I was I was out to dinner with a friend
of mine and we were having a
conversation about him becoming a
manager in my current group and and he
was no dude I just totally don't want to
do it and like I'm not gonna be doing
anything I'm just gonna be like a
manager from now on it was one of those
moments where you blurt something out
you didn't realize you thought it until
you said it and I said out loud without
consciously thinking about it I said I
said come on man like this is an amazing
opportunity it's your job to protect
this incredibly fragile bacteriological
colony inside this body called Intel and
if you let Intel have its way with it
Intel will kill it but but if you don't
then just like in a human body
you know the flora and fauna and our gut
right it benefits the body right it
works that well and I realized at that
moment that that was sort of how I think
about building these things so plucky
rebels being agile in a non agile place
what is pluck eNOS so pluck eNOS is a
combination of determination but it is
not grandma nobody wants to follow the
guy who says let's all die going up that
hill right it is also cheerful but
nobody wants to follow somebody who is
purely cheerful because purely cheerful
is well I don't really care I'm not
going to keep trying so plug eNOS is a
combination of cheerful and determined
why rebels well if Intel already knew
how to do the thing that you're thinking
about trying to do inside Intel then in
child would have a P&L and there'd be a
zbb in a PLR and you'd be on a road map
and you wouldn't be a startup and it'd
be a multi-billion dollar business and
like that's not a startup so a little
bit of insurrection is good for the soul
so that's why rebels and and another
point on how much agile is the right
amount they're probably people in this
room and know more about agile than I do
I am you know there's scrubs and sprints
and the right amount of agile is right
up to the body rejecting the bacteria
everything up until there is you want as
much as you can possibly make fit but
you need a veneer
you need a veneer of predictability
until gonna want to see quarterly things
maybe you're gonna have to have finance
help you do an NPV so how do you do this
rule number one be write about the
future how can you be write about the
future the best way to do that is to
create the future because if you create
it can you get it right I've gotten this
wrong in my career in the mid-90s I was
working in the Windows operating system
group and it was my responsibility to
figure out what the right strategy was
for CDR if anybody remembers recordable
right once CD media and we were thinking
should we put this in the Windows
operating system or not and we thought
yeah the general consensus was you know
users don't understand right once the
operating system can't do you right once
we're gonna exhaust the media if we do
backups to auto-saves and Word documents
all you're not going to work so the net
result of that was we chose not to make
a future in which you could easily
manage rewritable or right once media
and if anybody remembers how much of a
pain it was in 2005 years after we went
into this problem to actually put
anything on a CD it's because in 1995 we
didn't decide to make a future in which
it would be easy in 2000 so I will take
credit for having screwed that up I've
gotten this right in my career I'll talk
about BitLocker in a second but even if
you're wrong
deciding you're gonna make a future can
actually create profound impact there
was a guy named Jack he was writing
software to help people type in messages
on a computer in order to send an SMS
message to a taxicab to do a dispatch
system in New York City the contract
failed the the technology couldn't ship
have you ever used Twitter because that
was Twitter so even if you're wrong
about the future you're creating if
you've got forward momentum that can
really help so that's sort of this
notion of leading from the front keep it
secret keep it safe from Gandalf one of
my favorite wise men there are lots of
people inside large companies who want
to help you
they are very well-meaning their heart
is in the right place it is just that
some kinds of help or the kinds of help
we all could do without they are going
to want you to give them a 10 year NPV
they're going to want to show a 31
percent return on the
investment from start to finish they're
going to want you to be able to explain
exactly what it is that you're going to
be doing to take advantage of a hardware
feature that doesn't ship for two years
don't be afraid to go dark for a while
when you're doing a start-up you're
super proud and this is one difference
between doing a start-up in a big
company in a small company and I've done
both when you're in a small company
you're starved for attention you will
tell absolutely anybody about what
you're doing in a big company there's a
lot to be said for going dark until you
have something to show we have this
philosophy shipping software beats
PowerPoint don't explain what is going
to do as soon as you come out of being
dark hand it to someone then you don't
have to explain what it's going to do
they can hold it they can see it they
can feel it they interact with it they
know what it does they may ask why did
you build this you say well I know
because it's really awesome but but
modern software is all about people
wanting a return right here right now
it's one of the things that services are
really profoundly changing the way we do
software so keep it secret keep it safe
and then when it's time to talk about it
have something to show don't don't rely
on PowerPoint to tell your story always
cheat always win another wise man Clint
Smith but Peter it says right here on my
badge
you know Intel code of conduct that's
dishonorable cheating it's your job as
the leader of a start-up in a big
company or a small company to to make
things unfair on behalf of your people
it is your job to optimize the system so
that you get greater returns than
everybody else that's your job so a
little bit of optimizing is a very good
thing this is kind of like the bacteria
analogy again right you you you want you
want you've got to carve out enough
space for that bacteria to actually do
its job digest food right if the
bacteria is gone you can't digest it
anymore but if it's too successful and
it exits the body and comes back in
