Look For Opportunities To Accelerate

When you look at successful companies and entrepreneurs, what do you see in common? Is it that they were in the right place and the right time? Was it that they were harder working than their competition or peers? Or was it purely luck that played a role in their success? Depending on who it was, it could be one or the combination of all of these--but there's one thing that is common across all successful companies and entrepreneurs - acceleration.

I first became more aware of acceleration when playing competitive tennis growing up. When playing, you realize there's a point in a match when you started feeling like you could overtake your opponent. There may be a couple missed shots by him, a couple winners by you, and then you would start to feel the tide turn. When it does, you don't let off the gas petal--you accelerate. You accelerate by hitting more winners, forcing more unforced errors by your opponent, and you string together enough momentum so that you separate yourself enough that even at steady state, your opponent can't comeback. Opportunities for acceleration are almost difficult to describe, but it's something more derived from the gut. But when you feel it, it's crucial that you capitalize on it.

Another great example of acceleration was when I first started selling at Box. About 6 months into my sales role, I started feeling this inner confidence that I never had before. I felt like I knew how to qualify well, understood the messaging and benefits of our product, and felt comfortable developing rapport with customers. When all of this was clicking, I started to accelerate. In our early days, we used to have a phone system for leads that rang to everyone's desk, and the first person who picked it up would be able to sell to that customer. Feeling momentum on my side, I came in earlier and left later. I sat at my desk during lunch breaks. I literally placed my phone next to my keyboard so that I could pick it up faster with my left hand. I took every opportunity I had to get on the phone with customers. I accelerated as fast as I could, and it left me as a top ranked sales rep for the year.

If you look at three of our recent entrepreneurial success stories--Evan Williams, Andrew Mason, and Kevin Systrom--they each accelerated to build billion dollar businesses. What's common across all three of these founders is that they all had unsuccessful ventures first, then created new opportunities to accelerate into hyper growth . Evan Williams branched from the fledgling Odeo to found Twitter, then leveraged South by Southwest in 2007 to accelerate into the main stream. Andrew Mason transformed his first site, the Point, to Groupon, and accelerated to a $1B valuation in just 16 months through a hustling sales force and non-stop media attention. Kevin Systrom pivoted from an unsuccessful check-in service called Burbn to Instagram, garnering 50 million mobile users in under 2 years through social acceleration, network effects, and top-notch usability. None of these founders sat idle when they started to see their numbers tick upwards. They each threw a ton of time, effort, and venture capital into accelerating their growth.

To grow as a successful product manager, it's important to always be on the lookout for acceleration opportunities. If you feel like your team is really hitting its stride, don't let them settle for the status quo--push them to get even more done. If you start seeing trends in user acquisition, invest even more into those channels. If customers start loving a specific new feature, don't hesitate to dig deeper and draw even more attention to it. Acceleration opportunities don't usually wait around, so when you see them, make sure you seize them.