Ken Surdan

Product & Strategy Leader, CPTO, Board Advisor, Board Member. Veteran of multiple growth businesses: VC, PE, and Public Companies.

[Big Brain Business @BigBrainBizness]

Jeff Bezos on why too many ideas can destroy a company, and the discipline that built Amazon's inventive edge:

"Jeff, you have enough ideas to destroy Amazon."

That's what senior executive Jeff Wilke told Bezos after just one year of working together.

Bezos was confused. He pushed back: "What do you mean?"

Wilke was a manufacturing expert. He explained it simply:

Every new idea Bezos released created a backlog. Work piling up, adding no value, creating distraction instead.

The fix wasn't to stop having ideas. It was to control when they came out:

"You have to release the work at the right rate that the organisation can accept it."

So @JeffBezos changed how he operated.

He started keeping lists, holding ideas back, and waiting until the organisation had the bandwidth to absorb them.

But then he flipped the problem entirely.

He asked: "How do I build an organisation that's ready for more ideas?"

His answer was structural: get the right senior team, give leaders real executive bandwidth, and build a company capable of running multiple bets at once.

And there's a benefit he didn't expect. Slowing down made the ideas themselves better:

"If you are releasing the ideas through time, it forces you to prioritise them better. You end up sharpening the ideas better."

The constraint becomes a filter. The ideas that survive the wait are the ones worth acting on.

The result? Faster execution, less distraction, and better ideas.

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

The hardest thing in life is being open to change the very thing that made your success and reputation to date. It is not unique to PMs, but rather humans. Achieve success, promotions, accolades, and it does not humble most, it breeds small-scale celebrity, over confidence, and confirmation bias, and ever more pressure to repeat the magic. It is true for PMs, Engineers, Designers, and even the best CEOs, in equal measure.

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

@altcap @JKoontz2489 Got mine today!

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

@OsnatBenari Don’t wait. Light the fire. And even if only embers, let them fan the flame that you started.

[claire vo 🖤 @clairevo]

I’ve been a CPO under both models, currently running all of product, eng, design, data and (while I’m at it!) technical services & support. Either model can work, but there are a few reasons why the PED (prod/eng/design) leadership consolidation happens:

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

Quote of the day for a Friday afternoon: “enthusiasm is the answer to everything”. Not bad way to build an interesting life.

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

Worth reading. https://t.co/EUYODsdSUv

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

@peterme If it is working, it will expand to deeper partnership with go-to-market functions like product marketing, sales enablement, and services. Both for launch prep and ongoing market feedback loops to inform improvements. That is not model failure, that is evidence of success.

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

@peterme Each discipline should have obvious value towards budding great product, but the challenge is more alignment and teamwork towards common objectives and measures of success. That teamwork is a much larger variable than the specifics of the model.

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

The world changes so much faster than we can perceive it.

[Steph Smith @stephsmithio]

Fascinating series:

Countries connected by their primary trading partner.

Watch the world change from...

1960 ➡️ 1980 ➡️ 2000 ➡️ 2020

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

So many people forget how special democracy really is, and how new.

[Bastian Herre @bbherre]

In my new article for @OurWorldInData, I look at how old democracies are across the world.

In most countries, democracy is a recent achievement. Dictatorship is far from a distant memory:
https://t.co/PAU4pCJwCb

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

@pc4media @databoxHQ I would go deeper. What is LTV for each type? How does avg price and tenure track against absolute churn rate for each? Do you measure acq cost by channel to add net LTV analysis? What is conversion rate? Are “sales” leads primarily the non-self-service converting leads?

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King .Jr HD (subtitled) https://t.co/7krWfuyA4o via @YouTube. I try to listen to the original full speech every year. It is worth your time today to remember one of our greatest Americans.

[Adam Grant @AdamMGrant]

The hallmark of an open mind is not letting your ideas become your identity.

If you define yourself by your opinions, questioning them is a threat to your integrity.

If you see yourself as a curious person or a lifelong learner, changing your mind is a moment of growth.

[Ken Surdan @ksurdan]

So proud of this donation. Congratulations to team Morris. We did our little part.

[Pan-Mass Challenge @PanMass]

We are thrilled to announced the 2021 PMC gift, a record-breaking $64 million donation to @DanaFarber, a world leader in adult and pediatric cancer treatment and research, and its @TheJimmyFund. This gift bring's the PMC's lifetime contribution to $831 million since 1980 #PMC2021

[Diligent @diligentHQ]

We are proud to partner with @ICI to support a more diverse and inclusive fund director community through Diligent's Director Network. Learn more: https://t.co/RXG0xGgfyn #ModernLeadership #DEII

[Diligent @diligentHQ]

Let’s celebrate #WomenInLeadership! @_howwomenlead is hosting #GOBWeek with some key Diligent leaders in the speaker line-up including Lisa Edwards, Matt DiGuiseppe and @GovTechGeek! You won’t want to miss this event! Join us and grab your seat today: https://t.co/rEZhZxSOZ4

[Diligent @diligentHQ]

Proud to be part of #FortuneMPW Summit this week in Washington D.C.! The world’s most extraordinary leadership community, including our President and COO @lisamedwards have come together to engage in dynamic discussion, inspire each other and share best practices for leadership.

[Diligent @diligentHQ]

GRC leaders, meet the Modern Governance 100 and learn how you can partner with Diligent to drive purpose-driven transformation at your organization like them. https://t.co/aaoL8vTR05 #MG100