Lane 01 · 10 essays

Making the first thing work.

For founders and first product leaders. How to get from an idea that works in your head to a product and a team that work without you in every room.

A recipe card pinned beside a working kitchen line with four cooks at their stations

Who this is for

Founders, first product hires, seed and Series A teams, and innovation groups inside larger companies.

the metaphor

A recipe proves the dish. A company is the kitchen that can cook it every night without you at the stove.

Questions this lane answers

Essays

In this lane

Narrow by industry or size

A chef at the host stand seating guests while his cooks wait idle behind the pass

Zero to OneThe founder is still the roadmapThe product sells, and every decision still waits on one person who never says why. What that cost one founder, and the two moves that change it.6 min read

A recipe card pinned beside a working kitchen line with four cooks at their stations

Zero to OneA recipe is not a kitchenOne cook can prove a dish. A restaurant needs a kitchen. What happens when the leader never leaves the stove, and what a kitchen has that a recipe doesn't.6 min read

A man without his glasses squinting down a dim hallway toward a lit doorway, his glasses left folded on a side table behind him

Zero to OneUse fuzzy metrics until you get good onesNothing new has been measured before, so every early metric is a proxy. Admit it, declare success and failure up front, and sharpen the number as you go.5 min read

Schoolchildren all chasing one ball across a field while a coach with a clipboard watches the empty goal

Zero to OneFrom pickup game to teamIn a pickup game everyone runs to the ball. A team has positions. Who to sign first, and how to choose between duplicating yourself and firing yourself.5 min read

The whole restaurant staff crowded around one diner while a cook carries a single elaborate plate past tables of waiting guests

Zero to OneDon't become one customer's private chefYour biggest early customer keeps asking for "just one thing." A year later you're cooking for one table.5 min read

A builder pressing his hand into a freshly poured, roped-off square of sidewalk while a neighbor digs up a flower bed

Zero to OneWet cementSome early decisions set hard. Most stay soft for years. Knowing which is which tells you where to slow down.5 min read

A boy sitting against the school lockers with a box of candy on his knees, holding up one packet while classmates lean in and one offers a coin

Zero to OneYour first price is a guessIn middle school I sold gum for a quarter and imported candy for five dollars. The gum brought kids in. The candy taught me to price on value.6 min read

A commuter driving at dawn with a tall milkshake in his hand, a banana and a bagel untouched on the passenger seat

Zero to OneJobs-to-be-done is misused. Here's how Christensen actually taught it.Jobs-to-be-done has turned into a sticky-note template. The real method is slower, done in the field, and in payments it turned up a job nobody writes on a sticky note: don't make me look foolish.5 min read

A worried homeowner at his garden gate holding an empty leash while a mail carrier points down the block toward a gap in the hedge

Zero to OneA week to write the rulesDuring COVID I had about a week to write contact-tracing app guidelines for the CDC. Some of the most useful thinking came from a company that finds cars.4 min read

A machinist at a lathe holding a micrometer to a freshly cut part

Zero to OneLook for the driftMost product failure is drift: quiet and slow, and invisible until the parts stop fitting. Watch behavior first, and watch the meetings.5 min read

Is your founder still the roadmap? That's a conversation I have often.