Episode 50: 3 docs the top 1% of top performers use

Companies are effectively a group of problems. Each one with varying degrees of complexities and dependencies. CEOs + their directs are searching for people who can effectively (and repeatedly) solve their problems.

The people that can repeatedly deliver get more problems to solve. The bigger (and harder) the problem to solve, the bigger the impact on the company and the more frequently they get investment. That investment comes in the form of promotion and/or resourcing (teams).

One key to getting promoted faster is solving problems faster. A major unlock for me in solving problems faster was improving my writing skills. The faster the folks I’m working with understand what we are trying to solve/why and get bought in, the faster we can solve it. It also decreases the last minute changes/issues that lead to delays (not always but often).

Here are 3 docs that have served me well in getting promoted faster:

The Blueprint

Firs Round Capital calls this a ‘user guide’ and Luc Levesque from Shopify calls it a ‘blueprint’. Both different approaches to the same goal - help people understand how to get the best out of you.

For example when do you do your best thinking, what format is best for feedback, what are your motivations?

These are all questions that anyone working with (or for) you needs to know. Sure you can spend a conversation or two ‘getting to know each other’ but the reality is you won’t cover all this and if you’re assuming you will figure it out on the job then it’s already too late.

Whenever I join a new project or team, I share my blueprint (pictured below) and ask them for a version of their own if they don’t already have one. Format (i.e. slide or doc or video etc) is irrelevant - what’s more important is the other person takes the time to get clarity internally on what they need and then succinctly share it with you and others.

Accomplishments (brag docs)

I’ve mentioned in the past the value of brag docs. It started as a personal list of compliments and achievements that I could go to when I was feeling demotivated or just down.

Now the accomplishments doc have taken a few different formats:

1. monthly or quarterly recaps: a recap of reflections/learnings, key milestones (zoomed out scope of what we are doing), accomplishments, challenges/asks for help

2. weekly wins: a VP of Sales taught me about the weekly dub; to avoid a surprise at the 11th hour of a deal you take all involved parties (end users to executives) and send them a weekly recap of what you’ve done, what’s next, and where you’re stuck

3. accomplishments: this is your brag doc — all the positive feedback you get from the folks you work with, the from <> to details of all your projects, and every punchline (metric that you moved for the business) summarized with timestamps

When it comes to promo docs, it should take you 10 minutes max to scan the above docs, find the most relevant wins and put them in a easy to follow one-page doc with receipts (let others words do the talking for you).

I also have external versions of these docs I share with potential hiring managers in lieu of a portfolio of a work. Here’s one I used for product marketing roles.

Function Philosophy

Once you get things rolling you need to think about the 2.0 version. You need to evolve the impact and scale what you can do. That means writing down your current thought process and approach and then getting input on what direction to take it next.

 In May ‘22, I started the competitive function (charter) at Grafana and put together my take on what a competitive program meant at the company. I shared with my partners in product, marketing and sales to get input on what would be meaningful for them and what investment we needed to make it happening (process, tooling, budget, etc).

In Nov ‘23, we decided to combine competitive & pricing into a single function (charter pictured below). We then created a new charter of how we would spend our time. The CTO, CRO, CMO, CFO (we sat here) all had input and then we aligned with the CEO as a final sign off.

I get that ‘alignment’ comes off as big company BS. All these meetings can be a massive time-suck, but this one about our charter is still paying dividends 14-months later.

When we have made subsequent asks for promotions, budgets, tooling investments or process changes we have zero pushback. We clearly tie every single thing we ask back to what it helps us unlock for the business (as per our charter) and therefore it’s not a time-suck. 1-2 weeks of time investment and 14-month (at least) repayment? That’s pretty solid ROI in my book.

Two statements have always been in conflict for me

1. move fast and break things

2. slow down to speed up

I never quite understood when I should follow one vs. the other and to be honest I’m still figuring it out. What’s clear to me though, is getting thoughts organized clearly and succinctly on paper is a skill few people have mastered.

The top 1% at every company are doing this for their careers. As time goes on you get faster at putting them together and results come faster as well. If anyone is struggling to put this together, I’m happy to review / help. I’ll add some examples to the resources linked below.

As always, feedback is a gift and I welcome any/all feedback on this episode. See ya next week!

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✨ Special thank you to Gigi Marquez who suggested I start this newsletter 🙏