Most CEOs misinterpret their role. They focus on downstream activities—hiring, fundraising, product features, or quarterly planning. While important, these tasks are outputs, not the real job.
The true role of the CEO is mastering feedback loop design: building the systems that continuously test assumptions, capture market reality, and turn signals into action.
What Most CEOs Think Their Job Is
- Hiring & Team Building
- Fundraising & Investor Relations
- Product Features & Strategy
- Quarterly Reviews & Planning
These are all outcomes of deeper, more fundamental loops.
The Real Job: Master Feedback Loop Design
- Identifying Critical Assumptions – knowing what’s most important to test.
- Designing Feedback Mechanisms – building systems that validate or invalidate quickly.
- Scaling Loop Precision – ensuring loops remain sharp as the company grows.
- Acting on Market Signals – even when the data contradicts intuition.
Foundational Insight
Everything else—product features, marketing channels, hiring plans—should flow from what your feedback loops reveal about market reality.
Without this discipline, companies drift into building based on opinion rather than signal.
The CEO’s Four Primary Responsibilities
1. Identify
- Ask: Which assumptions about the market are most critical to test?
- Build from market reality, not theory.
2. Design
- Create feedback mechanisms that can validate or invalidate assumptions.
- Prioritize speed and precision in learning.
3. Scale
- Ensure those mechanisms scale with the company.
- Avoid losing sharpness as layers and teams grow.
4. Act
- Move on the signals you receive—even if they contradict intuition.
- Requires data-driven courage.
Everything Else
- Product features
- Marketing channels
- Hiring plans
All of these flow naturally from the strength of your feedback loops.
Key Takeaway
A CEO is not primarily a manager or fundraiser.
A CEO is the chief architect of market feedback loops.
Master this, and everything else aligns.
