Feed Blocker for LinkedIn: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/feed-blocker-for-linkedin/eikaafmldiioljlilngpogcepiedpenf • The Lord of the Rings: https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0544003411 • MagSafe charger: https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MHXH3AM-A-MagSafe-Charger/dp/B08L5NP6NG/ • Nanit app: https://www.nanit.com/pages/nanit-app • Arianna Huffington’s Phone Bed Charging Station: https://www.amazon.com/Arianna-Huffingtons-Charging-Station-Walnut/dp/B0799ZG1LY • Cell Phone Lock Box with Timer: https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Android-Self-Discipline-Achieve-Addiction/dp/B0CG8V4YG3?th=1 • The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich: https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357 • The Economist: https://www.economist.com/ • Odysseus: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Odysseus • Mailman: https://www.mailmanhq.com/ • Future: https://www.future.co/ • Notion: https://www.notion.so/ • Miro: https://miro.com/ Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky are the co-creators of the Design Sprint (the famous five-day product innovation process) and authors of the bestselling book Sprint. After decades of working with over 300 startups in the earliest stages, they discovered that most startups fail not because they can’t build, but because they build the wrong thing. The very beginning of a startup is your highest-leverage moment, and most teams waste months or years by skipping a few critical early questions. Jake and John developed the Foundation Sprint to help startups validate ideas and compress months of work into just two days. *What you’ll learn:* 1. The step-by-step Foundation Sprint process that compresses three or four months of validation into two days—including templates you can use immediately 2. Why differentiation is the #1 predictor of startup success (with the 2x2 framework that you can use with your team) 3. The three fundamental questions every founder should answer before writing a line of code 4. The “note and vote” technique that eliminates groupthink and gets honest answers from your colleagues 5. The seven “magic lenses” for choosing between multiple product ideas 6. The biggest mistake engineers make when building with AI tools 7. The paradox of speed: why “building nothing first” can get you to product-market fit faster *Brought to you by:* Brex—The banking solution for startups: https://www.brex.com/product/business-account?ref_code=bmk_dp_brand1H25_ln_new_fs Paragon—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want: https://www.useparagon.com/lenny Coda—The all-in-one collaborative workspace: https://coda.io/lenny *Transcript:* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-foundation-sprint-jake-knapp-and-john-zeratsky *My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers):* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/167485876/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation *Where to find Jake Knapp:* • X: https://twitter.com/jakek • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-knapp/ • Website: https://jakeknapp.com/ *Where to find John Zeratsky:* • X: https://twitter.com/jazer • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnzeratsky/ • Website: https://johnzeratsky.com/ *Where to find Lenny:* • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ *In this episode, we cover:* (00:00) Introduction to Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (04:41) Origins of the Design Sprint (11:06) The Foundation Sprint process (14:40) Phase one: The basics (16:57) Case study: Latchet (28:50) Phase two: Differentiation (36:24) The importance of differentiation (40:15) Thoughts on price differentiation (43:37) Case study: Mellow (46:04) Custom differentiators (49:30) The mini manifesto (52:02) Phase three: Approach to the project (54:50) Magic lenses activity (01:02:39) Prototyping and testing (01:10:00) Real-world examples and success stories (01:15:15) Motivation behind The Foundation Sprint (01:17:15) The outcome of the sprint: The founding hypothesis (01:19:28) The Design Sprint (01:28:19) The role of AI in prototyping (01:36:50) Final thoughts and resources *Referenced:* • Introducing the Foundation Sprint: From the creators of the Design Sprint: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/introducing-the-foundation-sprint • Making time for what matters | Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (authors of Sprint and Make Time, co-founders of Character Capital): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-time-for-what-matters-jake • Eli Blee-Goldman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-blee-goldman/ • Character Capital: https://www.character.vc/ • Character Labs: https://www.character.vc/labs • Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/ • Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/ • Naming expert shares the process behind creating billion-dollar brand names like Azure, Vercel, Windsurf, Sonos, Blackberry, and Impossible Burger | David Placek (Lexicon Branding): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/naming-expert-david-placek • Sonos: https://www.sonos.com/ • Vercel: https://vercel.com/ • Windsurf: https://windsurf.com/ • April Dunford on product positioning, segmentation, and optimizing your sales process: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/april-dunford-on-product-positioning • Positioning: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/positioning ...References continued at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-foundation-sprint-jake-knapp-and-john-zeratsky *Recommended books:* • Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days: https://www.amazon.com/Sprint-audiobook/dp/B019R2DQIY • Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Time-Focus-Matters-Every/dp/0525572422 • Click: How to Make What People Want: https://www.amazon.com/Click-Make-What-People-Want/dp/1668072114 _Production and marketing by https://penname.co/._ _For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com._ Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.