In this presentation we explore three transitions that a startup founder goes through as their startup grows and matures:
1) making their first hire
2) transitioning from a doer to a manager
3) transitioning from mostly managing to mostly leading
We explore common management traps and how to avoid them, and also provide practical tactics to help new managers to align, motivate and inspire people and to organize and coordinate work.
2. Poll
How many people have you managed to date?
• I have never had direct reports
• 1-10 – I have directly managed small teams
• 11-50 – I have managed managers
• 51+ - I have managed managers who manage managers
3. Today’s agenda
• Transition 1: hiring your first employee
• Transition 2: from doing to managing
• Transition 3: balancing management and leadership
8. Dip’s first job posting
• Job function: full stack web developer, Linux stack
• Responsibilities: lead development of the cloud based back end as well as
the web and mobile front ends of the company’s home automation software
platform
• Experience: 3 years industry experience in software development for
connected devices (server side, web front end as well as native mobile apps
for iOS and Android)
• Qualities: great communicator; excellent team player; self-starter; highly
motivated; etc.
How will Dip know whether a candidate will be a good
fit?
13. Commonalities
• Each company has a clearly stated culture code
• Each culture code is unique for the company and represents a set of
shared values and beliefs
• In every case the culture code helps give the work meaning – it is far
more than just $; employees are building something unique and
meaningful together
• This clarity helps enforce consistency in recruiting new talent and
provides a framework to manage existing talent.
• It sets the stage for a work environment compatible with the people
hired to help build the company.
14. Before you interview your first candidate
• Sit down with your cofounders and collectively define
your core values and beliefs. Take as long as you need.
• Write down these values and beliefs – these will form the
basis of your company culture
• Now you can screen candidates against your written
values and beliefs to find a good fit
17. Cultural fit
Performance Rock Stars
High Potentials
Training
Find out if this is fixable
Uh Oh
Fix this
immediately
– do not
procrastinat
e
Constant vigilance!
18. My personal philosophy
Prima
Donnas
My main things:
1) Respect
2) Humble and awesome
Your mileage may vary.
Find your own main
things, and stick to them.
NO EXCEPTIONS.
21. Co-Founder and CEO
(business)
Co-Founder and COO
(business)
Co-Founder and CTO
(engineering)
Co-Founder and CIO
(engineering)
Full stack web developer
(reports to the CIO)
22. Example job spec
• Title: Software Development Lead
• Job function: full stack web developer, Linux stack
• Reports to: CIO
• Responsibilities:
– Lead development of the cloud based back end as well as the web and mobile front ends of
the company’s home automation software platform.
– Serve as Scrum Master in the company’s Agile development process.
– Works closely with the product management function to help define features and plan and
execute releases.
– Works closely with the Software Quality Assurance function to ensure releases are of high
quality.
– Actively participate in customer development activities to understand customer needs and
wants.
– Coordinate end-of-scrum demos for the company as needed.
23. Everyone should have a good job spec
• If using titles, try to adhere to industry norms to avoid confusion.
• If using titles, try to avoid title inflation (Easier said than done)
• Make the reporting structure crystal clear
• Write a good job spec that describes key responsibilities
• Publish job specs for the whole company to eliminate ambiguity
• Revisit the job spec at least once a year to allow for changing roles
and growth
Clarity from the start prevents ambiguity, confusion
and conflict
26. Coming up with a package
• Cash component: depends on functional discipline,
education history, seniority, etc.
• Stock component: there are common industry norms in
the US for typical % granted to non-founding senior staff
members and for various levels of staff at various
funding stages
• Fringe benefits: basic coverage is appropriate for a
startup
• Do some research to find out what the industry norms
are, and try to pay fair market value
27. BufferApp example
• Salary = job type X seniority X experience + location (+ $10K if salary
choice)
Source: http://open.bufferapp.com/introducing-open-salaries-at-buffer-including-
our-transparent-formula-and-all-individual-salaries/
28. Hiring do’s and don’ts
Do
• Take time to know the candidate as a
human – not just as a resource
• Ask open ended questions to see how
the candidate deals with stress, flux,
lack of structure – all qualities unique
to a startup
• Have existing team members imagine
working with them, anticipate
compatibilities / friction points, flag
issues and concerns
• Consider test driving them in a trial
project to gauge work style
compatibility
Don’t
• Hire by checklist of skills and experience
and forget to check for culture fit
• Allow technical brilliance to trump culture
fit. “I only hire rock stars” will quickly turn
into “I have a collection of prima donnas
who can’t work together on the same
thing”.
• Allow random interview technique
introduced artifacts to screen out great
candidates who may not do well in an
artificial interview setting (e.g. White board
coding, 5-minute speed dating)
• Hire for lack of weaknesses, not superior
strength
29. By May 2014, the
team had good
momentum on both
the product and the
business. They
moved out to a new
facility and started
hiring more people.
There are more
transitions coming up
that they will be
31. How is Dip’s job changing?
• What does his job look like before he started hiring employees?
• What does his job look like after he has hired a few employees?
32. Your old job
• You personally did everything: wrote
all the code, did all the design, opened
the bank account, did all the biz dev,
personally tweeted with the company
twitter handle. Everything is in
harmony because you coordinate it in
your head.
• You never wrote anything down.
Documentation is for big companies.
• No M&M’s in the office (Meetings and
Managers), everybody does real work.
• If a deadline looms, you’ll pull 3 all
nighters in a row. No worries.
• Running low on cash? You’ll go without
pay for a few months.
Your new job
• The new people are still generalists but are
more aligned with functional disciplines –
developers, marketers, biz dev, finance
people will need help with project
management, coordination and alignment
with company goals.
• The oral tradition alone is insufficient –
more writeups are needed for coordination.
• Some meetings are needed (e.g. daily
scrums for software developers) and some
managers are needed (who will do the
salary reviews?)
• Your new hires may have personal
constraints – you need to let them go home
sometimes.
• Your new hires cannot go without pay.
33. This is now your job
Hiring and firing Mentoring and coaching
Providing direction Managing and coordinating work
35. Management Do’s and don’ts
Do
• Delegate
• Trust your staff
• Stay highly engaged and provide
direction
• Celebrate individual and team level
successes publicly
• Hold people accountable for
performance problems
• Manage the professional development
process of your staff
• Facilitate conflict resolution to build a
well functioning, cohesive team
Don’t
• Hold on to everything for dear life
• Micromanage
• Be completely hands off and absent
• Give only negative feedback but no
positive reinforcement
• Give no feedback until it’s time to fire
someone
• Assume your staff will be doing the same
job forever
• Avoid dealing with conflict – resulting in a
dysfunctional team dynamic
48. Keep communication linese open
Pushinformationalongsub-teams
Enforce communications across sub-teams
Encourage and
reward organic cross
functional
communications and
coordination
49. Leadership Do’s and Don’ts
Do
• MTWA (Manage by Wandering Around) –
invest in building relationships with each
person
• Lean on your staff to be the domain
experts
• Share business context updates to staff at
least once a week
• Keep your listening ears on – solicit
feedback, notice issues and concerns
• Be authentic and transparent
• Repeat yourself. Repetition is the key to
retention.
Don’t
• Hide in your office Thinking Big Thoughts
• Make all key decisions by yourself without
involvement from your staff
• Be the smartest person in the room every time
you meet with your staff
• Communicate critical messages via email or
memos without a face to face meeting
• Talk more than you listen when interacting with
staff
• Overpackage your messages into glossy nuggets
• Hide bad news and overplay good news