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As many of you know by now, I strongly believe in the effectiveness of using the scientific method to validate business ideas.

Earlier this year, I began running a bunch of experiments for my ideas and ventures. But, quickly, my experiments became too much to handle on a white-board with stickies. I switched to a Google Sheet but that didn’t have the usability and speed that I loved from using stickies.

So I decided to build a simple experiment tracking system for myself.

Keeping Track of Ventures, Experiments and Costs

I would say it’s pretty basic and covers exactly what I need to keep track of:

• My Ventures which are a sequential list of experiments and their Pivot-or-Persevere decision. Ventures can also be aborted if there is no encouraging signal.

• Experiments, which comprise of:

  • Theory
  • Riskiest Assumption
  • Method
  • Prediction
  • Outcome
  • Decision
  • Cost
  • Learnings

• Cost tracking

  • Per Experiment
  • Per Venture
  • Overall

I added software once I maxed out on paper

Note that I built the tracking software only once I had run out of space on my physical custom-made Lean Experiment Board

Types Of Experiments:

I templated the main three experiment types that I usually run:

Market Experiment

• Market Experiment – Usually an overview how big the market is, how much traffic there is, how the market has grown so far.

Customer/Problem Experiment

• Customer/Problem Experiment – If the market is attractive, I ask myself, what problems do these people really have? Depending on my theory and riskiest assumption I might do interviews or keyword research or – something I’ve fallen in love with – analyze Amazon customer reviews.

Problem/Solution Experiment

• Problem/Solution Experiment – Knowing the problem, can I come up with a solution that is attractive to the customer segment?

Sales-Funnel Experiments

Once I have nailed those three, I start running custom experiments for Acquisition, Activation, Retention and Revenue (but not earlier.)

If you look at my dashboard below, I’ve run 43 Experiments for 14 Ventures. As you’ll see, based on my learnings I aborted more than 2/3rds of my Ventures and continued on only a few promising ones.

I think that’s been a huge value for me. To know and to be sure when to persevere and when not.

So far, I’m quiet happy with it. It’s rudimentary but works.

And since the Venture Board was, in itself, an experiment for myself (My theory was that I’ll consistently use it to track my progress and costs) –

I’m persevering.

Let me know if you would like early-bird access to the board. Simply comment below.

Thanks for reading!

• Lean Experiment Board
• Lean Experiment Board 2.0.pdf

Whole Earth Cap 1

Whole Earth Cap 2

• Currently WIP, ETA 1st week of August
• Dark-gray cap
• Same graphic file
• Blue (Darker) for “WHOLE”
• Green (Darker) for “EARTH”

WIP

Finished

Pros

• I really like the two colors

Cons

• The stitching is much messier than the first one
• The two colors get a little lost in the dark gray

Questions

• What would this design look on a light-gray cap?

Collection

Details

Cap color: “Stone” gray Cap style: 39Thirty Logo color: Petrol-green

Inkscape Logo

SVG

EPS Files

whole-earth-font-embedded.eps whole-earth-text-as-vector.eps

Related

• Stewart Brand
• My Original 1969 Whole Earth Catalogue
• What the Dormouse Said

While on vacation at my Dad’s, I bought a tiny note-pad and pen and started carrying it around with me everywhere. I use it to Read to Feed and How to hunt for ideas like an artist.

This tiny notebook has since become a gamechanger for me to quicky capture notes and drawings that I would have otherwise “lost”. I still find that my phone is one of the worst ways to capture ideas quickly and with focus.

Because it’s so small, I’ve taken my notebook on practically every walk I’ve gone on. While I’m walking, when an idea comes up or I read or see something cool, I whip it out, take the pen and write.

The time from “oh, let me note this” to pen-on-paper is less than 3 seconds with this setup. To me, this speed and the flexibility that paper offers (write, draw, illustrate, etc.) is ideal.

