🌱 5-Bit Fridays: Tactics to raise product quality, luxury software, non-obvious interview techniques, the dark side of sales, and more

#61

👋 Hey, I’m Jaryd and welcome to another edition of 5-Bit Fridays—your weekly roundup of 5 actionable insights, bringing you brief advice before the weekend on how to build and grow a product.

---

Today’s edition is brought to you in partnership with:

You know Amplitude—the product analytics platform that makes you look smart and make better decisions.

It’s one of the most important tools in my stack as a PM. I literally used it yesterday at work to help understand how the use of certain job search filters impacted job application rates.

Without Amplitude, we’d be in the dark a lot of the time.

But what you may not know, is that Amplitude just made shining a light into the dark so much easier. Their new AI stack makes self-serve intelligence. You can literally go from business questions to insights—no expertise required.

Even if just for curiosity, I’d say check out what they’re doing with AI.

---

Happy Friday, everyone! 👋

Howdy to Gary, Emily, Maarten, Katia, and 279 more of you who joined this week! You’re now part of a 20,015 strong bunch of folks who like to make things.

Hot damn…20,000! Random fact, but you’re now part of a community of people that’s bigger than the population of 14 countries. Hey, we’re the Palau of Substack. 🤙

Turks and Caicos, coming for you next.

— Jaryd ✌️

---

ICYMI this week 🗞️

• Most importantly, Taylor Swift’s new album—The Tortured Poets Department—dropped last night/early this morning. If you stopped reading right now and just went to go listen, I’d totally get it. In fact, do it. Just come back later. (Take a look)

• Meta is rolling out real-time AI image generation in beta for WhatsApp users in the US. As you type, the image you’re making changes. This speed is just nuts, and a testament to Meta’s latest open source Llama model. (Take a look)

• Meta launches Llama 3, becoming the #1 open model available. The goal with Llama 3 is to build the best open models that are on par with the best proprietary models. (Take a look).

• The big day is here (for people who care)…the Bitcoin halving happens at ~6PM ET today. Historically, this has spurred an inflection point for the price of BTC and thus the market. Let’s hope so…😬

  • Speaking of crypto—one of the most interesting and undervalued bluechip projects I’ve seen so far is, Kaspa. It’s everything Bitcoin was meant to be, solves the trilemma, and if you’re interested in the space from a long-term (value-based) perspective, I think it’s well worth reading and learning more about this project. Not financial advice, and disclosure, I do hold Kaspa.

    

• Google just made a huge company shakeup. CEO Sundar Pichai announced a series of reorgs in an effort to move faster in AI. As a result, Demis Hassabis, Google's DeepMind chief, has gained more power, and the head of Pixel will also oversee Android. (Take a look)

• Speaking of Google, word on the street is Alphabet is considering buying HubSpot. At a price in the region of ~$30bn to $40bn, this would be their biggest acquisition since 2011. (Take a look)

---

Today’s 5-Bits ☔

1. Proven tactics to elevate product quality

2. Hidden addictions of highly miserable people

3. The dark side of sales

4. Interview techniques from the world’s best interviewers

5. The era of luxury software

+ Quote, tools, chart, and reads of the week

---

1️⃣ Proven tactics to elevate product quality

The products we really love usually have an incredible amount of craftsmanship put into them. From beautiful UI, to thoughtful and delightful UX. When it’s clear that the product team has a very high bar for quality, we subconsciously just trust the team to be able to deliver.

In a recent post,

Peter Yang

shares some 10 tips around how you can push your own product’s quality level.

Key quote

My intuition is that more of Stripe’s success than one would think is downstream of the fact that people like beautiful things…what does a beautiful thing tell you? Well, it tells you the person who made it really cared.

— Patrick Collison

Insight & Action 🛠️

Here are some points that stood out to me, all in pursuit of creating Michelin Star product experiences.

• Avoid building in stealth, because it usually means you’re losing proximity to building alongside a community from the beginning. “Being able to talk to customers anytime you get stuck on a problem internally is a game changer. 9 out of 10 times the answer becomes obvious immediately after.”

• One approach to rolling out high-quality products, is to follow a concentric circles release plan. In short, don’t release to everyone at the same time. Rather, follow a team > internal > beta > full launch plan. This process helps you smooth the edges and make real improvements before everyone sees the product.

• Don’t get distracted by shiny new features and lose sight of your core—the most important stuff you already have.