somewhere else it kills you so you want
to you want to contain that but at the
same time let it do its job we do this
one cheating thing we do we like to make
up names so people can assume they know
what you're doing when you say cloud
services but if you say affiliated
services they have absolutely no idea
what you're talking about
which means you get to explain it and it
means that especially in a large company
you're not inheriting the debt of
defined term when you try to talk about
it because people oh I totally know what
cloud services are we tried those three
years ago there you remember insert name
here name here right well but these are
affiliated services they're totally
different it's cheating they're exactly
the same but but it's very effective so
I recommend that so you do this to help
you and and this is my number one rule
if you forget everything else about
anything I've said find some users and
make them happy
there will be projects in the future
where you see the most profoundly
awesome graph that says if we do these
19 things we will have a 1.7 billion
dollar business in the next five years
you can always do that right there's
always a way to take data and help
support a business unless it's truly
catastrophic ly bad in which case EIU
should do but if you have people who are
happy with what you've done if you have
found some users and you have made them
happy you have got a superpower right I
mean you have something now where you
can be like but Bob likes it Bob wants
more Bob told me he wants the next 19
features you know but Bob what's 19 more
features like it becomes this incredibly
compelling conversation if you have some
users and you've made them happy and
just the act of going out and finding
people and deciding I want to make some
people happy today first of all it's
kind of nice from a societal perspective
but also it's a you're going straight to
the solving the problem and an example
bitlocker
in 2 3 2001 I was having a conversation
with a security officer from a bank and
he said we lose on average one laptop in
a New York City Taxi Cab every day while
later I'd like to say it was like pitchy
like this lightning bolt where I took
inspiration genius I probably like a
year later it suddenly dawned on me
there was an entire office in that
company and there an only job is to deal
with the misery of a lost laptop in
New York City that's all they do nobody
ever told me that but you have to have
those people there have to be people are
like okay let me get this straight
it was the EVP of mergers and
acquisitions what was the hard driving
crypted what like where'd it go I mean
it's two o'clock of them were like do we
have to call the Wall Street Journal do
we need to get the analysts in you know
it's a nightmare
so we decided let's build the product
that is exclusively dedicated to making
those people happy we are gonna build a
product that makes risk managers and
Incident Response Teams inside large
corporations happier about having to
deal with lost and soullow laptops the
product of that was BitLocker last I
knew it was a over half billion dollar
revenue line but it was exclusive like
we did not think about IT workers we did
not said think about the IT department
like we just said all we want to do is
say that those people go from from seven
hours of sleep a night to eight hours of
sleep and we're successful and it was a
huge success for my perspective so make
an attractive corpse all right so we're
planning to fail no we are not planning
to fail
you should never plan to fail but here's
the thing projects get cancelled the
world changes companies change this
happens in big companies this happens in
small companies you never know when the
music is going to stop so this is a
thing that agile can really help with
because the cadence of agile and the
agile process delivers more frequent
releases of smaller things that's more
little victories the more little
victories you can have the more likely
it is that if you do god forbid wind up
being a corpse who are an attractive
corpse because you have given the people
who were with you on this journey a
better resume an opportunity for the
next job a thing they can hold imagine
you're on a three-year project and it
gets cancelled at your to all it's like
it's just words you can't even show it
to somebody you can't brag you can't be
proud you are not helping
the people who help you tell your story
tell their story so make an attractive
corpse okay so what are the rules my
rules for startups and large companies
be write about the future the best way
to do that is to create the future
second is keep it secret keep it safe
and and do that up until it's time to
actually sew such stuff that really
works always cheat always win find some
users and make them happy that's the
most important one and make an
attractive corpse
so last story I was on a phone call one
of these Intel phone calls by and by the
way nobody but intel has calls with a
hundred people on them sometimes six
hours long and I'm on the call and
somebody is explaining no we really need
to do this because developers are gonna
love this and I just wasn't getting it
it's like I'm sorry I wasn't like I'm
not my friends or no I just know I don't
understand how doing this is going to
help my friends my my friends take a
vacation buy a better car get braces for
their kids like how is it going to do
that and and I finally in you know
interrupted and I said so if this is
that good
are you gonna quit Intel and do it as a
startup is it that compelling and there
was deadly silence on the call and
finally after about ten seconds the
answer was but I need health insurance
yeah whereas the the the IFV you're
pitching to adopt the technology does
not which leads me to the last sort of
point it's really important to be
passionate about what you do if you're
gonna do a start-up in a big company
there are better ways and worse ways to
go about doing it but you got to be
committed right you got to be so
committed that you at least are willing
to ponder the thought that you would
walk out the door and do it on your own
if Intel is for some reason you know
colossal estupid about making a decision
to back it I'm not suggesting that
that's what you do because I don't want
to see an exodus out the door right now
but but you got to be committed and you
got to be passionate thank you