Startup Team Management

Startup Pirates Gdansk
Startup Team Management
Gdansk, Inkubator Starter, 15th of September 2013

Marcin Pokojski
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
WP.PL infoShare LabStar

Q: Startup?
A temporary organization designed
to search for a repeatable and
scalable business model
~Steve Blank
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: Temporary?
The goal of a startup is not to remain
a startup.
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://steveblank.com/2013/06/11/fund-raising-is-a-means-not-an-end/

Q: Search?
Although you believe your idea is the
most brilliant innovation ever
thought of, the odds are that you are
wrong.
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: Repeatable?
What you are searching for is not the
one-off revenue hits but rather a
repeatable pattern that can be
replicated by a sales organization
selling off a pricelist or by
customers coming to your web site.
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: Scalable?
The goal is to get many customers
and each additional customer adds
incremental revenue and profit.
The test is: If you add one more sales person or spend
more marketing dollars, does your sales revenue go up by
more than your expenses?
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: Business model?
A business model answers the basic
questions about your entire
business.
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: Business model questions?
1. Who are the customers?
2. What problems do they want solved?
3. Does our product or service solve a customer
problem?
4. How do we attract, keep and grow customers?
5. What are revenue strategy and pricing tactics?
6. Who are the partners?
7. What are the resources and activities needed to make
this business happen?
8. What are its costs?
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: Business model validation?
Your job as a founder is to quickly
validate whether the model is
correct by seeing if customers
behave as your model predicts.
Most of the time the customers don’t behave as you
predicted.
Most startups change their business model multiple times.
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-principles/

Q: What about the Startup Team?
The right team makes the difference
~Mark Suster
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/02/06/how-to-configure-your-startup-team/

Q: Team is really so important?
The Team is 70% of why a venture
capital deal does, or does
not, happen.
~Bob Porthier, EPIC Ventures
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/foundertrainingcenter/startup-team-development-for-the-startup-america-learning-series

Q: Startup Team configuration?
• One chief
• Only team members needed for
searching repeatable and scalable
business model
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: Tech-Startup Team members?
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://www.quora.com/Startups/What-would-the-ideal-web-technology-start-up-team-be-composed-of#/

Q: Engineer?
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: No sales/marketing and lots of IT?
Don’t outsource your IT because IT
solutions creates competitive
advantage of your product.
Hiring sales & marketing before
having repeatable and scalable
business model is waste of money.
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: Team members responsibilities?
• UX/UI Designer: Design, Product look&feel, Creative
Direction
• Engineer / Programmer: Core product builder
(API, server
configurations, code, databases, performance)
• Developer/JS/HTML/CSS: Front-end implementation
• CEO: All the rest
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: CEO responsibilities?
• Defining and controlling product metrics
• Capture requirements
• Competitor reviews
• Prioritizing roadmap
• Gathering new clients
• Monitoring effectiveness of marketing channels
• Testing on clients
• Defining team culture (communication, ways of
problem solving, etc)
• Giving answers on „why / what / when / who questions”
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: How to choose best people?
• „SMART”?
• FOCUSED ON „GETTING THINGS DONE”?
• „NOT A JERK”?
~Joel Spolsky
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html

Q: 4 Stages Of Team Development?
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://www.ericsutherland.co.uk/tag/business-structure/

Q: Team Forming?
• Friendly but not trust yet
• Leader directs
• Processes ignored
• No roles and responsibilities
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://www.tealeshapcott.com/intranet/better-teamwork-with-basecamp/

Q: Team Storming?
• Cluster starts to suggest ideas
• Relationships made and broken
• Don’t get stuck in this stage
• Needs good facilitator
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: Team Norming?
• Agreed rules and values
• Know their individual
contributions
• Consultant can take a step back
• Don’t lose focus
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: Team Performing?
• Not all clusters make it to this
stage
• Independent, motivated and
confident
• Respect, collaboration and
communication
• Agreed vision and strategy
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Q: How to start?
• Get to know each other as best as you can
• Define team rules
• Define team roles
• Define how team will deal with problems (eg. 5-WHYS
with all team)
• Define next steps (eg. Lean Canvas)
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Appendix
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Def.: MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated
learning about customers with the least effort.
Def.: Continuous deployment
Process whereby all code that is written for an application is immediately deployed into
production, which results in a reduction of cycle times.
Def.: Split testing
A split or A/B test is an experiment in which different versions of a product are offered to
customers at the same time. The goal of a split test is to observe changes in behavior
between the two groups and to measure the impact of each version on an actionable
metric.
Def.: Actionable metrics
Actionable metrics can lead to informed business decisions and subsequent action.
Def.: Pivot
A pivot is a structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis
about the product, strategy, and engine of growth.
~Eric Ries, Lean Startup
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare

Tools: Lean Canvas
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://cocreation.bblog.pl/i/blog/users/23335/files/Image/Lean%20Canvas.png

Tools: Build-Measure-Learn
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://startupgrind.com/2012/04/cult-of-the-feedback-loop-lean-startup-vs-six-sigma-vs-sostac-vs-pdca/

Tools: Startup Metrics
~ Dave McClure
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/dmc500hats/startup-metrics-for-pirates-sf-jan-2010

Tools: 5-Step Startup Metrics Model
~ Dave McClure
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/dmc500hats/startup-metrics-for-pirates-sf-jan-2010

Tools: 5-WHYS
The 5 Whys is an iterative question-asking technique used
to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a
particular problem.
Example:
1. Why? - The battery is dead. (first why)
2. Why? - The alternator is not functioning. (second why)
3. Why? - The alternator belt has broken. (third why)
4. Why? - The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and
not replaced. (fourth why)
5. Why? - The vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended
service schedule. (fifth why, a root cause)
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys

Tools: Customer Development
Manifesto
1. There Are No Facts Inside Your Building, So Get Outside
2. Pair Customer Development with Agile Development
3. Failure is an Integral Part of the Search for the Business Model
4. If You’re Afraid to Fail You’re Destined to Do So
5. Iterations and Pivots are Driven by Insight
6. Validate Your Hypotheses with Experiments
7. Success Begins with Buy-In from Investors and Co-Founders
8. No Business Plan Survives First Contact with Customers
9. Not All Startups Are Alike
10. Startup Metrics are Different from Existing Companies
11. Agree on Market Type – It Changes Everything
12. Fast, Fearless Decision-Making, Cycle Time, Speed and Tempo
13. If it’s not About Passion, You’re Dead the Day You Opened your Doors
14. Startup Titles and Functions Are Very Different from a Company’s
15. Preserve Cash While Searching. After It’s Found, Spend
16. Communicate and Share Learning
17. Startups Demand Comfort with Chaos and Uncertainty
~Steve Blank
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://steveblank.com/2012/03/29/nail-the-customer-development-manifesto/

Tools: Customer Development
Startup Pirates
Gdansk 2013
Marcin Pokojski
WP.PL / infoShare
Source: http://market-by-numbers.com/customer-development/

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