  Lenny Rachitsky
  had an 11/10 post on this earlier this week, but simply, as your product matures it becomes increasingly important to not neglect the main JTBD and loop of your product. Your quality bar is high when you’re always thinking about making that loop fast, efficient, and delightful.

• Remember that beautiful products don’t come from beautiful docs. It can be tempting to spend time putting a great memo together, but in reality, it often just gets in the way of making shit happen. Don’t be doing too much work behind the work. “If your team is producing exquisite PRDs, strategy decks, and processes but mediocre products, something is wrong. All of these artifacts are a means to an end.”

• Create a culture of asking “How do we get an extra star here?”. It’s not always just about moving some metric. You should be looking for the hidden areas you can delight a customer. Maybe it’s embedding humor somewhere, adding an animation, or just doing something to really make the feature lovable. But you can’t do it alone—is’s about getting the team behind quality as a shared goal.

• Lastly, be like a (great) chef. Be your own biggest critic, and be honest about what your quality bar is. If you’re not humble about where you are now, you’re going to struggle to make decisions around improving your core loop. As Peter says, “Hubris is the enemy of quality.”

Finally, remember this: A product that solves a problem is table stakes, it’s beauty and quality that transforms a useful product into a memorable and emotional one.

Read the full post by Peter from

Creator Economy by Peter Yang

---

2️⃣ Hidden addictions of highly miserable people

The world is objectively better in so many ways than it was 50, 100, and 1,000 years ago. But, living in it doesn’t always feel that way.

We were not around back then to know those worlds. We just know ours. And how we feel about it never comes from data telling us that we’re healthier, wealthier, wiser, safer, etc. No, how we feel about life and the world comes from how we think about, and frame, our situation within in.

I loved

Zan Tafakari

‘s POV on why we’re so often “…miserable, despite all we have achieved.” Simply, because his points really hit home.

I’m certainly someone who’s got caught up in my own head committing one of these cardinal sins.

Key quote

More success, to feel good in comparison to others, along with a sprinkle of self pity and always wanting to be busy is a recipe to ruminate in our minds, and live in perpetual scarcity.

— Zan Tafakari, via

Rise with Zan Tafakari

Insight & Action 🛠️

Here’s four standout recipes for dissatisfaction from Zan’s post. Each applies to life, but I’ve also added a sub bullet around how you can apply it in the context of product-building.

• The blind and single-minded pursuit of wanting more for its own sake.

  • Related to the first bit above, don’t bloat your product by chasing new features and opportunities. Spend time making your core insanely good.

• Our measures of success are often abstract and relative, which lets us move our goal posts, and continue to perpetuate our addiction to the pursuit of success.

  • Moving business metrics is the simplest proxy for "success”. But a number can always improve, so be careful of obsessing over incremental optimizations and just getting lost in the sauce at the expense of the bigger picture.

• Humans brains are relativistic machines. We’re not equipped with a simple barometer that tells us whether we are simply ok or not. Instead, we’re told whether we are ok relative to everyone else.

  • Don’t over-index on what your competitors are doing. Focus on your thesis of the market, your customer niche, and your strengths and advantages. No company won by just copying others and playing the endless comparison game.

• To look busy in service of signaling busyness to others. Glamorizing hard work runs the risk of making everything feel hard, even when it doesn’t need to be.

  • Don’t procrastinate the real work of building products by wasting time making great Notion bases, filling out templates, having meetings about meetings, etc. Just get things done and everyday, do one thing to move your product forward for the customer.

Read the full post by Zan

---

3️⃣ The dark side of sales

We talk a lot about sales motions in this newsletter. Any SaaS going after enterprises has one, and most PLG motions eventually get to a point of adding product-led sales to the mix.

Which is why I very much enjoyed reading

David Sacks

‘s take on the unintended consequences that powerful incentives can create within a sales org.

Key quote

Legendary investor Charlie Munger famously said: “Show me the incentive, and I will show you the outcome.” To that, I would add “and the unintended consequences.” All sales incentive plans are based on Munger’s aphorism, but without that second part, the lesson is left dangerously incomplete. 

An aggressive sales team can be a fast-growing startup’s greatest asset or its greatest liability. Sales is the only team in the company that operates under a strict incentive plan, which dictates that sales reps hit quota to earn commission or get fired. While this incentive structure is necessary to motivate and retain the best sales people, it also creates a crucible of pressure which can breed bad behaviors. 

