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1) Let's talk about focus. In early stage startups, focus is the *most important thing*. Because you don't have many ppl or resources, you have limited time and money to do things. But how does one focus?
2) In doing a startup, it often seems impossible to focus, because there are too many things that seem "required". Incorporation. Legal. Accounting. Marketing. Product. Engineering. Etc. The list seems endless. How will you ever get everything done?
3) In my own companies (incl @HustleFundVC) as well as in sitting in the backseat of my hundreds of portfolio cos over the years, I've found that the best way to deal w/ this is to have "One Metric that Matters". (OMTM)
4) This article might help: http://leananalyticsbook.com/one-metric-that-matters/
OMTM is largely the work of @ericries @acroll @byosko. The tl;dr is at any given time, founders should focus on just moving the need on one metric and more or less ignore everything else. Align the whole company around this.
OMTM is largely the work of @ericries @acroll @byosko. The tl;dr is at any given time, founders should focus on just moving the need on one metric and more or less ignore everything else. Align the whole company around this.
5) The OMTM may evolve over time. E.g. this month, maybe we should focus on trying to go from 100 signups per mo to 1000 signups per mo. Next month, signups may be in a much better state and we may decide that retention is the key metric.
6) All hands on deck should be working towards that OMTM. E.g. if it's driving signups, maybe mktg is doing landing pages / more ads to drive signups. Maybe engr is optimizing onboarding or building referral links for existing customers. EVERYONE IS WORKING ON THIS METRIC.
7) Next month, let's say successful signups are no longer a problem, but ppl are just churning like crazy. Maybe you change your OMTM to retention. And again, the whole team is focused on driving a retention goal.
8) By having OMTM, you get your whole team aligned around 1 simple goal. Everyone understands what needs to be done. Also, it aligns your limited resources to drive 1 thing so you can see big effects rather than bits of resources working on many things and not having much impact.
9) Flipped around, a big reason startups fail (of many reasons) is that they are not focused enough around moving the needle on something important. Then they run out of money & morale because they've worked on many little things and have not pushed any of those far enough.
10) When in doubt, FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS and cut everything else.
