Intercom gets it.

As a leading customer support platform, they were one of the first companies to go all-in on their AI capabilities once chatGPT-like tools emerged.

Applying AI to your business is sometimes best described using analogies. Let’s steal one analogy from the restaurant world.

AI can feel like the future is suddenly here, and as we get to grips with it’s potential, it’s worth paying attention to the past.

Getting your head around it feels like thrashing, at the best of times. The tools, the capabilities of the various LLM’s, the unclear regulations, that FOMO that comes from what “the other company is doing”…it all adds up.

Given that, and it feels almost redundant to say it, but people are still how businesses best create value.

A lot of people are on tenterhooks waiting for the news - will my job be replaced by an AI?

What if talent, not AI, is the next big unlock in your businesses’s future?

Most people don't relish heading to the office every day but we tend to ascribe outsize meaning to our jobs.

Life at 45

Collected thoughts, quotes and minutiae from my Internet travels

Collected thoughts, quotes and minutiae from my Internet travels

What if a simple way to make decisions was to take yourself out of the equation?

Words are a programming language.

In the same way that we can program computers with programming languages, we can influence, and be influenced by mere words.

Your USP = knowledge of your customer.

Here is a quick way to make sure you are really thinking about your customer, from their perspective, instead of the customer avatar in your head.

Your Music and People by Derek Sivers is still one of the best marketing books I've read. If marketing is your thang, don't skip it.

Like to read business books?

Me too. A good business book can communicate powerful ideas distilled from real experience into swift takeaways and engaging stories that help deliver the message. (Of course, there are the “fluff” books…but that's for another post 😄 )

"Via negativa" is the study of what *not* to do.

It can be really useful when talking to people who have "done it before" (which is the fastest and simplest way to help you figure things out). Since they lived it, they can still remember what it was like, what they tried, what failed, and what worked.

In the same way that one route to success is to stop doing unsuccessful things, the value in such a conversation might be in asking about mistakes, pitfalls etc (of which there are likely many), versus the things that worked out (of which there are probably few, and very specific to a time/place/situation).

What's the difference between sales and customer development?

Not a trick question. I've mixed these up in the past and approached a conversation with the wrong intent. More recently, I've had this conversation twice in the last week and a few things struck me that might help others get clarity or even reframe the type of conversation they are having.

When famed investor Keith Rabois meets with a new CEO, he asks to see:

1) Their priorities

2) Their calendar

They rarely ever match.

He tells them that their goal is to get them to match.

If you often find yourself being the generalist in the room, some basic mental models can help you add to the conversation without having the deep expertise that others in the room possess.