building and growing a startup team

© 2014 ConceptSpring1

Building and growing a startup teamHow a founder’s job changes and evolves

Elaine Chen


PollHow 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


Today’s agenda• Transition 1: hiring your first employee• Transition 2: from doing to managing• Transition 3: balancing management and leadership


Dip Yoel

Nick Shawn


First hire


First transition: hiring your first employee


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?


Culture and values


Source: http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/the-hubspot-culture-code-creating-a-company-we-love

http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/the-hubspot-culture-code-creating-a-company-we-love





Source: http://www.zapposinsights.com/culture-book/digital-version

http://www.zapposinsights.com/culture-book/digital-version




© 2014 ConceptSpring12Image credit: Philip Kotler

http://www.slideshare.net/GoToNEXUS/philip-kotler-ems


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.


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


Determining fit


A great framework

Cultural fit

Perf

orm

ance


Cultural fit

Perf

orm

ance Rock Stars

High Potentials

Train

ing

Find out if this is fixable

Uh Oh

Fix this immediately – do not procrastinate

Constant vigilance!


My personal philosophy

Prima Donnas

I have two main things:

1) Respect

2) Humble and awesome

Your mileage may vary. Find your own main things, and stick to them.

NO EXCEPTIONS.


Roles and Responsibilities


Co-Founder Co-Founder

Co-Founder Co-Founder

Principal


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)


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.


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


Compensation Structure


Base Salar

yIncentive Stock

Options

Discretionary

Bonus

Fringe benefit

s

Non-Discretio

naryBonus

Awards


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


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/

http://open.bufferapp.com/introducing-open-salaries-at-buffer-including-our-transparent-formula-and-all-individual-salaries/





Hiring Do’s and don’tsDo• 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


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 dealing with…


Second transition: from doing to managing


Question: how does Dip’s job change?

• What does his job look like before he started hiring employees?

• What does his job look like after he has hired a few employees?


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.


This is now your jobHiring and firing Mentoring and coaching

Providing direction Managing and coordinating work


You really shouldn’t be doing this too much anymore


Management Do’s and don’tsDo• 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


Back to Ecovent


Growing painsBefore: < 5 employees• Fast• Spontaneous• Collaborative• Simple

After: > 50 employees• Slow • Process driven• Lost in translation• Very complex


Third transition: balancing management and leadership


Leadership AND management


Your leaders are the key to the puzzle


Develop strong relationships

You

You

You

YouYou


Help them develop strong relationships


Encourage 1x1’s with staff


Keep communication linese open

Pu

sh in

form

atio

n a

lon

g s

ub

-te

am

s

Enforce communications across sub-teams

Encourage and reward organic cross functional communications and coordination


Leadership Do’s and Don’tsDo Don’t• 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.

• 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


These are very different jobs


Continue to grow and learn to remain effective


Thank you

@chenelaine blog.conceptspring.com

building and growing a startup team

Business

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company culture

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founders job changes

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