— David Sacks, via

Bottom Up by David Sacks

Insight & Action 🛠️

• Sales is a quota game, which means there’s a risk of over-selling. Why? Because as David notes, “sales incentive plans tend not to specify what is being sold, as that is taken for granted.” AKA, a mercenary sales rep hoping to hit target might “sell anything” to make quota, whether the company actually can deliver that product or not. This can easily lead to overpromises, which leads to disappointed customers. David’s solution…

  Never let foxes guard the hen house. Noncommissioned but vital activities like rev rec, analytics, and regulatory functions should be owned by teams outside of sales who are not compensated based on the company hitting quota. This is not a reflection of a lack of trust in Sales, but rather a recognition that Sales doesn’t have the incentive to focus on noncommissioned activities at the expense of commissioned ones. 
  

• Poor customer handoffs, because the handoff isn’t part of the sales incentive. Once the deal is done and a rep inches closer toward quota, there usually isn’t a reason for them to stick around and help with the transition. AKA, they just dump implementation on the success team.

  • Solution: Tie handoffs to commissions and you will get better handoffs. 

• Sales incentive plans specify quotas but not deal terms, so sales reps will sacrifice deal terms to hit quota if given the chance. “If you allow sales reps to redline contracts, it becomes too tempting for them to agree to changes and effectively give away the store.”

  • Solution: Give Sales reps a menu of approved options they can agree to, and have your legal team do the signing

Read the full post by David

---

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, if you want to understand your users, then Amplitude is for you.

---

4️⃣ Interview techniques from the world’s best interviewers

Customer discovery is everything.

And the folks who know how to go deeper and find richer insights are the ones who ultimately end up building better quality products.

Interviewing people is one of the most important parts of the customer discovery stack, which is why I double clicked on

Polina Pompliano

‘s post this week, where she shares non-obvious, more nuanced techniques that lead to an exceptional interview, based on techniques from the world's very best conversationalists.

Key quote

Imagine you’re the interviewer: What is the first question you would ask Meta/Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg? How about Osama bin Laden?

Many people would go straight to the obvious — but that may not be the best approach.

When Tim Ferriss interviewed Zuckerberg on his podcast, his opening question had nothing to do with privacy or data or social media addiction. It had to do with … fencing.

Ferriss says, “In the course of doing research for this conversation, I chanced upon fencing … Now, fencing, I had seen in connection with your name, but I had no idea that you had been as competitive as you had been. Could you just describe your background with fencing and how you ended up competing?”

It’s a question designed to get Zuckerberg to open up because it’s something that no one ever asks him about, and from his response, you can tell he’s delighted to tell the story of his competitive fencing days.

Zuckerberg says, “This is probably one of the more interesting places to start an interview that I’ve ever done.”

The question immediately wins Zuckerberg over and puts him on Ferriss’s side. From here on out, it’s easier to ask tougher questions because the opening set the tone that it would be more of a conversation than a grill session.

— Polina Pompliano, via

The Profile

Insight & Action 🛠️

Polina shared 10 techniques; below are my top 3. These points below can be applied to any type of interview—nay, any type of conversation.

(1) Spend time crafting your first question, because it’s the one that builds rapport between the interviewer and the interviewee, as well as sets the tone for the rest of the conversation.

I highly recommend watching this brief clip, where Larry King talks about what he would ask Osama bin Laden if he got the chance to interview him.

@barry_katzWhat Larry King would have asked Osama bin Laden. Comedians, actors, writers, directors, producers, managers, hosts, podcasters, agents, anyone in the business or who aspires to be! Join our FREE community through the link in my bio, where you will find a wealth of knowledge from some of the most successful and brilliant minds in the entertainment business who can help you take your career to the next level! #fypシ #evil #perception #larryking #askquestions #questions

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

The next time you interview someone, really prepare that first question, and do so by putting yourself in that person’s shoes…what would they want to talk about that is unique, interesting, and would open them up for the rest of the conversation?

(2) Skip the small talk, and find the most interesting information by exploring the gap between expectation and reality.

Ira Glass, the creator of the hit radio show This American Life, swears by two questions: “How did you think the situation was going to work out before it happened? And then how did it really work out?”

Exploring the “gap” can give you a window into how someone feels about an experience or situation.

(3) Know when to interrupt someone, and when to ask clarifying questions

Without interjection, important things people say be be glossed over and go unexamined.

Knowing when to pause and either clarify something, or just ask a follow up to go deeper on a thread can really help capture the juice of a story or statement. An easy way to do it is with a phrase like, “Can I interrupt you there for a moment,” or “let’s pause right here,” or “I want to highlight what you just said.”

