Tighten the Feedback Cycle
Collison: The main thing companies screw up at the pre-product-market-fit stage is speed of iteration. If you have some meaningful, perhaps small, initial set of users — and you're rapidly iterating in response to their feedback and observed behavior — that's a really good spot to be in.
At that juncture, you should be doing everything you can to tighten that feedback cycle.
If you have users and you're rapidly iterating on their feedback — that's a really good spot to be in.
Boyd's OODA Loop
Collison: There's a fighter pilot named Boyd who revolutionized airborne combat — Korean War onwards. He had this concept of the OODA loop. Previously people thought you wanted the fastest aircraft or the most sophisticated weaponry.
Boyd said no — you want aircraft, pilots, and training oriented around the fastest responsiveness and iteration to the particulars of the situation. You want to be like a modern fighter — optimized to respond as quickly as possible to rapidly evolving situations.
You don't want the fastest aircraft. You want the fastest responsiveness to the situation.
Each Person Adds Quadratic Cost
Collison: Each successive person takes time to hire — slows you down. Takes time to onboard — slows you down. Takes time to meld with the culture and learn the stack. Then there's the persistent ongoing cost of coordination and alignment — and that's not necessarily linear. It can be quadratic, given the multi-way communication problem.
The question: is the benefit of this additional person worth all these costs? The ultimate arbiter — will we be more responsive to what we're learning about our users?
Coordination cost isn't linear — it's quadratic. Will this person make us more responsive?