building startup teams for the win mei_lu

BUILDINGYOUR STARTUP TEAM

FOR THE WINMei Lu

Jobfully.com | Geekology.biz

About Me

Geekology

•Technical talent advisory and solutions (training and consulting) for growth startups

Jobfully

•Job and career coaching for software engineers and developers

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SCOPE OF THE TALK

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Stages of Tech Startups

• Founding• Prod team: 1-3

• Seed• Prod team: 3-10

• Growth• Prod team: 10-30

• Expansion• Prod team: 30-100ish

• Pre-IPO• Prod team: a whole bunch of people

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BUILDING AHIGH PERFORMING

TEAM

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Your Plan – Founding Stage

www.pinterest.com/fungiexpress/illustration-comic/

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BruceWayne

DianaPrince

superfriends.wikia.com/wiki/Wonder_Woman

Your Plan – Seed Stage

screenrant.com© 2016 Jobfully LLC

Your Plan – Growth Stage and Beyond

http://dc.wikia.com/ © 2016 Jobfully LLC

What Actually Happens

kittensin.blogspot.comwww.desktopnexus.com

sensevista.com

Building an average team is easy.

Building a high-performing team is hard.

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What’s wrong withaverage

?

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Average startups die.

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90% of startups fail.

RECRUITING===

TEAM BUILDING ?false

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Building a Team… is a Process

Before you start -

•Identify business goals that can’t be achieved with the current team

•Define the role(s) to best meet business goals

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Building a Team… is a Process

What it looks like

•Attract

•Recruit

•Retain

•Perform

•Refer

(Hint – Think “growth hacking”)© 2016 Jobfully LLC

AARRR

Convert

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Mei’s Startup Team Metrics

How do candidates find you?

Do candidates have a great experience?

Do people stay?

Is the team creating value for the business?

Do people tell others?

Hire

AttractRecruitRetain

PerformRefer

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Building a Team… Measuring Success

How do candidates find you?

Do candidates have a great experience?

Do people stay?

Is the team creating value for the business?

Do people tell others?

Hire

AttractRecruitRetain

PerformRefer

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Image: http://blog.goyello.com/

Build-Measure-Learn

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http://www.agileacademy.co/

Team

Practices

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Build-Measure-Learn

•Start with best practices – learn from other people’s mistakes

•Measure and learn what works for you

•Establish your own best practices

•Don’t stop measuring and learning – continuously improve

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Attraction

Recruitment

Retention

Performance

Referrals

Measure:• % of people

advancing• Value & cost

per person

Learn:• What made

them stay?• What didn’t

they like?

Measure:• % of people

leaving• Value & cost

per person

Learn:• What made

them leave?• What did

they like?

Mei’s Lean Startup Team Metrics:Build-Measure-Learn

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THE STARTING POINTBEST PRACTICES

Aim for excellence (top 10%), not average

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Attraction

Recruitment

Retention

Performance

Referrals

Pre-Hiring

Post-Hiring

Coefficient

Hire

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PRE-HIRINGAre you getting the right candidates?

Do the right candidates want to join you?

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Look for People Who Thrive in Startups

•T-shaped skills

•Pragmatic (prioritizing business impact)

•Comfortable with unknown and ambiguity

•Quick and eager learner

•Get things done w/ limited resources

•Ownership

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Avoid Startup Killers at All Costs

•“Not my job”

•Lack of business mindset

•Dogmatic

•Needs lots of structure

•Resists change and learning

•Can’t get things done differently

•Victimship – the opposite of ownership

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How to Hire: Henry Ward, CEO of eShares

Hiring Principles:

• Hiring means we failed or will fail to execute and need help

• Startup employee effectiveness follows a power law

• False Positives are ok, False Negatives are not

• Culture is defined by who we hire

Hiring Heuristics:

• Hire for Strength vs Lack of Weakness

• Hire for Trajectory vs Experience

• Hire Doers vs Tellers

• Hire Learners vs Experts

• Hire Different vs Similar

• Always pass on ego

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https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-hire-34f4ded5f176

How to Hire: Henry Ward + Mei’s Mods

Hiring Principles:

