Startup mythology tells us to avoid process at all cost. It’s bureaucratic. It’s a big company control mechanism. It stops the only advantage that startups have – speed.
The mythology is wrong.
Every business needs to build 3 simple processes into their DNA from the very beginning:
- Define the next set of milestones for the business, and the timeline on which to achieve them
- Publish and review a product roadmap which is both what is being built, and when it’s being delivered
- Publish and review the customer pipeline which is both who is in the pipeline, what the next step is to move them forward, and when they’re expected to close
I’m sure there’s a B2C version of this as well, but my whole career has been B2B or Platform.
When the business starts these milestones may be 2 weeks at a time. There may only be product milestones or a single customer in the pipeline (and it might take 6 months or more to close them).
But, as the business matures, the fact that you’ve built the discipline around a process to constantly define, write, and publish these three things, and that you’ve held yourself and the team accountable for delivering these results, will make all the difference.
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