Today, I worked on crafting a concise vision for my book library project. I tried using the same approach I used to craft my problem statement a few days ago, but Gemini and ChatGPT weren’t as helpful with this exercise. Developing a hypothetical vision of what the world could look like is a lot different than making a declarative statement about the problem you’re solving. Neither tool did a great job with the former.

A resource I did find helpful was something I wrote earlier this year. In this post, I shared my thoughts on the mission and vision statements from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. In that post, I reference two videos in which Armstrong states his company’s mission and vision individually and ties them together. One of the videos even ties it all back to Coinbase’s strategy.

Articulating a vision of what the world could look like if your company achieves its mission isn’t easy, and it takes time. I’ve had it rolling around in the back of my mind for months. A strong vision is invaluable. It focuses people on what could be built, not what you’ve already built. They start to view your current state as temporary, overlooking its many flaws, and focus on the future—the possibilities—and how you can get to your desired future state. People start to think about the journey you’re taking and what it would be like to be part of it.

A vision statement is a powerful tool, especially for early founders. It can separate you from other founders and help you land customers, partners, recruits, and investors. I didn’t have a vision for my first company, and that was a mistake I don’t want to repeat.

I’m glad I spent time on this. Next, I’ll circulate a few versions of my vision among friends and eventually narrow it down to one.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 43
• Total book digests created: 15
• Total blog posts published: 266
• Total audio recordings published: 103

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Book digests created: 0
• Blog posts published: 7
• Audio recordings published: 0

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Finished rereading Howard Marks’s Mastering the Market Cycle: Getting the Odds on Your Side, a framework for navigating cycles in various asset classes (real estate, public debt, stock market, etc.)
• Created four hypothetical outputs for users of the “book library” and reviewed them with my developer friend; see more here.
• Refreshed my blog—posts about the same book can now be connected; see the other changes here
• Created a clear problem statement
• Identified likely root causes of data quality issues; pinpointing the fixes will require some trial and error
• Continued linking blog posts about the same book
• Continued updating descriptions for blog posts about the same book

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Create concise vision and mission statements
• Create a list of potential metrics for my weekly updates that better reflect the updated direction of this project
• Share taxonomy draft with one person
• Continue linking blog posts about the same book
• Continue updating descriptions for blog posts about the same book
• Analyze Google data to generate more ideas for creating blog post titles

Asks:

• None

Week two hundred forty-eight was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• I’ve been struggling with what the taxonomy should look like. I’m not really sure why this has been hard.
• I wanted to get more things done this week than I did. It was a holiday week, but I was still frustrated.

What I learned:

• Dedicating time to craft a concise problem statement felt like an important step forward. I should have done it long ago. I didn’t define the problem early enough at my first company, which caused unexpected issues later that were painful to correct.
• The problem is the highest level of thinking and the priority for every company. Everything revolves around the problem being solved. The vision, mission, values, etc. all become easier to define when the problem is clear. If the problem isn’t clear, there can’t be clarity on anything else. The problem is the foundation and compass for the business.
• I’ll craft the vision, mission, and values next. Doing these at the same time feels very natural now.
• Creating examples of outputs the book library will generate was another great exercise. It helped with alignment and prioritization. Thinking through what needs to happen to achieve each example was thought provoking. See more of my thoughts here.
• The quality of the database data is heavily influenced by the process used to parse and classify it. There needs to be a defined approach. Without one, the results aren’t consistent and quality isn’t great.
• People don’t understand what you’re doing when you say “AI.” When I use “natural language computing,” things click and people get it.

Those are my struggles and learnings from the week!

I’ve been struggling to articulate the problem I’m solving with my “book library” project. It’s critical to clearly state the problem in such a way that people will understand why it’s worth solving. When you can do that, people are more engaged and want to hear about your solution. But I wasn’t doing it, so I had to fight to keep people’s attention. And this was when I was talking to friends, not strangers, and I wasn’t asking them to use or pay for the solution.

I decided to use the holiday to review all my notes and start crystallizing the problem in a clear sentence. Creating a problem statement is something that sounds simple, but it’s been hard for me in the past. Getting to a concise statement is usually a process of refinement and wordsmithing. In the past, I’ve done it alone (with no success) or with a group of entrepreneurs as part of a retreat.

I didn’t want to do it alone and had no planned retreats, so I decided to use Google Gemini and ChatGPT as thinking tools. Both offer mobile apps that allow you to speak your thoughts instead of typing them. For this kind of ideation exercise, I wanted to capture my thoughts as they were flowing, so speaking was key.

I chose to use two models because no model is perfect. They all have strengths and weaknesses. But I’ve found that feeding my thoughts to both, reviewing their outputs, incorporating the outputs into my thinking, feeding my updated thoughts to both, and repeating that loop has worked well. I also ask each model to rate and give feedback on the output from the competing model. Together, this created a rapid iteration cycle, something I can’t normally do alone.

