Four For Friday | May 30, 2025
LF175 | Localism vs. Impact investing, Longevity canvas, Jobs To Be Done Playbook, HR as an ecosystem + Google Stitch
Welcome to this week’s Four For Friday. Four things that have piqued my interest this week, together with a bonus: AI Tip of The Week.
1. The Context Trap in Impact Investing
This SSIR piece suggests impact investors often get wowed by ‘universal’ solutions - that theoretically work anywhere - rather than locally specific solution, which end up having more impact.
For example, electric scooters have been a hit in Berlin yet Paris banned them entirely; context matters in the success of a new technology. Real impact happens when investments embed deeply in specific contexts first. Smart capital should therefore start with local problems and adapt successful models across geographies, rather than assuming one-size-fits-all solutions work everywhere.
The So What? "Adapted replication" is likely better than just brute force scaling - keep the core innovations constant but flex delivery methods to local idiosyncrasies and cultural factors. How to scale local impact is a Nobel-worthy topic.
2. The Longevity Architect
In the spirit of a lean canvas, longevity doc David Luu has created The Longevity Architect™ - a ‘life design tool’ that ‘blends the science and art of longevity medicine with systems thinking’.
It is intended to be used to map your purpose, optimize your biology, and align your lifestyle, environment, and legacy - all on one canvas. Give it a whirl:
The So What? Longevity can be abstract and hard to pin down- this creates a succinct summary of the levers you can pull to live a long healthy life.
3. Jobs To Be Done Playbook
Book review: The Jobs To Be Done Playbook. In the AI era, it’s almost impossible to keep up with the pace of tech - and it’s only getting worse; the ever improving tools are making the tool builders ever more productive. So I’ve gone back to the core of something that doesn’t change - human nature.
The Jobs To Be Done framework has been around for about 30 years, arguably coined by Theodore Levitt who said “people don’t want quarter inch drills they want quater-inch holes”. But it was popularized by HBS professor Clayton Christensen in The Innovator’s Solution, and has been an inspiration for me ever since. It is about fundamentally transforming the mindset of the organization away from itself, and towards the customer.
Customers “hire” products and services to get their jobs done. They mostly don’t care that much about the organization. One example - BMW has positioned itself not as a car company but as a mobility company. This is in line with the idea that one of the jobs that people ‘hire’ cars for is to get from A to B, and so it doesn’t have to be in a car, it could be in an electric car, a bike or a train.
The book is a practical guide with pithy commentary about the evolution of the idea and how companies can embed customer centricity throughout their organization.
The So What? As our heads spin trying to keep up with AI, let’s go back to the source of what we’re trying to do - add value for our customers.
4. Agile HR
Interesting discussion of how agile methodology and ecosystem leadership applies to corporate HR teams - basically it blows up the current top down org chart. Three takeaways:
Platforms, Not Pipelines. Platforms allow people, ideas, and capabilities to collide and reform to create more value than linear pipelines. “You’re not delivering the value—you’re enabling it to emerge.”
Porous Boundaries and shared value. The edges of your organization should allow talent, IP and ideas to come - and go. Let’s not “own” but curate.
Behavior Shift: From Command to Orchestration. Ecosystem leaders don't command and control—they orchestrate and align, setting the rhythm. Winning approaches: trust-based networks, rapid sensemaking, and modeling adaptability, humility, and psychological safety.
“Ecosystem leadership isn’t about expanding control—it’s about expanding capacity. The best leaders aren’t the loudest in the room. They’re the ones building the platform, inviting others in, and amplifying what emerges.”
The So What? This is another vote for the ambivert leader - one who listens and is empathetic, not just a director.
Bonus AI tool: Google Stitch
I’ve been loving coding front end websites in v0.dev but my ears pricked up when I saw that Google has just announced something very similar sounding: Stitch. Haven’t tested it yet, but would be great to hear from anyone who has, and how it compares to v0, Lovable and Replit.
That’s all for this week. As always, feedback welcome.
- Stephen