…

What next? Go practice! But first…

Read the full post by Polina

---

⚠️ This post is about to get cropped in your email. Keep reading the full thing here.

---

5️⃣ The era of luxury software

Marc Andreessen famously wrote in 2011 that “software is eating the world.”

And eat the world it certainly did. Which ultimately led to an era of commoditization of of products.

But everything is a pendulum, and

Scott Belsky

has a very interesting perspective—we’re in the early innings of the emergence of the luxury software category.

Key quote

I’m not sure what it is about culture and human tendencies, but we tend to crave scarcity, craft, and story in whatever categories become commoditized. Now that shoes are cheap and ubiquitous, we buy expensive shoes with brands that mean something to us. We frequent special restaurants with hard-to-secure reservations despite the prevalence of fast food. And we ascribe so much value to branded and scarce objects that entire empires like LVMH and Hermes among others have been built by carefully managing the dynamics of supply and demand for their finely crafted goods. But noticeably missing, beyond the shine of Apple’s devices, is a burgeoning industry of luxury software. While infinitely replicated bits are the ultimate commodity, software increasingly defines our identity these days. I anticipate an era of luxury software ahead of us that upgrades our work and life.

— Scott Belsky, via

Implications, by Scott Belsky

Insight & Action 🛠️

The software-startup song and dance we’re most familiar with is the MVP build out before entering a market.

But, in a world where software seems increasingly commoditized, and we’re now literally flooded with options across every vertical (which will only accelerate with the ease of building MVPs with no-code and AI-generated tools), Scott sees signs of “luxury software” emerging for the more discerning customer.

I absolutely agree. For example, we already have the “luxury” in productivity:

• Email client (Superhuman)

• Calendar (Cron/Notion)

• Browser (Arc)

• Search Engine (Perplexity)

These are clearly positioned as higher-end alternatives that also carry some degree of status for their users. I certainly feel that way with Arc. It’s an emotive product that is building a really strong brand around quality and craftsmanship.

It is worth wondering what exactly is the subconscious social flex associated with these brands? Perhaps it is the users’ value for their own time? Perhaps it is a statement, much like using an Apple product, of the user’s value for aesthetics and superior digital experiences?

This is both a great opportunity for builders and for consumers. For startups, there are a lot of untapped categories that could have challengers simply by going “luxury”, and these challenger products come with higher margins. There will always be a market for people who want to flex their taste or sophistication, meaning there’s room to build a form of brand premium that customers will be increasingly willing to pay for.

And for the customer, we’ll have more options presenting us with potentially better digital experiences. We’ll pay the price, but perhaps support will be 10 star, or the quality of the product will just be superior and help us achieve our goals in “first class” style.

This goes back to my earlier piece, make your product hard to buy. 🤔

Read the full post by Scott

---

Quote of the week 💡

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

Tools of the week 🛠️

Every week, I highlight products I actually use (personally, and for work) and give them an honest review. Today, I’m highlighting:

• Athyna: Find highly skilled, vetted, and affordable tech talent anywhere in the world.

• Apollo: The best GTM platform to find leads and close deals, as well as size up a market accurately

• Carry: If you’re a business owner / creator — use Carry to get your Solo401K and manage your money.

👉 View all my recommendations.

---

Chart of the week 📈

As an immigrant (I got my Greencard this week, in fact!), I like this chart a lot :)

---

Byte on one of these posts 🧠

My favorite reads from the week…

• "Nothing sexy happens on Slack.", by

  Emily

• Americans are still not worried enough about the risk of world war, by

  Noah Smith

• “Don’t bet against America”- Are we entering a prolonged productivity boom?, by

  Amrita Roy

• Optimization Will Not Save You, by

  Magdalene J. Taylor

---

Whenever you are ready 🤝

Here are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Are you looking to grow your team? If so, I’ve invested in a company (Athyna) that can help you find incredible talent and build out your global team. Their product, service, and talent pool is just amazing. Just reply to this email if curious, or learn more here ↗

2. Are you looking to grow your product by reaching my audience of founders, PMs, marketers, and product builders? If so, maybe we can partner up. You can reply to this email to get started, or learn more here ↗

---

And that’s everything for this week’s edition, folks!

As always, thanks so much for reading and being part of this growing community. It means a lot.

Until next time.
— Jaryd ✌️

---