PartnerHacker Daily #203: Inch Deep, Mile Wide

Invert the conventional knowledge

We've all heard that to make a great business, you need to build an inch wide, and a mile deep.

But what if you flipped that advice on it's head and built a mile wide, and and inch deep?

Building a product in today's environment is not just about your product. It's not just about your features.

It's about how you cooperate and interoperate with others. It's about how well your product fits into an ecosystem of other products.

When you partnerup, you tap into the power of the ecosystem to bring your product to life.

Unlikely book recs

Today's book rec is from Aaron Howerton.

Right now, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is top of mind for me.

I came across this in undergraduate school business classes, and it was the first time I ever considered how the value of small things in relationships can have a big impact on outcomes.

I've carried that idea, that small things have a big impact, throughout my entire career, and it drives me toward concepts like "User Proof" design centered around making things as easy as you can for the end user of any given system, including partnership ecosystems.

We often design for the big goal and leave the details for cleanup, but this technical debt can easily destroy the experience over time with mind-numbing administration and process that makes no sense.

It doesn't have to be perfect by any means, but every business should consider how the system and/or process they design impacts the users and work to reduce complexity, improve efficiency, and keep people working on what matters.

Happenings

• Dec 2 - First Friday - PartnerHacker and Superglue present: The European Partner Moment at 10 AM ET (4 PM France/Germany, 3 PM UK).
• Dec 7 - Predictions 2023: Channel vs Ecosystem - Justin Zimmerman, Scott Brinker, and Jay McBain will meet up to discuss their partner predictions for 2023. Join them!

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