What aspects of running a startup/ a tight-knit team need to be written about more?

Sindhu Shivaprasad
19 replies
In other words, what's that one topic that you would really like to understand more about, but can't find anything that covers it in depth? Think team collaboration, time-off management, workplace cultures... literally anything you're interested in. I'm trying to understand what people want to read but can't find, rather than add to the same beaten topics while writing for Pause. Thanks in advance for the help ⚡️

Replies

Richard Hughes-Jones
If you're after some inspiration around the things that startup teams can work on, this might help? The Five Dysfunctions of a technology leadership team: https://www.richardhughesjones.c...
Prakhar Shivam
Hey, imo brainstorming sessions (i.e. the journey of an idea) and watercooler conversations are least covered in this space.
N Chandrasekhar Ramanujan
@prakharshivam Could you share a little more about what that means?
Prakhar Shivam
@ncresq Abish Mathew's Journey of a Joke format for brainstorming sessions and Corridor Crew's format for water cooler conversations. Both can be replicated in a written format.
Kevin McDonald
The role of 'significant others' in founder dynamics.
Kevin McDonald
@ncresq there’s a saying, you’re not just marrying the person you are marrying the family. Same concept but with founders. You're partnering with your co-founder and their significant other too.
N Chandrasekhar Ramanujan
@kevin_mcdonald1 Could you share a bit more on what that means?
Raouf REMIDAN
@ncresq @kevin_mcdonald1 I have a story about that, I was a mentor to a startup facing a dispute about equity distribution, one of the cofounder who was totally fine with the intital plan came-back asking for more after months, it was a misunderstood situation that could kill the startup I took him for a 1/1 walk and during the conversation it appeared that he was fine with the equity but not his girlfriend! So she was pushing him to get more, he was too ashamed to be transparent with his team so he created a whole story to justify this behavior
Elethorie NISABWE
Social behavior.how we can do something in society
Vadim Zolotokrylin
May be how not to be a fool (don't confuse yourself and your team) about the product-market fit. I am talking in particular about the illusion that the next feature will suddenly make people use the product you build. It is covered in this article by Andrew Chen: https://andrewchen.com/the-next-...
Dimitris Karavias
Connecting your team members with each other so they build relations. Especially critical in remote-only companies.
Jenny Kim
Identifying how each individual takes in information (how they learn) and at what pace they operate best - and sharing this with the team so everyone is aware of different style of learning - has been critical in my team. Most often we ignore this part and just assume everyone works the same way or start to have issues around each other's productivity level.
Barney Cox
@jenny_at_wanted This is a great point! It's something the product team I'm in have been thinking about. Reckon it'll be useful when trying to foster a 'clean feedback' culture, too - not everyone wants to receive feedback in the same way. We might do a version of Atlassian's 'Personal User Manual' template.
Jenny Kim
@brnycx Thanks for that "Personal User Manual" template! Didn't know about it until now, we might try using it too :) I think the above method also helped my team understand we're all different humans - it certainly helped me grow flexibility to work around different personality types.
Barney Cox
@jenny_at_wanted Oh no worries, glad it was useful! That's so true, something I'd like to get better at myself (being a sensitive soul haha). All the best with it :)
N Chandrasekhar Ramanujan
@mahbubur143 I know right! It's a fantastic question. I reacted the same way as well when I first saw it
Raouf REMIDAN
I would go for the importance of timing, I review tens of pitch decks per year personally, and one thing I've noticed many first-time entrepreneurs falling in love with their concept/landing page, are happy that 300 subscribers jumped onboard (usually FFF :p ) then focus on growing their email list and getting media exposure than building the product and taking care of these 300 early adopters, with a tight budget they usually run out of cash abandon the project before launch