When you start a startup with a few like-minded co-founders and work blindly, you start to see little by little results, but at the same time, you start to feel inadequate about yourself and your team. I feel like I have to do this and that in order to grow. Sometimes I'm not sure what to do or how to do it, but I want to learn and apply what famous places are doing.
There are pitfalls to fall into at this time. There are products made by big tech companies or startups whose names you might recognize, and the temptation is that if you introduce them, problems will go away. How many unverified consultants are there really? For example, among the consultants who are OKR experts in Korea, I have yet to meet anyone who has worked in an organization such as Google that has introduced OKR and achieved results, feeling its true value. However, they say that with OKR, an underperforming organization can be transformed into a performing organization. It's not just OKRs. Many methodologies are adopted by consultants, executives, and practitioners without proper understanding and fail. And I blame the methodology.
When I met CEOs of early-stage startups, many of them said they did not know much about these methodologies but had heard many good things about them, and they asked me to inform them. However, rather than being buried in these shiny-named methodologies, I started by asking more clearly what kind of pain I was experiencing now and what kind of results I wanted to achieve.
When we talk like that, we often find that we get better results just by sharing and agreeing on a few simple principles with our team members, rather than using shiny-named methodologies.
Management
“Say what you have to do, do it, and say you did it.” “Say you’ll do the thing, do the thing, say you did the thing.”
These are the basics of management and communication in a company. Organizations that do this well are fast and healthy. To do this well, we use Scrum, Kanban, and ticket management. Unless you understand this essence and take it as a principle, the work your employees do will not be posted in Jira, Asana, Linear, etc.
Organizations that say what needs to be done, do it, and get it done love this tool. For those of you who don't, here are 100 reasons why you shouldn't use this tool. People who say what they have to do, do it, and say they did it are treasured people.
Vision, mission, alignment
“Every employee knows what they need to do at work today before going to work.” “And I know why I should do it.”
Vision, Mission, and Alliance are actually for this. This is a way to achieve this consistently. If an employee is not sure what to do at work today before going to work in the morning or why he or she should do it, improving that is a priority. Vision and mission become necessary in the process.
If the vision and mission do not serve as a barometer in situations of conflict or difficult decisions within the organization, the speed of the organization falls apart. This state of not being actually used and remaining only as a good slogan is said to be out of alignment. “The state of knowing what to do and being clear about why I should do it” is the essence that should be pursued.
OKR, KPI, MBO
There is one thing that Korean IT companies are weak at. Leaders do not clearly define and share what constitutes performance. I didn't want to know either. However, this was the biggest difference between the corporate cultures of the United States and Korea that I experienced. I think it's because the culture is centered around conglomerates, but there are many CEOs and executives who understand the intention clearly and tell them to bring what they want.
Yes it is. There is nothing more toxic than introducing OKR/KPI/MBO in an organization that is not clear about what is considered performance. Is it possible to measure performance without knowing what the performance will be? I somehow racked my brain to come up with something, but the organization doesn't reward me or evaluate me even if I do well. It becomes something as bad as not having it. Did I waste some time again?
“Know what kind of game this business is and create a simple scoreboard.” “Let the players play while watching the score. If they win, there is a reward.”
This is the essence of performance management methodologies such as OKR, KPI, and MBO. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be OKR, KPI, or MBO. The clearer the characteristics of the business that the CEO and the team see and what strategy and execution they will use to win, the brighter this scoreboard shines. This makes it difficult to play without a scoreboard.
I gave the three examples above and told them not to get caught up in methodology, but to understand the essence and turn it into a concise principle. It is easy to lean on methodology. It is much harder to uncover the essence that can serve as a principle for the business and the organization. Still, I believe this can meaningfully reduce many of the growing pains early-stage founders go through. I hope it helps. Thank you.