🛠️ Career Strategy

Commercial Rigor: The Most Important Professional Skill

I shared this in September, when this newsletter was half the size it is today. I decided it was time to share again, given that this is the main thrust of my upcoming book.

Here’s an excerpt from Chapter 2 of The Invisible Advantage, about “commercial rigor”, the single most important skill any professional can have:

I learned about commercial rigor from Brandon Chu, who spent seven years as a product executive at Shopify. During his tenure, he helped grow the company’s valuation by a staggering 3500% (from around $2B to $70B). When sharing his approach to product management, he mentioned his “rigorous process to solve the puzzle: What will my team invest in next:

Your goal with prioritization is to always be doing the work that maximizes customer value created over time.

In order to prioritize between projects, you need to estimate two data points:

1. the amount of customer value that will be produced

2. the amount of time it will take to finish the project…”

That’s all most companies care about: creating value as fast as possible.

Per Brandon, commercial rigor means knowing intimately how your work ties to business outcomes (i.e. value creation over time) and crisply articulating those outcomes.

How does this pertain to the job market?

Well, a job is never just a job. It’s a business decision. A company needs to hire. There’s a pain point, a gap, a problem that’s costing money or slowing things down.

The moment a candidate understands that, they operate on a different level from everyone else.

For example, many candidates, when asked why they want a job, give some variation of “I’m excited about the opportunity” or “I think I’d be a great fit.”

That’s fluff. Sadly, employers don’t hire based on excitement. They hire based on perceived impact.

A better answer would be: “I understand that this role exists to expand your firm into new markets. My experience in customer segmentation and targeted outreach has helped previous companies increase their new market penetration by 20%, and I’m confident I can bring the same results here.”

This is commercial rigor in action: thinking beyond the job description and speaking directly to how one’s work drives revenue, saves costs, or improves efficiency.

This works for many types of questions, and positions as well.

The interviewer asks, “Tell me about your experience hitting sales targets.”

Bob says, “I was responsible for bringing in new clients and managing accounts. I worked hard to meet quotas and develop strong relationships with customers.”

Alice says, “At my last job, I exceeded my sales targets by 35% in Q3 and Q4 by identifying a new segment of mid-sized businesses that were underserved in our market. By tailoring our messaging to their specific needs, I increased average contract value by 20%.”

Bob tells us what he did. Alice tells us what she achieved. Bob gives generalities. Alice provides numbers. Bob describes effort. Alice describes outcomes.

Alice gets the job 9 times out of 10.

Commercial rigor applies to every company function. A software engineer who talks about reducing load times by 40% is more valuable than one who says they “optimized code,” even if, in reality, both did the same work. A marketer who highlights their impact on lead conversion rates will outshine one who states they “created campaigns.”

Optimize your resume, cover letter, and interview skills to showcase commercial rigor today!

⚡️ Execution Insight

The SPADE Toolkit for High-Stakes Decision Making

I generally enjoy reading what Gokul Rajaram has to say. While you may not know the name, Gokul is one of the best businessmen around, with leadership stints at Google, Facebook, Square, and Doordash, along with board seats at Coinbase and Pinterest. So when he talks, I listen.

At Square, he came up with a decision-making framework called SPADE. Here’s how it works:

If you want the SPADE framework + template toolkit, please sign up for the newsletter :)

🧠 Curiosity Corner

Developing Talent in Young People

Everyone’s got a take on talent. Is it grit? Nature or nurture? Sheer luck? We love arguing over it at dinner parties and on LinkedIn. But Benjamin Bloom, one of the foremost scholars of education, did the research. He studied the lives of 120 world-class performers across piano, sculpting, swimming, tennis, math, and neurology.

Bloom did novel research: every chapter digs into one field and interviews not just the winners, but their parents. He wanted to figure out the first principles of talent.

He found that talent isn’t a lottery. The process is surprisingly formulaic, even if executing it is brutal.

So what’s the pattern?

1. Playtime. It starts with fun. Not forcing your 5-year-old to learn calculus for the resume, but giving them actual excitement.

2. Strenuous skill development. Next comes the grind: hours and hours of practice, usually with a top-tier, demanding coach who cares more about results than feelings.

3. Break the mold. Eventually, the truly talented develop their own style and push boundaries.

So the bottom line: Talent development is a grind, it’s methodical, and it’s rarely glamorous. But there is a formula to it.

💼 Job Board

The $200k Club

Here are the 3 most interesting remote job openings I’ve seen this week:

If you want the jobs, please sign up for the newsletter :) 

That’s it for this week.

-Rahul from The DesAI Digest

P.S. Reply back to this email with a business challenge you’re facing! I’d love to help.

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