Note-taking results

• Micro-Notebook S21 – Mallorca (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 1 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 2 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 3 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 4 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 5 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 6 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 7 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook F21 – Berlin 8 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook F21 – Berlin 9 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook F21 – Berlin 10 (Photos)

Iteration 1

Description

• Random mini notepad for 0.50€
• Random small ballpoint pen for 0.80€

Notebook Photos

• Photos of all notes can be found here: Micro-Notebook S21 – Mallorca (Photos)

What worked

• Amazing to have an immediate way to jot something down
• Game-changer for me while on walks and in conversations
• This version was 80% perfect

What didn’t work

• It stayed awkward to attach the pen to the pad
• Also awkward to keep it attached to the pad
• Felt too big in my back-pocket

Wishes

• I would prefer the notepad to be even smaller
• I would like to have lines instead of squares
• I would like to use better paper
• The front and back-cover should be sturdier

Experiment Result

• Pivot to a different notepad and pen

Iteration 2

Description

• Mini note-pad (A7) from Muji^1 for 2.50€
• Mini telescopic pen with keychain ring^2 for 5.90€

Notebook Photos

• Photos of all notes from the first test can be found here: Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 1 (Photos)
• Photos of all notes from the second test can be found here: Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 2 (Photos)

What’s working

• Still, having a notepad and pen readily available is a gamechanger for me!
• The size of the pad and pen now work much better
• Feels much better in my backpocket
• The pen, when extended, actually works really well
• Writing is easy
• Worry-free: The pen is securely attached so I won’t lose it
• The lines in the book help me while writing

What’s not working

• So far so good, no strong complaints
• The attachment ring makes paging a bit weird

Wishes

• Ideally (but I couldn’t find any pen that could do it) I would love to slide and fasten the pen between the top wires or SOMEHOW have the whole thing “MORE INTEGRATED”
• I wish the covers were even stronger so that the notepad keeps its shape while I carry it around (Maybe build one with thin metal sheets myself?)

Experiment Result

• Pivot to a different notepad but keep the pen

Iteration 3

Materials

• Muji Alumnium Card Case (Big)^3
• Blank Cards by KAMI Berlin^4
• 2.4 Inch Stainless Steel Portable Ballpoint Pen^5
• Photos of cards TBD

Notebook Photos

• Photos of all notes from the first test can be found here: Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 3 (Photos)

Demo

What I like about it

• This is GREAT!
• Card case feels good in my pocket
• Super tightly integrated
• The pen fits perfectly (Did NOT see that one coming)
• No need to unscrew the pen
• No ring or chain
• Easy to carry
• Cards are nice stock
• Cards can be shared with others easily
• Cards can be written on using the case for support
• Cards can also be written on a table
• Cards can be arranged and shuffled as needed

What’s I don’t like about it

• Pen is clacking a little bit while walking

Open questions

• Will the sequence of cards matter?
• Will I lose the pen quickly?
• Can I dampen the pen’s clacking?

Review after 1 week

What’s working

• The clacking was easily managed with a bit of washi-tape around the pen
• I still really like the form-factor with everything tightly packed
• Taking notes wasn’t worse than with the ones before
• The pen still worked very well and fit so snuggly
• Easy and worry-free to put in my pocket
• Easy and worry-free to carry in my "Reframed Hip-Bag"
• I like the cards, it’s thick paper and feels more valuable

What’s not working

• Not sure why but the pen sometimes didn’t write at all on the cards. After I inserted a new pencil tip, it could be grease from my fingers or the stock itself
• Holding the card while standing with one hand isn’t ideal but not super bad either
• The cards are definitely smaller than the notepad so I had to get used to that and still am

What I’m not sure of

• I just took the photos but the order of the cards somehow got changed, so the photos are not in sequence. I’m not sure if this will matter?
• Just how weird does it look to the outside? (Not that that really matters but I wonder)
• Didn’t really miss the lines for writing but could print out a few to test

Experiment Result

• Keep cards, case and pen as-is
• Continue exploration

Iteration 4

Demo

All Notebook Photos

• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 5 (Photos)

About this iteration

Funnily enough, this one started out as a “backup” notepad because I had forgotten my then-current one at home. Because I was going to be out and about the whole day, I went to Muji and bought this notebook on purpose (and the Muji Fountain Pen by “accident”).

