All of our Decision-making articles

Product

From Flagship Back to Fledgling: Lessons on Going Multi-Product From an Early Stripe PM

In this exclusive interview, Tara Seshan shares nine lessons from her playbooks for going multi-product, drawing on examples from both Stripe and Watershed.

Product

How to Take Bigger, Bolder Product Bets — Lessons from Slack’s Chief Product Officer

Seasoned product leader and Slack’s CPO Noah Desai Weiss shares the three-step framework he leans on to make quality product decisions with just the right amount of risk.

Management

9 Steps for Crafting a Good Decision Making Process

We’ve combed The Review archives to identify some of the more unique advice we’ve heard over the years, boiling it down into an easy-to-follow, 9-step decision-making process.

Management

A Tactical Guide on How to Make Decisions Faster

We’ve put together a guide of tactical advice on how to speed up decision making at your startup — whether you’re trying to fix a decision making process that’s slowed as you’ve scaled, or you’re looking to build in speedy habits right from the start.

Starting Up

Small Habits Co-Founders Can Hang On to as They Build the Plane While Flying It

Labelbox’s Manu Sharma and Brian Rieger have turned a decade-long friendship into a lasting business partnership, scaling the AI developer tool startup since co-founding it together in 2017.

Must-reads

Annual Planning in Uncertain Times: 6 Tactics for Rethinking Your Company’s End-of-Year Exercise

We’ve combed the extensive Review archives for a timely roundup of the most unique advice for end-of-year strategic planning. Leaders like Lenny Rachitsky, Nels Gilbreth, Jeff Lawson, Annie Duke, Ravi Mehta and more share the inventive frameworks they lean on for this annual exercise.

Management

Grit or Quit? Tactical Advice for Founders Facing Tough Company Building Decisions

Quitting is an underrated startup skill, says decision science expert, bestselling author, and former poker pro Annie Duke. She unpacks the psychology behind why it’s so hard to walk away, sharing tactical advice for all the forks in the road.

Management

The Tactical Guide to Making Better Decisions When Starting and Scaling Companies

The First Round team has been lucky to work with retired poker player and decision-making expert Annie Duke in a special capacity these past few years. Here, we open-source some of the advice she gives to help founders face down uncertainty and make better decisions.

Product

Set “Non-Goals” and Build a Product Strategy Stack — Lessons For Product Leaders

Ravi Mehta, former CPO at Tinder & Product Exec at TripAdvisor, shares his framework for crafting a crisp product strategy for startups — a 5-step system called the "Product Strategy Stack." He also makes the case for setting "non-goals" and using an alternative to OKRs.

Management

The Ultimate Guide to Running Executive Meetings — 25 Tips from Top Startup Leaders

Learn 25 tips from top leaders to run effective leadership meetings. From getting started with an executive team to crafting the agenda and tracking success.

Starting Up

Advice for the Pre-Product-Market Fit Days — This Founder’s Playbook for Pivoting with Purpose

CEO Tara Viswanathan shares her biggest lessons from the early years of building Rupa Health — including how to pivot your way into the right product and build the winning team.

Engineering

“Get Off the Floor” and Other Career Advice from Microsoft, Looker, Reddit & Twitter

Nick Caldwell's resume includes an enviable list of companies — Microsoft, Reddit, Looker and Twitter. He shares his biggest lessons from each for a crash course in finding success across different company cultures, scales & functions.