The 2nd Most Important Thing My Boss Taught Me…In 5 Seconds

I have to understand it in 5 seconds or less.

That’s it.

That’s the 2nd most important thing my boss has taught me.

Go reread it. It’ll take you less than 5 seconds. I guarantee it. Everything has to boil down to something understandable in 5 seconds or less. We have a very technical back-endy product that connects different software development tools together for enterprise development shops. It’s surprisingly easy to recommend a feature so that a connector does this thing with the database to deal with a data impedance mismatch so that the admin can STOP! YOU NEED TO EXPLAIN WHAT THE CUSTOMER GETS IN 5 SECONDS OR LESS.

See what I mean? It’s not easy, but it’s obvious. It keeps me sharp. It keeps me customer focused and it forces clarity of thought and vision.

Does it take time? Absolutely.

Is it worth it? You bet.

Why?

Better ammo

Which feature will management buy off on, the one they immediately understand or the one that takes ten minutes to explain? You may say, but what if the complicated one is the better feature? Then I need to do a better job distilling it down to 5 seconds or less.

Better aim

The 5 seconds or less rule forces us to focus on what the customer gets. Not what they want, not the hurdles we have to overcome, but on what they’re going to get. It clears the clutter and lets us see the bulls-eye.

Better accuracy

By distilling new features down to their core, everyone understands their value. Not only do we know where we want to go, we’re more likely to get there. Our engineers can use their best judgement during development because they understand where we’re going. Marketing can craft a better message and Sales can communicate the benefits to the customer.

So that’s the 2nd most important thing my boss has taught me so far. What’s the most important thing? I haven’t figured out how to boil it down to 5 seconds or less. When I do, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Update: You didn’t ask for it, but if you’re interested, you can now see “I still don’t understand” the Most Important Thing My Boss Has Taught Me.