How NOT to manage a Startup
As a product manager, I led 2 teams in my recent startup gig with a lot of uncertainty, distractions and constant changes that impacted the engineers. A startup that is trying to scale, there are good and bad times. We had grown more than 30% without proper guard rails and senior leadership. Below are some of my key observations and how we managed to steer the situations.
No clarity in product vision
- We had a vision crafted by the CEO which most employees felt was outdated. There was no buy-in on the company vision across the company.
- Leadership was being reactive rather than proactive. Leadership asks the product teams to work on a feature that 1 big client requests.
- Constant requests from the customer success team about “feature requests” that are urgently needed.
- The sales team was overselling and leadership was putting pressure on the engineering team to develop the feature in order to sign on a client.
The PM team and leadership went on an offsite to brainstorm and came up with a new vision statement that reflected the company’s goals. The first thing I did with my teams was to create a product vision to tie back to the company vision that represented the goals we needed to achieve as a team. We had our ambitious roadmap set for the year with many problems to solve and the team was pumped to get started.
Poor transparency
- Company’s financials were never shared on a constant basis. Employees had no clue about how much money was left in the bank.
- No clear communication about a major layoff almost 20% of the company.
- Leadership did not act fast to assure the employees and make a game plan to move forward.
In the circumstances, where leadership felt they didn’t have to justify their decisions. It is important for all the employees to voice their opinion to the management team that transparency, reasoning and clarity are expected on company matters. After any major restructuring/layoff in the organization it's important for the leadership to overcommunicate and gain the trust of the employees.
Major changes to the team structure
- We had over 5 product teams, each of them focused on various aspects of the platform (API, front-end, back-end, etc.).
- Management decided to implement the Spotify squad framework in engineering team without an engineering leader (Director/VP of engineers) in the company to guide the engineers through the new structure, process changes and other challenges.
- Taking people out of comfort zone without enough reassurance backfired and caused low morale that eventually affected productivity.
Avoid making a major decision and announcing it without reaching an amicable agreement with all the teams and team members. It will surely help control the contradictory opinions and agitation. Having a clear transition plan will help get everyone on the same page. Having an engineering leader drive the initiative and so the lead developers don’t have to scramble amongst themselves.
Employee Turnover
- As a result of the above factors, lead engineers, sales, product managers are left to scramble and handle too much on their own and in the end, they lose hope in the product.
- Without enough guidance, it’s easy for teams to drift along, producing little of value. Top talent moves on and panic sets in, soon after it becomes a domino effect, the ones who are left feeling lost and helpless.
If one person on your team perceives a problem, chances are others feel it and have talked about it, too. Whatever is bugging one person is usually bugging others. Over time, issues build on one another enough to lead to people considering leaving.
Startups cannot afford this kind of hit financially or to productivity, it caused 30% of turnover in a year. Fixing problems is one of the hardest things for management to deal with.
In summary:
- Always set a company vision and live by it and rally the teams to do so as well. Trust that engineering teams are going to deliver the vision.
- Management should treat employees with respect and value their opinions, you hired them for a reason. Build a relationship with them which will help in the long run to gain their support.
- Prevent employee turnover by making sure leadership is providing a path for them to take and resolve roadblocks.
Thanks for taking the time to read this — I hope you found it useful! Connect with me on LinkedIn if you would like to chat further.
