Steve Wei ✪

@kobebryant “Kobe Bryant shared founder advice on product design and mastery after visiting Apple to spend a day with Jony Ive, and the exchange reveals how similar elite basketball and world class product building really are. Ive wanted to know how Kobe prepares, how he studies, how he views the game, and how he builds his game. Kobe’s answer was that it works much like the way Ive builds products: you think sequentially.

The method has two parts. First, you define the end result you want to create. For Kobe, that meant asking what would make his game most unstoppable or hardest to deal with.
Then you work backwards from there, building one piece at a time, one move at a time, and one counter at a time. Kobe points out that a massive device, like a basketball game, is made of countless small things that have to work together. For entrepreneurs and startups, this is a practical framework for business strategy. Start with a clear vision of the product, market position, or company you want to build, then break it into sequential steps and execute each one with full attention. The phrase one counter at a time also carries a competitive lesson: great players anticipate how rivals will respond, and great founders plan for competitors, pricing pressure, and changing markets. Investors and finance professionals often look for the same discipline, a team that can connect a long term vision to measurable milestones.

The counterpoint is that working backwards works best with flexibility. The end goal can change as customers, technology, and competition evolve, so the plan should be revised without losing the habit of sequencing. The takeaway for founders is to define what unstoppable looks like in your market, then build it piece by piece.” 🐍💜💛♾️