ScalingEmerging Pattern

Porpoise between surface-level awareness and deep dives on select KPI-tied initiatives

Q: How many founders have validated "porpoise between surface-level awareness and deep dives on select kpi-tied initiatives"?

1 founder has proven this pattern works. Examples include Mike Brown (Uber).

Great managers know what's happening at a surface level across everything but go deep on selected projects each quarter. Choose initiatives tied to different KPIs (people/culture, growth, cost reduction, customer experience) and dive below the surface on those specifically.

When to use

When managing multiple teams or functions and need to allocate attention across competing priorities

Don't do this

Staying perpetually at 30,000 feet and never getting into details, or trying to go deep on everything and burning out

1 Founder Who Did This

Uberby Mike Brown

Brown porpoised quarterly, choosing projects tied to people/culture KPI, top-line growth KPI, cost reduction KPI, and customer experience KPI to go deep on. For existential threats, he dove immediately - camping in Manila when government shut operations.

Result:Maintained both breadth of awareness and depth of impact across a fast-scaling organization in Asia

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