I liked the format but – obviously – the fountainpen wasn’t going to be my “out-and-about” combination (still very nice to write with though). So, when I got home, I looked around and picked up the slim “Birdie” ballpoint pen I had bought at Luiban a few weeks earlier. It’s a very nice-writing and nice-looking pen and as I held both in my hand, I saw that the pen might, maybe, could (could it?!) fit in the spine of the notebook.

And fit it did.

As you can see above, it didn’t only fit. The pen also has the right fit length-wise! (I don’t mind the top cap sticking out a bit.)

So, yeah, that wound up being a great combo that I hadn’t even thought of.

Materials

• Pilot Kugelschreiber “Birdie”^8 bought at Luiban – 10€
• “Notizbuch mit Doppelringbindung A7, Beige”^6 from Muji – 1.50€[^7]

What I like about it

• The pen fits nicely on the side, exactly how I had hoped it could
• The side-binding is easy to flip through pages
• The pen writes smoothly and I can easily buy replacement tips

What I don’t like about it

• I feel like the pen was too expensive at 10€

Review after 3 weeks

What’s working

• Overall, great experience
• Nicely integrated

• Without thinking much about it…, I’m already with my second notepad with this setup

  • Note: Interesting, I made the decision sub-consciously. This may be the “no-brainer” I’ve been looking for
• Without thinking much about it… I’ve bought 3 additional notebooks (one in black which I’m currently using)
• Without thinking much about it… I’ve also bought 5 replacement tips at 2€/each

What’s not working

• Nothing comes to mind

Open questions

• No open questions at this time

Experiment Result

• Keep setup as-is
• Have [[#Iteration 4]] as alternative for more interactive note-taking sessions (by myself and with others)

Related

• "Hello my name is" Buttons (S21 Mini-Project)
• Reframing Off-the-Shelf Objects (S21 Mini-Project)

Links

To build on what’s there already and make it better.

Idea is to buy regular clothes, like from Uniqlo, but customize them uniquely and with a high degree of sophistication (think embedded gold rather than silk-screened) so they become something better and new. Add surprising details.

Improvements

• What would be better?

  • A different color
  • Small details
  • More colors

• What’s missing?

  • Having a pocket here

Customized My Everyday Items

Reframe a shoulder-bag as a hip-bag

• I’ve been looking for a non-douchy hip-bag but couldn’t find anything in Berlin that didn’t make me feel weird wearing
• I went to Muji and found their shoulder bag for men
• First I was put off because I didn’t want a shoulder bag but the item itself intrigued me


• I realized I could maybe use the strap to go around my waist and have a DIY hip-bag instead

• Tested it and it worked very nicely!

Using iron-on patches

Using custom stitching

See Whole Earth 39Thirty Cap (S21 Mini-Project) for details

Combining several products to create a new one

See "Micro-Note-Taking Set" (S21 Mini-Project) for details

Sketches

Add tiny details to blank t-shirts

Add new color to off-the-mill Chinaware

The same idea could also work with off-the-mill, cheap and boring porcellain which would be re-glazed (is that even possible) with better, more interesting colors and textures.


