What It Means To Be “Scrappy”: Enzo Avigo About Early Stage Startups
Enzo Avigo, CEO of June.so explains what it means to be “scrappy” and quickly bring ideas to market.
By Tremis Skeete, for Product Coalition
If you've worked in the world of small businesses and startups, you’ve probably heard of the term, “scrappy.” Now the word “scrappy” sounds like it suggests that maybe we should “get things done and make things happen, no matter what it takes,” but that would be incorrect.
So what do we need to know about what it means to be scrappy? Simply put, it’s about producing the right kinds of results that can grow the business, and Enzo Avigo, CEO of product analytics company, June knows first hand what it takes for software startups today to succeed.
On LinkedIn, Enzo reportedly breaks down what it means to be scrappy and bring to market product ideas quickly. In what you’re about to read, he speaks about how speed, using resources in smart ways, and working on the right tasks at the right times — are all critical for a software startup like June to deliver on their product vision and goals.
In a world where too many delays can mean the failure of a startup, working in “scrappy” ways can ensure your business meets objectives, and focus only on core product capabilities and not any extra ideas.
After the core product goes to market, data and insights can be attained while they perform experiments in the field, deliver demonstrations, and gather actionable stakeholder and customer feedback.
That’s why Enzo feels that in situations where speed to market make the big difference, one must know when to let go of notions of structured design and development methodologies, and instead, get things done and get products out into the world and in front of real customers.
Read a copy of Enzo’s LinkedIn post below to find out more:
Early stage startups, your product execution speed is everything.
But how can you go fast with so little resources?
One solution: being scrappy.
Product teams, you don’t have time to do all the things you should.
No time to run a great discovery, to organize feedback.
No time to give design feedback or collect feedback post-launch.
In pre Product/Market Fit this is even worse.
Startups can solve that by switching their mindset.
From perfection to scrappy.
This shift is what happens to first time sales.
As humans we’re told not to waste things.
First time sales stop that.
They reject that mindset of perfection.
And embrace a mindset of plenty.
If a deal is stalling, if it turns out an account is not a perfect fit, and so on, great, fine, they close it out. On to the next.
They’ll get them the next time around.
Product managers, you should also reject perfection.
Instead embrace scrappy.
Scrappy means you’re trying to achieve things with as little resources as possible. As fast as possible.
It means putting preconception of how to do things aside.
And instead seek for quick & elegant solutions to learn things fast.
Being scrappy doesn’t you half-ass things. Or being sloppy.
It means doing things really, but cropped down.
Here are good examples of being scrappy:
❌ Perfection: building a prototype in Figma
👍 Scrappy: draw prototype in a flipbook
❌ Perfection: set up a user enrichment tool
👍 Scrappy: go on LinkedIn & copy information
❌ Perfection: Integrate Stripe
👍 Scrappy: Send an invoice
❌ Perfection: Build a roadmap
👍 Scrappy: List priorities in bullet points
Product teams, being scrappy is your cheat code.
It will help you save hours and progress through your topics at light speed.
Over time your execution will compound.
It gives you a competitive edge.
Hope this helps 💜
Enzo
