Brought to you by Jira Product Discovery—Atlassian’s new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies—Brian Balfour is the founder and CEO of Reforge. Prior to Reforge, he was the VP of Growth at HubSpot and co-founded three other startups. In today’s episode, Brian shares 10 lessons from his career, growth, and life:• Lesson 1: Inspect the work, not the person.• Lesson 2: Tell me what it takes to win; then tell me the cost.• Lesson 3: Problems never end (and that’s okay).• Lesson 4: The year is made in the first six months.• Lesson 5: Growth is a system between acquisition, retention, and monetization. Change one and you affect them all.• Lesson 6: Do the opposite.• Lesson 7: Use cases, not personas.• Lesson 8: Solving for everyone is solving for no one.• Lesson 9: Find sparring partners, not mentors or coaches.• Lesson 10: 2x+ the activation energy for things that need to change.—Find the transcript for this episode and all past episodes at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/episodes/. Today’s transcript will be live by 8 a.m. PT.—Where to find Brian Balfour:• X: https://twitter.com/bbalfour• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bbalfour/• Website: https://brianbalfour.com/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Brian’s background(04:29) His Notion doc of lessons(07:35) Lesson 1: Inspect the work, not the person(12:39) Implementing lesson 1 and a recap of Reforge Artifacts(16:01) Lesson 2: Tell me what it takes to win; then tell me the cost(18:17) Why you should revisit your ideal end state often(20:25) How planning works at Reforge(23:50) Lesson 3: Problems never end (and that’s okay)(26:31) The “players, coaches, captains” framework(30:24) How AI will allow for smaller teams(34:13) Small teams do bigger things(34:37) Lesson 4: The year is made in the first six months(38:20) Lesson 5: Growth is a system between acquisition, retention, and monetization (40:44) Examples of engagement and retention problems from HubSpot and Reforge(46:21) Lesson 6: Do the opposite (55:25) Brian’s thoughts on category creation(57:39) Lesson 7: Use cases, not personas(1:01:18) The use case map(1:03:38) Lesson 8: Solving for everyone is solving for no one (1:11:14) There are many ways to do product(1:16:52) Lesson 9: Find sparring partners, not mentors or coaches(1:23:49) Advice on setting the tone for group sharing(1:25:07) Lesson 10: You need to give 2x the activation energy for things that need to change(1:32:02) Lightning round—Referenced:• Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/• Frank Slootman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankslootman/• Artifacts: https://artifacts.reforge.com/artifacts• Ray Dalio’s 5 Step Process: https://commoncog.com/dalios-5-step-process-to-getting-what-you-want/• Building effective teams: https://www.reforge.com/blog/building-effective-teams• Scott Belsky’s website: https://www.scottbelsky.com/• MOOCs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course• The Creative Act: A Way of Being: https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Act-Way-Being/dp/0593652886/• A Breakdown of LinkedIn’s AI Assisted Growth Loop: https://brianbalfour.com/essays/a-breakdown-of-linkedins-ai-assisted-growth-loop• Lex Fridman Podcast: https://lexfridman.com/podcast/• Acquired podcast: https://www.acquired.fm/• Unsolicited Feedback podcast: https://www.reforge.com/podcast/unsolicited-feedback• Elena Verna Analyzes Airtable’s Shift to Enterprise and Slack’s Product Roadmap: https://www.reforge.com/podcast/unsolicited-feedback/episode-5• The ultimate guide to product-led sales | Elena Verna: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-product-led-sales-elena-verna/• How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more): https://