Find the optimal number of features for your product

After devoting nearly 50 years to the study of team performance, the late Harvard researcher J. Richard Hackman concluded that four to six is the optimal number of members for a project team and no work team should have more than 10 members.

Some work will, of course, be specialized. But in a labor market that is more automated, digital, and dynamic, all citizens will benefit from having a set of foundational skills that help them fulfill the following three criteria, no matter the sector in which they work or their occupation:

• Step 1: Pick something you want to learn. Spend time with the idea until you have internalized it as best you can.
• Step 2: From memory, write everything down that you know about the subject in a way that a child can understand. Write the items down...