“Make it yours” DIY Station

• Go to thrift store
• Could also be done at places like Uniqlo
• Buy clothing

• Have a DIY station there, after the cashier with

  • Glitter
  • Markers
  • Sewing-machines
  • Stitching-machine
  • Fabric
  • Scissors
  • Iron-on patches
  • Paint
  • etc.
• Where you can “make it truly yours” by customization to your liking

Notes

Related

• Buyerarchy of Needs
• "Hello my name is" Buttons (S21 Mini-Project)
• Whole Earth 39Thirty Cap (S21 Mini-Project)

Other photos

• JamGPT Beta Version Launch
• “🐣 Name the baby” Notion Page

🎉 JamGPT

• JamGPT.app

  • Jam Session

Brainstorming

• …GPT → (Wenn OpenAI damit okay ist.)

  • Calm
  • Run
  • Feather
• GPT…

Feedback F.K.

• “…GPT”

  • EasyGPT
  • SmoothGPT
  • QuickGPT

Contain G, P, T

• Parget
• Graphite
• Optogram
• Postgrad
• Protagonist

Related

• Grant
• Gatsby Porter

Namen Brainstorming

• Lumyn

  • LUMYN– Gefällt mir sehr gut, weil es um Licht geht (”Lumen, Lux, Luxus…”). Licht im Sinne von “Sichtbarkeit”, “Discovery”. Die Richtung mmN. passt gut, da bei AI ist alles etwas DIFFUSER und UNTERSCHWELLIGER. Es glüht und schimmert und glitzert eher. Wie z.b. 🐛💡Glühwürmchen oder 🌌diese Algen, die nachts leuchten oder 🪼 diese Leucht-Quallen (”Bio-Luminescence”) Weil die Antworten eben nicht so scharf umrissene Antworten gibt. Für klare Antworten passt natürlich “🔦 Spotlight” und “☀ Raycast” 😂

Direction-Finding

• Sparkle
• Ease
• Mate
• Flow
• Magic
• Swift
• Pulse
• Gleam
• Spark
• Smooth
• Glide
• Pace
• Verve
• Pace
• Flash
• Twist
• Surge
• Beam
• Pep
• Sprint
• Kin
• Bolt
• Zest

Attitude, Branding and Standing

• Fuck Clippy and Sidney and even Pogo

• Let’s make it PERSONAL because it’s coming from US

  • Alexis

    • Observe

  • Tobi

    • RUN, PERFORM, EXECUTE

Inspos

• Buttercup 🌼

  • Easy to say and remember
  • Der Song ist schön
  • Organic, süß, klein

• Shuck 🦪

  • → Oyster, it takes a few tries to open it, pearl
  • Verb, not noun
  • Oyster / Oysterbar
  • Shucker

• Butter 🧈

  • Buttery
  • Butterbar
  • Smooth, Easy
• Punk 🌋

• FUCK 💥

  • Inspired by Pistol (TV Series) – Einfach mal was neues und rebellisches
  • Denn ansonsten tun alle so, als ob alles gut ist

  • PUNK

    • Suicide (Band)
    • New York Dolls (Band)
    • Dead Kennedys (Band)
    • Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magick – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Resources

• Smoothie Pogo Midjourney Inspos

Appendix

Idea “Smoothie”

Brainstorm 5 playful, whimsical single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Smoothie”. Do not include “Smoothie” in the suggestion.

1. Purée
2. Frappe
3. Refresher
4. Shaker
5. Slurpee

Brainstorm 5 playful, whimsical single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Smoothie”. Do not include “Smoothie” in the suggestion. Riff on “Slurpee” if you’d like!

1. Slushy
2. Swiggy
3. Slushie
4. Jiggy
5. Fruity

Idea “Pogo”

Brainstorm 5 playful, whimsical single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Pogo”. Do not include “Pogo” in the suggestion .

1. Frolic
2. Bop
3. Boing
4. Jiggy
5. Zingy

Fictional Riffs

Brainstorm 10 playful, whimsical, fictional single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Smoothie”. Do not include “Smoothie” in the suggestion. Riff on “Slurpee”, “Pogo”, “Jiggy”, “Smoothie”

1. Slushie
2. Jiggle
3. Slippy
4. Fruity
5. Poppy
6. Swirly
7. Mixer
8. Floopy
9. Slushy
10. Shaker

Brainstorm 10 playful, fictional single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Smoothie”. Do not include “Smoothie” in the suggestion. Riff on “Slurpee”, “Pogo”, “Jiggy”, “Smoothie”, “Floopy”. Do not include real words or names.

