Welcome to High Output

Congratulations on joining High Output. Our mission is to help founders bring their wildest visions to life and evolve into extraordinary leaders.

I'm thrilled to have you join the team for the summer. I very much view this as a symbiotic partnership. I come from the Belichick school of management. I generally don't care if you have 10 min or 10 years of experience. What I care about is that show up daily, work your tail off, grow, and contribute to the team objectives. I'll probably say that 100x this summer.

Here is a set of resources that I've pulled together to help you get up to speed during your time at High Output. The purpose isn't to overwhelm you but to provide a wide range of resources you can dive into over the next few months. My hope is that it will help you better navigate the startup ecosystem and of course have a bigger contribution to the organization.

Don't feel obliged to cover everything. In fact, I want to discourage you from doing that. Instead, dive into what calls your attention. Follow your curiosity. Again and again. Some of the resources may require more time and focus. All I ask is that you devote a few hours each day to reviewing the material. While you can learn a tremendous amount consuming this treasure trove of content, I hope the experience you get working alongside me will be more formative to your growth and development personally and professionally.

All that said, my goal is for you to have the most professionally rewarding summer of your life. I'm here to help you kick ass and evolve. I couldn't be more fired up for you to start. I hope you feel the same way.

Welcome to High Output.

User Manuals

At High Output, we believe that culture is centered around identifying what compels employees to do great work daily. If you’ve ever had a personal / professional coach, the practice of creating a User Manual may not be altogether foreign to you. That said, we think that part of driving / being part of a high-performing team includes regularly self-reflecting and jotting down some of those musings on paper so we know how to best work with each other. More specifically, the intent behind this exercise is for:

• Employees learn more about each other. The original idea of a personal user manual is to help others learn more about you. Great communication starts with understanding your audience. Personal user manuals are basically the audience giving you the roadmap to working with them.
• Employees learn more about themselves. Writing a personal user manual for others implies a tremendous amount of self-awareness. You can’t tell others the best way to work with you…if you haven’t figured it out for yourself. Today’s business world requires employees to self-manage. This activity could be a good first step.

Use this user manual template to create your own. Here's mine:

Schlaf's User Manual

Rishi's User Manual

Your Roles & Responsibilities

• Consume suggested content books, blogs, slideshares and podcasts
• Review tech press daily and informally report notable events / companies