Am I dabbling on a bunch of projects because I don't want to take the risk of going all in on one? (Source)
What is the intersection of what you're good at, what you enjoy, and where you can create value for the world? (Source)
Do I have deep seeded personal conviction that the thing I'm working on is going to work and be important? (Source)
Am I willing to make a long-term commitment to this? (Source)
One of the few arbitrage moments left in the market is time. Where should I make a long-term commitment that leads to high ROI? (Source)
How can you create something that a small amount of people love? (Source)
It's easier to scale up from this, than to scale up from a lot of users not really liking the product.
Can you explain your product in one sentence? If not, it's too complicated. (Source)
The more complex the product, the more difficult it will be to succeed.
Why shouldn't you do significant things in this one life, however you define significant? (Source)
Do you call it quits or do you keep persevering?
Have I run out of ideas? If not, keep going. Quit when you internally feel like you can no longer keep going because you've ran out of ideas and it's not working. (Source)
Do you derive satisfaction from what you're doing? Does it give you enjoyment? And do you deeply feel that it matters? (Source)
If not, you won't be able to keep moving through the inevitable bad that is coming.
When you're between jobs:
How can I take a year off to read, learn about fields I'm interested in, travel, meet new people that think differently, reconnect with friends and family, help people without asking for anything in return, and leave myself unscheduled for spontaneous events? (Source)
Building a Great Product
How can you make Version 1 of your product as simple as possible? (Source)
Start with as little surface area as possible.
How can you find a few people that will give you feedback on the product every day? (Source)
Recruit these people by hand, not through paid ads.
How can you make your feedback loop shorter? How can your product get 10% better every week? (Source)
Are you keeping track of the right metrics? Here's what to keep track of (Source):
Total registrations
Active users
Activity levels
Cohort retention
Revenue
Net Promoter Score
Is your product so good that people are spontaneously telling their friends about it? (Source)
Are you trying to build a growth machine around a product people don't love? (Source)
First build a product people love, then build the growth machine.
Are we building a product based on a real trend or a fake trend? (Source)
Are people telling their friends about it obsessively? That's a real trend. A fake trend is something that people may buy, but there isn't intense usage per user.
Execution
Am I making sure the entire company executes? (Source)
Do I know what we should do? And can I get it done? (Source)
What are the two or three most important things to focus on?
What are our key goals? Am I repeating these goals enough? Does everybody in the company understand those are our key goals? (Source)
Am I constantly choosing a bias toward action? (Source)
Everytime you talk to a great founder, they've gotten new things done. This is the greatest predictor of success.
Are we winning all the time? Are we ensuring that we always keep momentum? (Source)
If you're not winning, what's a small win that can help us get our momentum back? (Source)
The team is in disagreeance about how to move forward. What do the users want? That's your answer. (Source)
The compound effect says that the more I do today means the more I'll benefit tomorrow. What compounding can you start today that will give you new opportunities in the next 1, 5, and 10 years? (Source)