1. Slurpoo
2. Poggy
3. Jiglee
4. Flurple
5. Slurfie
6. Poglo
7. Jiggo
8. Floople
9. Slurple
10. Poglee

Brainstorm 10 playful, fictional single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Smoothie”. Do not include “Smoothie” in the suggestion. Riff on “Pogo”, “Smoothie”, “Floopy”. Do not include real words or names.

1. Pogoee
2. Floople
3. Swooshie
4. Ploopy
5. Sproogle
6. Splooshy
7. Sloopy
8. Goople
9. Boopie
10. Flooshy

3# Brainstorm a list of 5 fictional, made-up, cute, single-word names for a small companion. Riff off of “Flopsy”, “Pogo”, “Floppy”, “Bitzi” (Formatted as a markdown document)

• Flick
• Noodle
• Poppy
• Smushy
• Tubby

I agree it seems weird if it’s the first contact.

To me it makes a bit of sense because I had built a GPT3-based chat two weeks ago, based on their completion documentation^1

The “format” for this prompt already has everything System prompt, user and assistant.

The following is a conversation with an AI assistant. The assistant is helpful, creative, clever, and very friendly.

Human: Hello, who are you?
AI: I am an AI created by OpenAI. How can I help you today?
Human: Please translate "Hello" to German
AI: 

To retain context, I kept the system prompt on top and added the prior prompt/completions to the history stack in-between.

End-user-experience-wise, this worked really, really well. Practically as good as the ChatGPT UI.

As a developer though, it was not fun for obvious string-fiddling-splicing-and-dicing reasons. But again, this worked well and I would have kept it as-is for as long as possible.

So it wasn’t a giant leap when I saw the official format.

<|im_start|>system
You are ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI. Answer as concisely as possible.
Knowledge cutoff: 2021-09-01
Current date: 2023-03-01<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Hello, who are you?<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
I am an AI created by OpenAI. How can I help you today?<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Please translate "Hello" to German<|im_end|>

I’ve used that, too, and handling of prior conversations became a bit more manageable.

^1: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/completion/conversation

Your YOUness is what makes you a one-in-a-billion event in all of time and space.

Ever.

Your YOUness is endlessly valuable to the world because you exist only once.

It’s all the books you’ve read, people you’ve met, places you have visited, places you’ve lived in, songs you heard, tools you’ve used, events that you took part in, the pain you’ve suffered, the joys you have discovered.

All of that has made you who you are and what you care about.

It has shaped how you look at the world, what you deeply value, what surprising connections you make, what incredible ideas you’ll have.

Your YOUness is is your unique point of view into the world.

It is what you can truly, honestly, effortlessly share with the world.

When I started to think about this, I was unsure what that was for me. I figured, I’d like to explore my amazing MEness.

So, with a few small exercises, I’ve started to collect what makes me uniquely, awesomely, distinctly me.

[^1]

Related

• Dan Scanlon’s "Your mess becomes your message" Pixar Story

[^1]: Picture source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe

• Happier Through Bright Light (Experiment)
• Microgreen Growth – Natural Sunlight Vs Indoor Led Light (Experiment)
• AND Person
• Gablonzer Strasse 23
• How to focus on what you want (Exercise)
• Give Them What They Want. Then, Give Them What They Need
• 80-20 Rule Insight Market And Customer Research Vs Everything Else
• Case Study How To Reality Check Your Startup Persona In 1 Day Without Hours Of Interviewing
• Survivor guilt
• Why ONCE is better than NEVER
• How to sit less and move more
• Unstoppable freight train of FUCK-YEAHness
• Confidence Is Everything Paul Grahams Startup Curve And The Dunning Kruger Effect
• The Castle of Adventure by Enid Blyton
• Giant Bubbles In Bushwick
• Doing The Right Things Right
• Fun Retrospective Formats
• Adventures in Indoor Farming – Growing Mung Bean Microgreens
• New Retrospective Formats
• Humancharger Unboxing First Impressions And Use
• Sell Me

