The Magic of Identifying and Eliminating Friction Points

Observations from Managing Partner Jen Prosek in the Leading in Volatile Times Newsletter.

My first internship was at a market research firm. I wasn’t especially interested in market research — my stepmom had helped me land the job — but I was grateful for the opportunity.

As the most junior person on the team, my job was to “pull numbers.” It was as tedious as it sounds. I sifted through telephone surveys about sodas, cereals, or feminine products, identifying the most popular responses or highest percentages. The firm was housed in a lonely corporate office park in suburban Connecticut. There was no on-campus deli, no bustling cafeteria. If you wanted anything, you had to get in your car.

One day, it occurred to me: what if I made life a little easier for the senior team?

So, I started arriving early. I stopped by their glass offices and took coffee and breakfast orders. Every morning, I’d deliver their bagels, their black coffee, their egg sandwiches —whatever helped them start the day right. I did this for seven straight weeks, every day of my three-month internship.

By the end, I knew them all — not just their orders, but their kids’ names, their hobbies, their personalities. When my internship ended, they threw me a going-away party. And in a tough job market, I had something most of my peers didn’t: a job offer.

That first job turned into a full-time analyst role at Millward Brown. I didn’t realize it at the time, but fetching coffee was more than a gesture. It was a problem solved. A friction point removed. A gift of saved time and a better morning.

Looking back, I see now that I was tapping into something powerful: the law of reciprocity. Focus on giving with no expectations, and many times you will be rewarded in return.  Sometimes the reward is just a smile, other times it is more.

Over time, that lesson became more than a habit. It became a principle — one that guided how I built relationships, developed business, and eventually, grew a company. I learned that true gift-givers — those who give without keeping score — are rare.  And they are rewarded, not just with transactions, but with trust.

That coffee run in suburban Connecticut? It was one of the first gifts I ever gave in business and one of the first friction points removed. It was a solve to a simple but important problem.  It would become a regular practice and a mantra that would help me build Prosek Partners to what it is today.

Follow Jen’s Leading in Volatile Times Newsletter on LinkedIn.