I recently challenged everyone at SharkNinja to do something that sounds simple but in practice is not always easy: pick a real problem and spend 30 minutes a day working on it. Because if a problem matters, why wouldn't we work on it every day? Problems don't linger because they're small. They linger because they're hard. And you're never going to solve them if you only check in on them every couple of weeks. A standing meeting here, a check-in there. That doesn't work. The problem is still hard, and you've only given it a sliver of your attention. Thirty minutes doesn't sound like much, but that's exactly why it works. It builds the persistence, the habit of showing up for the same problem every day, until it's resolved. What's the problem you'd finally solve if you gave it 30 minutes a day?
This is such a good leadership habit. Big problems rarely need another meeting. They need consistent attention. Thirty focused minutes a day may not feel dramatic, but that’s often how real progress happens. Quietly, repeatedly, until the hard thing finally moves.
Hi Mark. I love this, it’s like atomic habits! Make small changes everyday and before you know it, you are a painter, a runner, or a problem solver. Consistently over intensity always wins.
Mark, consistency is a powerful habit. I'd add that the most valuable 30 minutes often isn't spent asking, "How do we solve this problem?" It's spent asking, "Why does this problem keep coming back?" In my experience, recurring problems are usually signals that something in the operating system needs attention. Solve that, and you often eliminate several downstream problems at the same time.
The endless to-do lists, meetings with no clear objective, and emails that appear to solve problems but are really just shifting responsibility are all examples of anti-problem solving corporate mechanisms. I really like your perspective Mark Barrocas: finding a way to tackle the things we keep pushing forward instead of creating more process around them. One practical habit I'd add is setting aside 30 minutes each day to ask a simple question: How can AI better support my team and improve the way we operate? Small, consistent improvements in how we use AI can compound into significant gains in productivity, decision-making, and time for higher-value work.
This resonates. In product development, the problems that linger the longest aren't the ones that are hardest to solve—they're the ones we stop looking at directly because they've become familiar. 30 minutes a day forces you to stay in the room with the discomfort instead of scheduling a meeting about it next quarter. That's how trade-offs get resolved and break throughs happen.
It's amazing how so often the biggest challenges get the least attention. Especially when they're ambiguous or feel overly complicated. And yet, I'm reminded over and over again that just dipping my toe into trying to work through one almost always shows me the problem isn't as hard as I imagined it was.
A fascinating approach Mark Barrocas Many business challenges persist because organizations collect signals but don't create enough dedicated time to investigate, learn and act on them. Whether it's customer experience, innovation or operational improvement, meaningful breakthroughs often come from sustained attention to the right questions.
Hi Mark, i've recently came across Elizabeth Stone’s(Netflix CPTO) explanation of systems thinking on YouTube, where she describes it as “zooming out one click” from the problem you are working on. I thought it adds an interesting layer to your 30 minutes approach. Daily focus creates the persistence needed to solve a hard problem. The occasional zoom out helps us check whether we are defining that problem broadly enough, in terms of the consumer need, the assumptions behind it, and how the solution may scale. Persistence keeps the work moving. Zooming out helps prevent a real problem from becoming a narrowly framed one.
I also like that this creates accountability. When a problem has a dedicated place on your calendar each day, it's much harder for it to quietly drift to the bottom of the priority list.
Love this framing because it’s exactly how Golf District got built. Our problem was that golf treats an unsold tee time as a total loss, while every other industry with perishable inventory solved this decades ago. We didn’t crack it in a big meeting. We cracked it by showing up to the same problem every day for three years, and the compounding is real: more courses on the platform, golfers booking further out than the industry thought possible, and our biggest piece yet about to launch. Thirty minutes a day, every day, works.