MEET ASK MAZ

Every founder has wondered whether their leadership team is measuring the right things, prioritizing the most important work, or solving the issues that are actually getting in the way of progress.

Those questions shape the quality of a team’s conversations and, ultimately, the quality of their decisions. They’re also why I’ve been thinking about what AI could become for founders and leadership teams for years.

That’s why we built Ask Maz.

We wanted to build an AI companion that’s inside your business operating system, where your company’s work is already happening. Ask Maz uses your Rocks, Scorecards, Org Chart, meetings, and the work already captured in Ninety, so you don’t need to spend time explaining the context before you can get useful answers.

Read more in Ask Maz: Helping Leaders Build Stronger Companies.

People have asked where the name Maz comes from. It goes back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the idea that people do their best work when they have the opportunity to grow and become better versions of themselves. That philosophy has shaped how I’ve thought about leadership for years. 

Leaders are still responsible for judgment, discernment, and decisions. We always will be. But when we can see our company more clearly, we can ask better questions, make stronger decisions, and lead with more focus.

PERSPECTIVES

“Seeing is better than being blind, even when seeing hurts."

— Abraham H. Maslow

MARK MY WORDS

When we started building Ask Maz, I didn’t want to build another generic AI tool. I was thinking intentionally about the work leadership teams do every week.

I've sat in enough leadership meetings to know that good decisions rarely happen because someone found more information hidden in another report. They happen when your team can see how the pieces fit together and better understand where you need to focus.  That’s where Ask Maz can help.

Leadership teams already have the information. The problem is that it often lives in different places, and leaders spend valuable time pulling it all together before they can even begin making decisions.

If Ask Maz can help a leadership team walk into Quarterly Planning better prepared so they can spend less time searching for information and more time solving issues, then we've built something worthwhile.

GOT A MINUTE?

David Meyer made an observation that explains a lot about what happens inside growing companies: People are often more willing to change when they’re feeling pain than when they’re chasing opportunity.

In this clip from Why Leadership Is Never Aligned, David and I talk about why alignment can break down, even when leaders care about the same company.

[Learn more from David]

ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD

In case you missed it, here’s more from Founder’s Framework:

How Weekly Leadership Meetings Help Founders Build Better Companies

A weekly leadership meeting should do more than fill 90 minutes on the calendar. It should help your team stay aligned, solve the right issues, and move the company forward with discipline. In this article, I share why the health of your weekly meeting is often one of the clearest indicators of the health of your business.

[Read Now]

For founders working through a storm of decisions, Ask Maz is built for what comes next: clearer context, stronger questions, and a better view of where your business is headed.

If you're building, running, or scaling a company, I'd love to stay connected. Join me on LinkedIn for more conversations about leadership, execution, and building great companies.