Notes of note

1. Your amazing YOUness
2. Intermittent Dopamine Fasting
3. Why ONCE is better than NEVER
4. 21-Day Obsidian Publish Challenge
5. How to sit less and move more
6. Unstoppable freight train of FUCK-YEAHness
7. Notes on Running a Remote Design Sprint
8. How to focus on what you want (Exercise)
9. My mothers death in 2018
10. The Castle of Adventure by Enid Blyton
11. Survivor guilt
12. Free Bouncing

Interesting relationships

1. The relationship between sitting less and dopamine fasting
2. The relationship between the USA and making giant bubbles
3. The relationship between working with a standing desk and working with Miro

Important lists

1. My Most Important Life-Events
2. The Most Important People in My Life
3. The Most Important Books in My Life
4. The Most Important Tools I Own
5. My most loved songs, albums and artists
6. Countries I have lived in
7. Places I have visited
8. Things I am really good at
9. The Things That Suck Most in My Life
10. My Most Interesting Things At the Moment

Other exciting things

1. Getting a standing desk
2. Using Miro for work
3. The Wire, TV Show
4. Getting a 24-inch monitor
5. Feeling less life-or-death about work
6. Finally regularly sharing with Obsidian Publish
7. Starting a new job soon
8. Seeing results after years of introspection and therapy
9. The available training at the new job
10. Customer interviews via Zoom
11. Rowing at the gym
12. Regular Yoga at home
13. Learning to say no
14. My WASD Cherry-MX Clear Mechanical Keyboard
15. Settling into the new apartment
16. That "Handpicked by Post Malone" playlist on Amazon
17. Cooking with more vegetables for the first time
18. Things I want to buy
19. User Story Creation

Related to Digital Gardening

• How To Use Obsidian To Write a Book
• Read to Feed
• Collect, Connect, Create Process
• Zettelkasten Method
• Digital Garden 🌱🌳🍇
• A Long-Term Ecosystem For Ideas

Related to ADHD

• ADHD and Glasses Example
• With untreated ADHD I was the overweight sports-fans of Deep Work
• The ADHD Iceberg
• ADHD-Related Narcolepsy

Related to Whiteboards

• Whiteboard Hacking Manual

  • Whiteboard-Hacking-Manual.pdf
  • Whiteboard-Hacking-Manual-Worksheet.pdf
  • Whiteboard-Hacking-Script-Cheat-Sheet.pdf

• Whiteboard Leadership

  • Whiteboard-Leadership-Secrets-Book.pdf
  • Whiteboard-Leadership-Secrets-Templates.pdf

Market-Research

• Reality-Check-Method.pdf

• ⭐️ How To Make Better Business Decisions

Inspiration

• My "One Kicks"
• Lean Startup Machine Experiment Board
• Experiment Board 2.0
• ExperimentBoard_2.0.pdf

Ideas

• Break out experiments into timed phases

  • Build (Ask, design, ship)
  • Measure (Run, Finish)
  • Learn (Capture)
  • Decide

• Auto-Tracking von Dauer

  • Per Experiment-Phase
  • Per Zeit zwischen Experimenten Lean Experiment Board Durations.excalidraw

• Venture Runway Tracking

  • People

    • Daily cost

  • Budget

    • Time
    • Cash

  • Omni-Display Runway

    • Cash Spent
    • Time Spent
    • Cash Received
    • Emails Received

• “You’re a Venture Capitalist”

