Startup founders often have to juggle numerous priorities. When it comes to HR-related tasks, they are often caught up in *tactical* problems instead of *strategic* ones. This presentation outlines 3 critical and strategic challenges that should command significant attention from startup founders (and early stage employees).
This presentation was originally delivered as part of Communitech's Level Up series in Waterloo, Canada.
3 Most Critical HR Challenges for Startup Founders
1. The 3 Most Critical HR
Challenges for Startup Founders
2. Where these opinions came from:
2002 2012
Involved in 5 Startups in the last 10 Years
The most important thing I’ve learned from
them is the importance of…
5. How much is your time worth?
Imagine this (crappy) consulting offer:
“We agree your time is worth $150/hour.
However, we can’t pay you for four years, at
which time we will pay you in one lump sum.”
Source: Jason Cohen, http://blog.asmartbear.com/value-time.html
6. Bill Yourself $1500/hr
15% chance they exist and pay their bill
$150/hr ÷ 15% = $1000/hr
Add 10% annual premium for making you wait
$1000 × 1.14 ≈ $1500/hr
7. The Extremely Scientific Way
I Picked The Top 3 Challenges:
Would I pay someone $1500/hr if they
could solve this problem?
8. Separate Strategic and Tactical
We don’t often hear about HR as a core challenge
in startups, but when we do, we hear these:
• Recruiting
• Development
• Project Management
These are tactical issues, not strategic ones!!
9. The 3 Most Critical Challenges
• Personality
• Transparency
• The Why Forward
12. Where is it a critical problem?
• Groupthink in hiring decisions
• Groupthink in product decisions
• Groupthink in marketing decisions
• Just about everywhere else…
13. It is Often Oversimplified
Because we are most comfortable with people
that think like us
social circles and industry groups end up with
skewed distributions
14. We are surrounded by like people
(Using the MBTI Indicator, we see some interesting things)
General Population Software Engineering Industry
"TJ"
Other Other
"TJ"
"FP"
"FP"
Source: Capretz, LF, Personality types in software engineering,
Department of Electrical an Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario
15. Ask Yourself:
How likely is it, that your customers and/or
market have the same personality breakdown as
your company?
16. Tactics to Overcome Problem Areas
Marketing Customer Personas
Customer Support & Sales Customer Profiles
UX Design Verify & Mouseflow
Product Management Customer Shadows
30. Speed is Critically Important
In a startup, you have limited time. Use the
highway analogy – you’ll see why.
You’re in a car, travelling from A to B (100 miles away). You
hit traffic and it takes you an hour to travel ½ way, how
fast do you need to go for the last part of the trip to
average 100 mph?
Answer: It’s impossible – you’d have to teleport instantly
31. To Solve for Transparency We Need To…
• Determine the right level of sharing
• Adjust that level as the company grows
38. Early Team Members are Flag-Bearers
• Formal On-Boarding
• Articulating Company Values
• Championing Your Culture
If you can help them understand the “why”, they
can take care of the rest.
40. To Drive The Why Forward We Need To…
• Figure out the “why” for ourselves
• Share it with the team
• Trust them to run with it
41. The 3 Most Critical HR Challenges
• Personality (distribution, conflict & mirror)
• Transparency (identify level & adjust)
• The Why Forward (identify & communicate)
42. Feel free to connect at joseph@tribehr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/josephfung
http://www.twitter.com/josephfung
Photo Credits
Brain Hue Collection - http://www.flickr.com/people/lapolab/
White Vinegar - www.flickr.com/people/mgrimord/
Wrestling - http://www.flickr.com/people/slagheap/
Flow_Charts - http://www.flickr.com/people/reactionphotography/
Milestone - http://www.flickr.com/people/mdesive/
Notes de l'éditeur
We’re aware of what this means from a recruiting perspective (and we try to involve advisors) but we don’t always think about it beyond that annecdote
“If Apple was like everyone else a marketing message might be: We make great computers. They’re user friendly. Want to buy one? …Here’s how Apple actually communicates: everything we do, We believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?”“The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have, the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.” So start with why instead of what when you are rethinking your marketing strategy, and this flip can change how people think about your company and why they should do business with you. This applies directly to HR and team leadership
Look at the Zappos website…
Note that nowhere on this page is anything that says “we sell shoes”