After many cycles, I’ve finally landed on two versions of what I think is a clear problem statement. I feel pretty good about both, but I’ll get feedback before I make final decisions.

Clearly articulating the problem sounds like an obvious thing that all entrepreneurs do, but many don’t have clear problem statements, which causes lots of issues down the road.

A few days ago, I shared that a founder friend suggested that I start my book library project with the end in mind—that is, with the desired output. The idea was that since I’m building a solution to a problem I’m experiencing, I’m in a position to produce hypothetical examples of the kind of output this solution could create that would solve the problem.

I've created three hypothetical outputs over the last few days. I wasn’t sure how to approach this at first, but I decided to base it on my journey with this project so it’s somewhat grounded in reality. I started with problems I’ve solved for myself during this journey or am actively trying to solve. For two examples, using problems I solved the old-fashioned way with the help of my notes and highlights from various biographies, I figured out the ideal outputs that would have gotten me to the same results more efficiently.

This was a fun exercise. Having already solved the problems, figuring out how this solution could have helped me get there more efficiently was interesting. What kind of information should it have provided to me? What kind of questions should it have asked me to get me thinking? What stories needed to be shared for suggestions to resonate with me?

I shared these outputs with my developer friend today. Having them to work backward from led to a productive discussion. We narrowed our focus to what must be built to make those outputs a reality. We realized that a structured approach to solving certain problems is required for consistent results. This reinforced the importance of data structure.

This exercise has been helpful and something I want to do going forward when I’m trying to build a solution to my own problem. I’ve got three example outputs that are complete now, and I’ve got another two or three that I want to document before the end of the year.

I’ve had this blog for almost five years, and I’m approaching 1,800 consecutive posts. When I started it, there wasn’t a plan. I was just sharing my thoughts. It was that simple. The design of the blog reflected the simplicity of my goal.  With so many blog posts, some of the simple features broke. They weren’t designed to work with so many posts.

Instead of just fixing the broken features, I decided to do a refresh of the blog. I wanted to make it easier to navigate my old posts and add features that better align with sharing information about books I’ve read.

With the help of Christopher Travers, the following changes were made:

Enhancements

• Related posts – This is the change I was most excited about. There was no way to point readers to other relevant posts. This became apparent when I created a series of posts about a book. Finding the other posts in the series wasn’t easy. We fixed this. A “Keep Reading” section was added at the bottom of the page for each post, showing related posts (if any). I currently use this for posts that are part of a series about the same book. See examples here and here.
• Tagline – My tagline says how many consecutive posts I’ve written and what my blog is about. It’s a quick way to let people know I’m serious and to flex a bit. It’s displayed on the desktop version in the left bar but not on mobile. Most visitors are on mobile and couldn’t see the tagline. This is fixed now. The tagline was added to the header of the mobile version.
• Next/prior post buttons – At the end of each blog post page, these buttons link to the posts before and after the current one. This feature wasn’t built with 1,700+ posts in mind, and it broke. This was fixed, and the design of the buttons was optimized for mobile. You can now easily go to the post before or the post after the one you’re reading.
• Goodreads – I want to share what books I’ve read and what I’m currently reading. For now, the link to Goodreads was a quick way to accomplish this. A link to my Goodreads profile has been added to the left bar of the desktop version. On mobile, you can find it in the hamburger menu in the top right corner.
• Apple Music – I love music as much as I love reading. My personality is reflected in the music I listen to. I want people to see my other sides—not just books, entrepreneurship, and investing. A link to my Apple Music profile has been added to the left bar of the desktop version. On mobile, you can find it in the hamburger menu in the top right corner.‍
• Spotify – I want to increase awareness of my podcasts about books I’ve read (even though I haven’t recorded any lately). A link to my podcast on Spotify has been added to the left bar of the desktop version. On mobile, you can find it in the hamburger menu in the top right corner. This is a bit of an experiment. I’ll test this more to determine if I want to link to music, my podcast, or‍of the desktop version. ‍
• Search – Results looked messy. We reduced the maximum number of search results to eight. I’m still not thrilled about this, but it looks less messy now.‍
• Category tags – These are displayed cleanly and designated as hyperlinks at the top of each blog post page. They mirror how the tags are shown on the home page (even though they’re shown at the bottom of each post on the home page).

Subtractions

• Comment on a post – No one was using this. The open-source software and its hosting were more things to manage (which I wasn’t doing well). We removed the “comment” button at the bottom of each post. I’m open to adding this back in the future if it makes sense.
• RSS – I don’t think anyone was using this. We removed the link to RSS feed from the left bar.
• Contact form – The contact form on the “Contact” page was used only for spam, which was annoying. The form was removed. Readers can now see options to contact me via email, X, or LinkedIn links on the “Contact” page.

