Years ago now, like so many in the tech industry, I read Hooked by Nir Eyal. It is to this day an exceptional business book. In Hooked, Eyal breaks down the mechanics of an addictive tech product — the series of incentives that reward engagement and generate a psychological yearning…

A few months ago I gave a talk at a tech event in New York. It was a typical event for me: a collection of founders and tech professionals from a splatter of different industries all gathered in an artfully converted warehouse trading ideas on how to convert more, structure…

We used to see the internet as the great equalizer. Anyone with good content could gain credibility. (On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.) Today, what was once the closest thing we could imagine to a meritocracy more closely resembles an oligarchy ruled by a few powerful gatekeepers: Facebook…

Four years ago Karen Millsap’s husband was shot and killed in the gym they co-owned. There was no warning. There was no response manual. It was all there — their life, their business, their future — and then in a single irreversible moment, everything shattered. If that seems unimaginable to…

Why does it seem like start-ups have the lock on innovation? Are they just better at marketing their work as such or is there something really at play in those offices, some magical pixie dust, that makes innovation easier? Is it the standing-desks? It’s the standing desks isn’t it? For…

Nearly 2,000 Medium readers have recommended the first version of this article. So I’m bringing it back, this time with a few new uncomfortable things worth trying. In a truly beautiful letter to his daughter Yolande, Sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois extolled the virtues of being uncomfortable. Yolande was headed to…

Thoughts on Returning from Parental Leave — In honor International Women’s Day, we’re exploring how to be bold for improving the policies and patterns that support women (and families!) at work. Out of 123 million full-time workers in the United States today, only 14 percent have access to paid parental leave. …

Of all the potential boogie monsters hidden under the beds of marketing professionals everywhere the idea of diminishing returns is quite possibly the scariest. It’s the scariest for a number of reasons, but primarily because it can sneak up on you out of nowhere. You’ve been doing what you’ve always…

Two years ago if you asked me to explain the concept of content marketing I would start by talking to you about planets. Imagine you are a marketer standing all alone — like The Little Prince — in the middle of a small planet. That planet is your website. …