Building Balanced Team Culture from Day One (Moses Hohman)
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Wearing many hats is typical in early startups, so you would think there would be no problem being a balanced team. But even at an early stage there are many opportunities for imbalance, and these can have long-term effects on company culture. Moses will present what some of these opportunities are, principles for counterbalancing them, and solicit our discussion. See also http://www.balancedteam.org/balconf-2011-resources/ for other Balanced Team Conference presentations.
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Building Balanced Team Culture from Day One (Moses Hohman)
- 1. Building Balanced Team Culture from Day One Moses Hohman — @moseshohman Co-founder, Human Practice
- 2. Context • Developer turned co-founder • agilist • balanced team, how I learned to love UX • dissatisfied with CW about startup teams
- 4. Achieving Balance • People • Activities
- 5. Principles • Balance at all scales • Self • Team • Collaborators • Embrace flexibility • Continuous education
- 6. Balanced Self • What does a balanced team of one look like?
- 7. Balanced Self • What does a balanced team of one look like? software development, domain knowledge, strategic design, visual design, user research, business development, marketing, product management, project management, accounting, legal, IT operations, human resources, recruiting, investor relations, strategic partnerships, etc.
- 8. Balanced Self • What does a balanced team of one look like? software development, domain knowledge, strategic design, visual design, user research, business development, marketing, product management, project management, accounting, legal, IT operations, human resources, recruiting, investor relations, strategic partnerships, etc.
- 9. Imbalanced Self • Focus on what you’re good at • Ignore the rest
- 10. Capabilities - Prioritized 1. domain knowledge 13. accounting 2. user research 14. IT operations 3. strategic design 15. human resources 4. software development 16. investor relations 5. business development 17. et cetera 6. marketing 7. visual design 8. strategic partnerships 9. legal 10. recruiting 11. product management 12. project management
- 11. research domain stratD partners vizD dev mktg bizdev
- 12. Self research domain stratD partners vizD dev mktg bizdev
- 13. Balanced Self 1. Just do it — 2. Learn (continuous self-improvement) — 3. Outsource
- 14. Imbalanced Team • Overlapping competencies (and lack thereof) • Overfocus on what you’re good at • (Narrowly) defined roles
- 15. Co-founder research domain stratD partners vizD dev mktg bizdev
- 16. Self research domain stratD partners vizD dev mktg bizdev
- 17. Founding Team research domain stratD partners vizD dev mktg bizdev
- 18. Balanced Team • Embrace Flexibility • No roles, fluid roles, shared mind • Cross-train/educate each other • Find trainers (advisors, mentors)
- 19. Imbalanced Collaborators • Usually part-time or off site • Roles required, hence source of imbalance • Spectrum of shared mind and commitment
- 20. Mitigating imbalance • Highly specialized skills, needed seldom/not evolving • Preliminary work before you can bring skill into team • Source of education for team • Learning enough to manage, micromanagement
- 21. No Technical Co-founder • The Standard Advice, and what’s wrong with it • “earning a co-founder” (37signals) • Long-term vs short-term strategy
- 22. Open Questions • How much of this still applies in other contexts? • Strategies for detecting invisible gaps?
- 23. Your Balanced Self • Envision a specific work context • What competencies are necessary for success? • Draw a pie, assess your skills: • What can you do (or “just do”)? • What can you learn? • Who can you collaborate with?
- 24. Thanks Chicago startups, Lane Halley, (indirectly) Steve Blank … and flickr.com/photos/72213316@N00/5530865925/sizes/l/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/classblog/5136926303/sizes/l/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/rossap/3640939526/sizes/l/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/darkr/3599308800/sizes/o/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/darkr/ 3599308464/sizes/o/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/darkr/3599308562/sizes/o/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/melodramababs/4789394224/sizes/ l/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/melanieandjohn/5736042529/sizes/l/in/photostream/
- 25. Uplifting healthcare relationships Moses Hohman moses@humanpractice.com @moseshohman
Editor's Notes
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- Now: co-founder at 1.5-founder startup\nPast: 4 years in a frugal, post series-A startup\nAlso interviewed six other early stage startups in Chicago: sugarsnap, hulihealth, code academy, spothero, dress me sue, faspark\n
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- Isn’t that just a stupid question?\n
- Isn’t that just a stupid question?\n
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- Changes over time!\n
- Changes over time!\n
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- Decide together when not to be fluid!\n
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- Our experience: some collaborators worked well for identity design, but not for product design, because they needed shared mind to do the latter effectively\nLegal/accounting are not evolving\nIdentity design is a project\nProduct is evolving, not highly specialized (requires several different skills together)\n\n
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- flickr.com/photos/72213316@N00/5530865925/sizes/l/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/classblog/5136926303/sizes/l/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/rossap/3640939526/sizes/l/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/darkr/3599308800/sizes/o/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/darkr/3599308464/sizes/o/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/darkr/3599308562/sizes/o/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/melodramababs/4789394224/sizes/l/in/photostream/, flickr.com/photos/melanieandjohn/5736042529/sizes/l/in/photostream/\n
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