The software maker, which once prided itself on a flat corporate environment similar to Valve and Zappos, finds that workers can benefit from a little direction.

“A startup that is founded to do-one-simple-thing-well, and that can be massively grown outward from that starting point.”

I believe simple is actually the natural state of things. It’s simple until you make it complicated. This goes for just about anything in life and work.

You can always feel when product/market fit isn’t happening. The customers aren’t quite getting value out of the product, word of mouth isn’t spreading, usage isn’t growing that fast, press reviews are kind of “blah”, the sales cycle takes too long, and lots of deals never close.

Positive psychologists are different. They strive to discover how we can be happier and more productive by recognizing our virtues, developing our strengths, and embracing positivity.

A lot of these compromises are less about the pursuit of lean productivity and more about avoiding conflict.

Step 1: Have an in-depth understanding of the problem

Building the habit of thinking deeply starts with baby steps.