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Unforced Management Errors

18 points by hackitup7 6y ago

op00to 6y ago
Yeah ok. The moral to this story is “don’t fuck up”. Would be great if that was realistic.
- ludamad 6y ago
  It does have a good point about "think hard about how to catch negative value actions" but yeah beyond that it's as realistic as the tennis metaphor
- 8organicbits 6y ago
  That wasn't my take away. > The most common is deciding to “fix” a problem that doesn’t matter, or that doesn’t exist at all. Don't fix things that aren't broken. > The general solution to unforced errors is to ruthlessly prioritize.
  - staysaasy 6y ago
    OP here, thanks for reading! You hit the nail on the head. Put more casually, there are a lot of startup problems that arise due to people fiddling around with stuff that should have just been left alone (I always picture my parents yelling at my siblings and I as kids to "stop touching that"). In many cases, attempting to fix a problem is strictly worse for your startup's health than not touching things at all.
Terretta 6y ago
Some Unsolicited Constructive Feedback, because I really like the premise of this blog. On this article, great title w/o being click-bait, but text is more of a shower thought. On the sibling article ‘Three Type of Management Problems’ suggests a framework, while the article is a bit of a ramble. Feedback on these and future content would be to start with a bit more structure and then flesh out the article. For instance, if doing a framework article, open with the framework, then spend a section on each point of the framework, then weave it back together and restate it at the end. Finally, “A guide to scaling product & engineering teams from $0 to past $100M ARR.” is a great hook but makes one want to know which SaaS built the author’s chops. And the title “Stay SaaSy” suggests a sustainable SaaS over an exit-oriented SaaS, which would be an uncommon and very welcome angle. Maybe touch a bit more on the connection between title, slug, and article content, within the articles. One random idea: guest guidance from founder/owners of SaaS that have been in business more than a decade w/o VC or exit route.

18 points by hackitup7 6y ago

op00to 6y ago

Yeah ok. The moral to this story is “don’t fuck up”. Would be great if that was realistic.

ludamad 6y ago
It does have a good point about "think hard about how to catch negative value actions" but yeah beyond that it's as realistic as the tennis metaphor
8organicbits 6y ago
That wasn't my take away. > The most common is deciding to “fix” a problem that doesn’t matter, or that doesn’t exist at all. Don't fix things that aren't broken. > The general solution to unforced errors is to ruthlessly prioritize.
- staysaasy 6y ago
  OP here, thanks for reading! You hit the nail on the head. Put more casually, there are a lot of startup problems that arise due to people fiddling around with stuff that should have just been left alone (I always picture my parents yelling at my siblings and I as kids to "stop touching that"). In many cases, attempting to fix a problem is strictly worse for your startup's health than not touching things at all.

Terretta 6y ago

Some Unsolicited Constructive Feedback, because I really like the premise of this blog. On this article, great title w/o being click-bait, but text is more of a shower thought. On the sibling article ‘Three Type of Management Problems’ suggests a framework, while the article is a bit of a ramble. Feedback on these and future content would be to start with a bit more structure and then flesh out the article. For instance, if doing a framework article, open with the framework, then spend a section on each point of the framework, then weave it back together and restate it at the end. Finally, “A guide to scaling product & engineering teams from $0 to past $100M ARR.” is a great hook but makes one want to know which SaaS built the author’s chops. And the title “Stay SaaSy” suggests a sustainable SaaS over an exit-oriented SaaS, which would be an uncommon and very welcome angle. Maybe touch a bit more on the connection between title, slug, and article content, within the articles. One random idea: guest guidance from founder/owners of SaaS that have been in business more than a decade w/o VC or exit route.