  • Your capital is time and focus
  • Focus on “Time To NO” → Time-to-NO

Resources

• https://github.com/akaalias/experiments
• Lean Experiment Board with Airtable

1. Restorative: People exceptionally talented in the Restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it.
2. Ideation: People exceptionally talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.
3. Relator: People exceptionally talented in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.
4. Input: People exceptionally talented in the Input theme have a need to collect and archive. They may accumulate information, ideas, artifacts or even relationships.
5. Empathy: People exceptionally talented in the Empathy theme can sense other people’s feelings by imagining themselves in others’ lives or situations.
6. Restorative – Executing
7. Ideation – Strategic Thinking
8. Relator – Relationship Building
9. Input – Strategic Thinking
10. Empathy – Relationship Building
11. Adaptability – Relationship Building
12. Positivity – Relationship Building
13. Strategic – Strategic Thinking
14. Learner – Strategic Thinking
15. Includer – Relationship Building

My Strengths Mantras

Restorative – Executing

Ideation – Strategic Thinking

Relator – Relationship Building

Input – Strategic Thinking

Empathy – Relationship Building

I Lead With Relationship Building Themes

Those who lead through Relationship Building are the essential glue that holds a team together.

Without these strengths on a team, in many cases, the group is simply a composite of individuals.

In contrast, leaders with exceptional Relationship Building strength have the unique ability to create groups and organizations that are much greater than the sum of their parts.

THE POWER OF MY TALENTS

My unique talents for Restorative, Ideation, Relator, Input and Empathy are the most powerful starting point for living my strongest life possible.

DEVELOPING MY FIVE STRENGTHS TO MAXIMIZE MY POTENTIAL

My greatest chance to succeed — at work or anywhere else — lies in strengthening what I naturally do best and doing more of it.

ACTIONS

1. Read and reflect on your results to understand what you naturally do best.

2. Learn how to apply your strongest talents every day.

   1. Apply RESTORATIVE ACTIONS
   2. Apply IDEATION ACTIONS
   3. Apply RELATOR ACTIONS
   4. Apply INPUT ACTIONS
   5. Apply EMPATHY ACTIONS
3. Share your results with others to create stronger relationships and improve teamwork.

Strength Reports

📎 Certificate-of-Talent-Strengthsfinder.pdf 📎 StrengthsFinder-Report-all-34-501-0-82419219-2023030903501247000000-CqRw7L.pdf

📎 Strengthsfinder-insight-guide-501-0-82419219-20230309035751943000000-K1GJtr.pdf

Related

• Observations on Strengthsfinder Results
• Notes on "StrengthsFinder 2.0"
• StrengthsFinder 2.0

Demo

Who

• For myself:
• As an avid Obsidian user who…
• Often doesn’t have Obsidian running because I prefer to have only the app I’m working in running at a time
• Loves taking many small markdown notes for my vault
• Uses MacOS

What

• A minimal markdown note-taking menu bar app for MacOS
• Quickly and lets me seamlessly open, write and save markdown notes into my Obsidian vault
• Designed to be completely keyboard-first

Why

• I want to quickly save small notes into my Obsidian vault without having Obsidian running or having to open it
• As a keyboard-first person, I want to capture an idea while 100% staying on my keyboard
• None of the existing menu-bar apps provide the minimal configuration I am looking for: Focus on keyboard-first and simple, no-frills markdown support

How

• Keyboard-first note-taking
• Seamless writing with a single global hotkey that opens and focuses the note-field (Command-Option-N)
• Direct saving to Obsidian vault with standard hotkey (Command-S)

Repository

• https://github.com/akaalias/quickdown (Private – Let me know if you want it on the App Store!)

Settings

• Gear-button bottom-right to access 
• Modal overlay with basic hotkeys 

Progress

• QuickDown Menu Bar App – 8.12.2021
• QuickDown Menu Bar App – 7.12.2021
• Older QuickDown Menu Bar App Notes