A big thanks to Christopher and everyone who provided feedback. The refreshed blog looks cleaner and is easier to navigate.

The blog has turned into something that needs to be maintained. I didn’t do a good job of that in the first few years, outside of adding new blog posts. Going forward, I want to do a better job of maintaining the blog and make more enhancements that make it easier for people to find posts that are valuable to them. If anyone has suggestions on how to make the blog better or easier to use, please do share. Feedback is always much appreciated: Hello at jermainebrown.org

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas!

This past weekend, my developer friend and I chatted with a founder friend about the book library project. This founder has a unique perspective because he’s a self-taught developer, a trained designer, and a self-taught user experience (UX) person. He can take a product from idea to launch by himself—and has done so successfully by scaling and selling a software company—so he has credibility.

I wasn’t sure how the user experience should flow, so I wanted his input. The conversation was helpful, and he made a key suggestion: since the solution is being built to solve a problem that I’m experiencing firsthand, I could start with the output I’d be happy to see as a user instead of starting with the user experience. That is, I could create hypothetical examples of what kind of output I’d want this solution to create that would be tremendously valuable to me.

His point was that we could work backward to determine what the UX would need to create the output. But also, looking at this way would inform what would technically need to be built to create that output. My developer friend and I agreed that’d be a great exercise, so I’ve been working on it.

Doing this analysis has been a great exercise. It’s forced me to think about how the tool will improve my current workflow and, hopefully, that of other users. With so much information in so many books, whittling it down to the key pieces of valuable information in response to a specific question was thought-provoking. Thinking about how information and the connections between it (ideas, people, books, etc.) should be presented and how to do this without drowning myself in information was eye-opening.

I’ve completed one of these, and I’ll do a few more. A big takeaway is that the connections between information in various books make the library unique and valuable. Connections can uncover new insights. New insights help entrepreneurs develop unique solutions to problems or identify the unconventional next action to take given their goals. Today, the people who are able to take advantage of this process are mainly those gifted with a photographic memory, which isn’t me (more thoughts on that here). Showing these connections can’t be done using only text. A visual component allowing people to easily see the connections from a high level and decide where to double-click is necessary.

I’m a big proponent of starting with the end in mind and working backward, but I didn’t do a great job of doing that with this project. My friend pointed out that since I’m experiencing the problem myself, I’m too close—it’s hard to see past the details and stay focused on the big picture. He’s right. His suggested exercise is forcing me to articulate what will add value and how it looks. This will help my developer friend and me reprioritize the features and also highlight shortcomings in what we’ve already built and plan to build.

Sometimes, bringing in a fresh pair of eyes to look at things from 50,000 feet can be helpful. I’m glad my friend made the time to chat and share his candid feedback.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 42
• Total book digests created: 15
• Total blog posts published: 259
• Total audio recordings published: 103

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Book digests created: 0
• Blog posts published: 7
• Audio recordings published: 0

What I completed this week (link to last week’s commitments):

• Finished reading Robert Hagstrom’s The Warren Buffett Portfolio: Mastering the Power of the Focus Investment Strategy, a framework book about building a concentrated investment portfolio
• Reviewed data set in Looker Studio
• Experimented with ways to visualize data in Looker Studio
• Evaluated NoteBookLM Plus
• Updated UI sketches based on learnings
• Linked blog posts about the same book
• Updated descriptions for blog posts about the same book
• Identified one strategy for titling blog posts based on Google Analytics
• Created draft of process flows for two core functions of the application

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Create a list of potential metrics for weekly updates that better reflect this project
• Identify root causes of and fixes for data quality issues
• Share taxonomy draft with one person
• Continue linking blog posts about the same book
• Continue updating descriptions for blog posts about the same book
• Analyze Google data to generate more ideas for creating blog post titles

Asks:

• None

Week two hundred forty-seven was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No struggles this week.

What I learned:

• I need to do a better job of articulating the problem I’m trying to solve. I pitched it several times this week in different ways, and I wasn’t happy with my performance. I need to make it shorter and to the point.
• I need to do a better job of crystallizing the target user’s profile.
• Focusing on features that add value for a small group of people who are already passionately reading biographies is more important in the early days than trying to add value for people who aren’t reading biographies. The value proposition will be clear to them. Targeting them will be easier. They can also be early champions who convince the nonreaders.
• Sketching out the technology’s process flow—how it works—was a valuable exercise and helped me understand more of the specifics of the technology.
• Solving a problem for yourself can make it harder to build a solution that brings value to others.
• Looker Studio will help me evaluate the quality of our data. It isn’t the right tool to use as a dashboard to present the data externally to users.

Those are my struggles and learnings from the week!