Watch for Flags
Having done a few start-ups and having some interesting experiences (OK, very interesting experiences) along the way, there are a few red flags I keep my eyes peeled for.
Your mileage may vary, and I’m totally not trying to hit all of them here - just some stuff I’ve learned to watch for in the past, and I thought I’d jot them down.
Requirement Delivery Time
In product management, there is a pretty big flag that I keep my eye on regularly — time to deliver requirements per release. If you are looking at regular 4-6 week requirement cycles, you are going to hit a wall.
Maybe not in the current cycle. Or the next. But eventually - especially with the lack of resources on hand.
Big companies can get away with this because they have entire teams dedicated to writing and analyzing those requirements and the process with which they are derived and developed.
However, in a team of 15-30 people, you should be more worried about getting priorities full working…not written down to the point you have to use a dolly to carry those documents between your desk and the desk of your project manager.
Silos Between Groups
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. That’s how I’d describe silos.
There is a weird start-up dichotomy, which is folks need to make-up for the lack of certain roles that aren’t in a budget, but they also must do their job. It’s so nice and sugary sweet to think that everyone is a generalist that can step-up and help rally the troops wherever they are needed.
These people are very few and far between - and really have their limits.
But, on the flip side of this is “everyone must do their job.” There is a misconception that stepping out of that boundary can cause a lot of tension due to toe-stepping.
It really lies somewhere in between.
Things cannot be lobbed from one group to the other without communication. That’s a really, really bad sign. The thing to watch for to determine if silos are in fact forming is communication and involvement.
You should be talking to everyone regularly, and they should be talking to you. That’s not to say you should be having all-hands meetings every week or having everyone reading each other’s e-mail.
Let’s not get crazy.
But, that is to say in order to work together you have to have trust and the right steps must be taken in order to build that relationship so it’s down right effective. Silos are nasty buggers that can also lead to culture shifts (described below) and one of my all-time favorites (not!)…turf wars.
Culture Shifts
In some cases, people can cause culture shifts. They don’t happen overnight, but they do happen - and when they do (and they are negative) they are extremely taxing on the business and very difficult to repair.
While the CEO should be watching for these regularly, they don’t always have the option of seeing every little thing in the field, so it’s great to recognize when they do rear-up to have a chat with those that need to have them called out.
Doing so, and learning to spot these suckers early, can ease a lot of stress and tension and severely dropped morale later down the road.
Will to Act
Everyone must be willing to take action to get things done. Too often people can become paralyzed by the notion that things are really hard, eat up their time, and cause them to be frustrated.
Now, of course people spending 24 hours a day at the office is bad. But the odd time, there are required pushes where people will work overtime in a start-up — because that’s how things go.
Everything in a smaller company can tend to be hyper-amplified in many different ways, making them appear really out of reach or frustrating. Some times, the only way to move past this is to a) recognize there is a problem b) determine the solution and c) execute.
It’s crucial that things don’t stagnate or stop moving forward - that’s when there is a serious issue at hand.
What To Do
Learn to spot these bad boys early and often. Learn that you don’t know everything and that your instinct could be off but 9/10 it’s way better to be safe (and have a discussion about this stuff early) than sorry (i.e., trying to explain to your higher-ups why you didn’t call this to their attention sooner).
Maybe your wrong - maybe your crazy. But chances are, if you’ve seen the movie a couple of times before, you have a good enough understanding of these types of things to know when to call a spade a spade and bring it up.
