Clarity for founders: finding the one thing that matters

A founder can arrive with ten problems and leave with eleven.

This is one of the hazards of being good at seeing possibilities.

Every conversation reveals another opportunity. Every opportunity suggests another thing to build. Somewhere underneath the expanding list is a question that has become harder to hear.

What actually needs to happen here?

I am interested in that question. Especially when the answer is still half formed.

Clarity starts with something real

There is a particular kind of thinking that can continue almost indefinitely.

You refine the positioning. Revisit the strategy. Sketch the structure the organisation might need when it is twice the size.

Some of that work may be necessary. It also offers a comfortable place to stand while a more difficult decision waits nearby.

A conversation you need to have. An offer you haven't quite chosen. A project that no longer fits, but still carries someone's hope.

Finding clarity often starts with naming the thing that has a consequence.

What is holding the other questions open?

No business literally has one problem. Rent, customers, relationships and the kettle can all need attention on the same morning.

But one unresolved choice can keep a surprising number of other decisions suspended.

Imagine a founder who hasn't decided which customers the business most wants to serve. The website feels vague. The team disagrees about priorities. New opportunities all seem plausible. Every feature has somebody arguing for it.

You could work separately on each symptom.

You could also ask which choice would make the other choices easier.

That is a useful question to bring into a conversation. It needs an honest answer, including the possibility that several different problems really are involved.

Give the question a sentence

Try saying what is happening without the language you would use in a board presentation.

“We are trying to serve two groups who need different things.”

“I want this project to work because I don't want to disappoint the person who started it.”

“I keep saying growth, but I haven't decided what I want my own life to look like inside it.”

These are possible sentences, rather than diagnoses. The point is to get close enough to the truth that somebody can respond to it.

You may need a few attempts. You may need another person to ask what you mean.

An elegant explanation can sometimes make a situation harder to see. Ordinary words are surprisingly useful.

Decide what enough would look like

Once a question becomes clear, there is still a choice to make.

What would count as a useful answer? What are you willing to give up? Which uncertainty will you accept so that something can move?

The fisherman and the businessman has stayed with me because it asks where all the effort is supposed to lead.

For a founder, that question belongs inside the business discussion. The shape of the business and the shape of your life are going to spend rather a lot of time together.

Clarity can mean choosing a smaller ambition. It can also mean finally admitting to a bigger one.

Make one move, then listen

Choose an action that puts the new understanding in contact with the world.

Have the conversation. Offer the simpler version. Ask the customer the question you have been answering on their behalf.

See what comes back.

Marginal gains are useful when you know what you are improving. Sometimes the next gain comes from deciding where the effort belongs.

And if your colleagues see the situation differently, that disagreement may be useful. You do not need to solve it all privately before inviting them in.

If you are carrying the important thing, the stuck thing or the half-formed thing, bring me that thing.