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Last week's piece on company MPH struck a chord.

My inbox filled up with founders telling me some version of "yes, this. I'm the one who has to keep the speed up, I'm the one dragging everyone toward urgency."

But besides that, one email in particular stood out.

A friend of mine is deep in the process of becoming an operating president at a PE-backed company. Great guy, former founder, sharp operator, moves fast. He's probably in his 50s, and his question to me was a good one.

Back when he ran larger companies, he did a Friday note — an email.

Recognition, updates, what he was reading, things that were top-of-mind.

He noticed that my version of the same ritual was a Deck + Loom video, and it got him thinking about both the format and the content of team comms.

His question to me was essentially:

On the surface it may seem like a simple question, but he's genuinely torn, and I think there’s a few more questions even “below” that question, too.

He appreciates the fidelity of video, plus the ability to actually show work that's being done on the screen. But he's also pulled toward the intentional craft of writing.

Here was my answer, and it applies to basically anyone running a team right now.

Most leaders skip thinking these through and just default to whatever they're personally comfortable with. Do this instead.

I'm a pretty decent writer.

But I also know that my leadership style — the enthusiasm, the humor, the inside jokes and spirit-borne culture building that happens in real time — all of that tends to land better "live" or in-person, than if I tried to make it fit inside of a single page. If I only did a written note, I'd be leaving my best assets in the drawer.

So I defaulted to video, because video is where I'm most myself.

Run the same audit on yourself, and be honest.

Are you funnier in person or on the page? Does your energy come through in a paragraph, or does it need your face and your voice? If you're the kind of leader whose written memos get forwarded around the company because they're that good, congrats, write the memo. If you're the kind whose all-hands makes people want to run through a wall, get on camera.

The medium should carry your advantage, not neutralize it.

My team was mostly Gen Z and early-30s peeps. They used email, but sparingly, and only because I occasionally made them. Video was how they actually absorbed things from me.

If your team is mostly in their 30s and 40s with a couple Gen Z folks sprinkled in, that group may prefer the long-form email. They'll read it. They'll reread it. They'll search it six weeks later when they need the number you cited.

This isn't a generational insult in either direction, just distribution. You can write the best update in the world and it doesn't matter if your audience doesn't consume it.

Ask them. "Would you rather get this as a five-minute video or a note you can read at your desk?" It’s a question that takes thirty seconds and saves you a year of talking into a void.

This is the part I think people sometimes miss, and it's the real answer to my friend's question.

My Friday Deck + Loom was called "The Sit Down" (someone dubbed it that early on — my team thought it felt very mob-boss-esque lol).

The video was perfect for what it was: company-wide status updates, team shout-outs, and LOTS of photos from member retreats and events. They were highly visual comms. They were quick dopamine hits, a little bit of face time before the weekend.

A way for me to pump up the team and thank them for what was always an insane week of work.

And my wonderful EA helped me keep it low production, high warmth.

But when I had something that needed to carry more weight — a strategic shift, a change to the roadmap, a retention push — I went long-form and written.

Because oftentimes those memos needed charts, data tables, external sources linked. I wanted people to go back to them months later and re-read and re-align.

Video is great for signal that's emotional. Writing is great for signal that's referenceable.

So here's the tactical version:

Velocity doesn't just come from decisions. It comes from how fast and how clearly information moves through the org.

For you, pick the format that moves it fastest.

Here's a quick one that cost me a whole newsletter's worth of readers.

A few weeks back I sent a newsletter about Airtable with a percentage sign in the subject line. Something like "Airtable Sold for 89% Off." My one-day open rate normally sits slightly above 40%. That day? 12%. And it never climbed back up.

The only explanation that makes sense is that Gmail took one look at the "%" and filed the whole thing in Promotions or spam. Basically it became a dead send.

So consider this your heads-up: if you're writing subject lines, keep the percentage signs out of them. Spell it out, use "percent," or reframe the number entirely. Gmail's filters apparently see a "%" and assume you're trying to sell them a shitty mattress.

Nad Chishtie, employee #4 and first designer at Lovable, wrote the best thing I've read all month on why speed and taste aren't enemies. He built the entire brand around three feelings (possibility, empowerment, and speed) and works in a place where the rule is to act on what you're confident about instead of asking permission first. If last week's Signal on velocity landed for you, this firsthand account is worth twenty quiet minutes.

Hiten Shah wrote a sharp set of notes on X arguing the whole software industry is now an external R&D lab: don't clone features, find the behavioral mechanic underneath them (a pull request, a Story) and port it. His kicker ties right into what we've been talking about all year; once agents make "can we build this?" boring, the only question left is "should we?" and that's where taste and judgment become the whole game.

LinkedIn says over a million people have already hit its new "seems like AI slop" button, and flagged posts are now pulling 40% fewer views. Maybe this is the start of the correction, where polished-but-empty content finally gets punished and real perspective wins. Or maybe it's just the beginning of a new set of workarounds! Either way, the numbers are here.

If any of this hit home, the Loom-vs-writing thing especially, just hit reply and tell me how you run your team comms. I read every single one.

And if it'd help someone on your team or in your network, forward it their way. That's still the best way this thing grows.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading.

Jordan