• Hiring means we failed or will fail to execute and need help

• Startup employee effectiveness follows a power law

• False Positives are ok, False Negatives are not (i.e. look for hidden gems)

• Culture is defined by who we hire

Hiring Heuristics:

• Hire for Strength vs Lack of Weakness

• Hire for Trajectory vs Experience

• Hire Doers vs Tellers

• Hire Learners vs Experts

• Hire Different vs Similar

• Always pass on ego

• Hire to Lead vs Delegate

Hire for Future vs Past

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What Do Candidates Want?•Career-defining experience – know their career

aspirations

•Opportunities to apply under-utilized talents – to prove themselves

• Interesting and challenging work

•A great candidate experience – seek validation

•A leader they believe in

•A vision & mission they can stand behind

•Business traction

Thinking long(er) term

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Candidate Sources

•Your existing network

•Your new connections – grow your network

•Right job boards (AngelList, Hacker News, Reddit, GeekWire, etc.)

•Personally proactively seek out “the one(s)”

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Easy

Hard

Selling Your Startup

•Have a clear, concise, repeatable message

•Know what you uniquely offer

•Make it easy to reach you

•Don’t out-source relationships

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POST-HIRINGDo people stay?

Does the team perform?

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Why Do People Stay?

•Things they were looking for during pre-hiring –promises kept

•Recognition – contribution confirmation

•Harmonious relationships with co-workers –respectful and collaborative

•Sense of progress – personal and company-wise

•On board with leadership’s decisions -transparency

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Why Do People Stay?

•“My opinions matter” – voice being valued and heard

•Career and personal growth – learning and development

•Visible impact – measurable results of effort

•Performance management / reward system that makes sense

•Compatible with personal life

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Getting the Team to Perform. How?

(now that’s the million dollar question)

© 2016 Jobfully LLC

Getting the Team to Perform. How?

(now that’s the billion dollar question)

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What Does It Take?

A Good Starting Point:

•Always connect business goals to daily activities

•A well thought out performance managementand reward system

•Cultivate intrinsic motivationAutonomy

Mastery

Purpose

Drive:The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Usby Daniel Pink

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EXECUTIONis

HARD.

Why?© 2016 Jobfully LLC

Constant effort

Blind spots

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On-goingbuild-measure-learn

makes iteasier and smarter

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WHAT ABOUTCULTURE

???Culture permeates everything

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Your culture manifests itselfin ALL your decisions.

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Your culture is rooted in the belief system

of the startup leader(s).

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Want to have an awesome culture?

First, evaluate your ownbelief system.

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MULTIPLIERSReferrals

Process and Infrastructure

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Referrals Can Come from Anywhere

Referrals = Other people recruiting for you

•Employee referrals

•Network referrals

•Candidate referrals

•Job description referrals

•Stranger referrals

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Basic

Advanced

Process and Infrastructure

•Make build-measure-learn do-able

•Enable targeted improvements to generate most business impacts possible

•Increase the efficiency and speed of building a high-performing team

•Low hanging fruit w/ high ROI if done right

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www.colourbox.comwww.hometalkies.com

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Don’t do average.

Average startups fail.

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To excel in building your startup team

isto survive

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And…it starts with

YOU

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How to find me

Mei Lu - mei@jobfully.com

linkedin.com/in/meiiam

@meiiam

www.Jobfully.com

www.Geekology.biz

© 2016 Jobfully LLC

Further Exploration• How To Hire Engineers: Step 0, What To Look For

(https://jocelyngoldfein.com/how-to-hire-engineers-step-0-what-to-look-for-85ae44bf0a1c)

• Organizational Blueprints for Success in High-Tech Start-Ups: Lessons from the Stanford Project on Emerging Companies (http://cmr.berkeley.edu/documents/sample_articles/2002_44_3_4776.pdf)

• Diverse Teams Feel Less Comfortable — and That’s Why They Perform Better (https://hbr.org/2016/09/diverse-teams-feel-less-comfortable-and-thats-why-they-perform-better)

• Startup Genome Report Extra on Premature Scaling (https://s3.amazonaws.com/startupcompass-public/StartupGenomeReport2_Why_Startups_Fail_v2.pdf)

© 2016 Jobfully LLC