Here’s another example of where a single-threaded leader and team helps. I was accountable for the financial performance and overall health of the affiliates business. Our team had virtually all the resources required to launch this feature: we had software engineers and product managers to build the feature; and we had our own customer service rep

growth.” In all of these cases, the calendar-driven, business-unit-focused model is broken down into discrete, decision-focused pieces with specific timeframes.

I'm very big on radically simplifying products by removing features that don't carry their own weight. But, without knowing what is being used, and how it's being used, it's a very painful process to do this when you don't know what's really going on. We don't have the data to back up our theories or decisions, so management (rightfully) balks.