The Only Business Mental Model You Need: Make Something, Sell It

I’ve spent years building data science teams and products, and one thing keeps surprising me: we all tend to overcomplicate business. We get caught up in frameworks, KPIs, OKRs, and the latest management philosophies. But strip away all the complexity, and business is remarkably simple: make something people want, then sell it for more than it costs to make.

That’s it. That’s the tweet.

I’m fully aware that I in fact write here quite a bit about just that: frameworks, management philosophies, and things like that. So before you get too far it: those things still help! But this post is about remembering the actual goal so that you use those tools to that end, not as theatre.

The One Mental Model That Rules Them All

Every successful business in history has done exactly two things:

1. Created something of value (goods or services)
2. Sold it for more than it cost to create

Everything else - every framework, metric, or strategy - is just a way to optimize one of these two things. Even services ultimately exist to help someone else make or sell their goods more effectively.

When We Lose The Plot

Here’s a story that might sound familiar: A company starts with a clear mission to create an amazing product. They set up goals and metrics to track their progress. So far, so good. But over time, those metrics become targets in themselves:

• The VP of Engineering optimizes for code coverage instead of product quality
• The VP of Sales chases quarterly numbers at the expense of customer relationships
• The VP of Marketing obsesses over social media engagement rather than actual sales
• The VP of Product tracks feature velocity instead of customer value

Suddenly, you’ve got a company full of people hitting their targets but missing the point entirely.

I’ve been guilty of this myself. In my data science leadership roles, I’ve sometimes caught myself getting excited about implementing the latest ML techniques or building sophisticated data pipelines, only to step back and realize I was optimizing for technical elegance rather than business value.

The Antidote: Map Everything Back to Basics

Want to avoid this trap? Here’s a simple exercise I use:

1. Write down exactly what your company sells. Be specific. No weasel words - what’s the actual thing customers pay for? Or another way, what will they cancel for if they don’t get?
2. Now map your role to either making that thing or selling it.
3. Look at your current projects and goals. How many of them directly contribute to making or selling your product better?

Real Talk: What Are You Actually Making and Selling?

Let’s get even more specific:

If you’re at Spotify, you’re making a music streaming service ostensibly, but what are you really selling? You’re purchasing music rights and reselling them users (or giving them to users and selling ad impressions). You have levers your business can pull:

• You can increase subscription revenue per cost of licensed media
• You can increase ad revenue per impression, or count of impressions
• You can reduce the cost of licensed media

That’s pretty much it!

Each role in these companies should map clearly to either making or selling these specific things.

The “Yeah, But…” Section

I can hear the objections now:

• “But what about company culture?”
• “What about innovation?”
• “What about employee satisfaction?”
• “What about our social mission?”

These are all important, critically so, but they’re important because they help you make and sell things better:

• Good culture attracts and retains talent that helps you make and sell better
• Innovation helps you make things that are more valuable to customers
• Happy employees make better products and serve customers better
• Social impact creates brand value that helps you sell more effectively

A Challenge for You

Take five minutes right now and answer these questions:

1. What exactly does your company sell? (Be brutally specific)
2. How does your role contribute to either making or selling that thing?
3. What percentage of your time is spent on activities that directly contribute to either making or selling?
4. For each of your current projects, can you draw a clear line to either:
   • Making your product better
   • Making your product more efficiently
   • Selling your product more effectively
   • Selling your product to more people

If you’re having trouble answering these questions clearly, or if the percentage in #3 is lower than you’d like, it might be time to recalibrate.

The Bottom Line

Business isn’t complicated. We complicate it. The next time you’re evaluating a new initiative, framework, or metric, ask yourself: “Does this help us make our thing better or sell it more effectively?” If the answer isn’t a clear “yes,” you might be overcomplicating things.

Remember: Make something valuable. Sell it for more than it costs. Everything else is just details.

Note: If this post has you thinking “but my business is different,” I challenge you to really examine that belief. In my experience, the businesses that think they’re exceptions to this rule are often the ones that need this reminder the most.