Keep it simple. We love to complicate everything. This is where true warriors excel, as they carefully watch. The true warrior pays attention to the actions around them, not the chatter—as often the chatter is incongruous with the observed actions, and as we all know, “it is by their actions, they shall be known”. We are judged not for our words but for our deeds. For many reasons, human beings are often deceptive and deception is much harder to achieve with your actions than your words, which can be intentionally or unintentionally deceptive.

What does this mean to you? It means that you have faith in your observations of behaviour and that you discount hearsay1, verifying any significant verbal communication with behavioural observations. Why? Remember KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). We love the sound of our own voices. Our ideas are the most important. Our babies are the most beautiful, intelligent, and faultless. So you can’t help but believe that all your product development (and by product I mean anything that someone pays you money for) will be more desirable and valuable if you just keep piling on descriptives of their features and attributes. You can’t help but believe in them, but what do the consumers believe? They will tell you loud and clear with their behaviour, and I am sorry, but that is the only relevant measure. After market introduction, your opinion becomes irrelevant. That is the place to tinker. Can you modify behaviour favourably? The answer will be provided by the behaviour of your customers or consumers, so pay attention and be prepared to defend your features with behavioural evidence to the contrary … otherwise it is just waste.

You are warriors who will watch the behaviour of your subscribers very carefully and let it tell you what is relevant. With this data, you will build a mighty product that will exceed your wildest expectations, but it requires setting aside your ego and validating your learning. As true warriors, you are up to that challenge. So it is written.