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

© 2016 Jobfully LLC

SCOPE OF THE TALK


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


BUILDING AHIGH PERFORMING

TEAM


Your Plan – Founding Stage

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

© 2016 Jobfully LLCwww.comicvine.com

BruceWayne

DianaPrince

superfriends.wikia.com/wiki/Wonder_Woman

Your Plan – Seed Stage

screenrant.com© 2016 Jobfully LLC

Your Plan – Growth Stage and Beyond

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What Actually Happens

kittensin.blogspot.comwww.desktopnexus.com

sensevista.com

Building an average team is easy.

Building a high-performing team is hard.


What’s wrong withaverage

?


Average startups die.


90% of startups fail.

RECRUITING===

TEAM BUILDING ?false


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


Building a Team… is a Process

What it looks like

•Attract

•Recruit

•Retain

•Perform

•Refer

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

AARRR

Convert


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


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


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

Build-Measure-Learn


http://www.agileacademy.co/

Team

Practices


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


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


THE STARTING POINTBEST PRACTICES

Aim for excellence (top 10%), not average


Attraction

Recruitment

Retention

Performance

Referrals

Pre-Hiring

Post-Hiring

Coefficient

Hire


PRE-HIRINGAre you getting the right candidates?

Do the right candidates want to join you?


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


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


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


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


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


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)”


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


POST-HIRINGDo people stay?

Does the team perform?


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


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


Getting the Team to Perform. How?

(now that’s the million dollar question)


Getting the Team to Perform. How?

(now that’s the billion dollar question)


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


Constant effort

Blind spots


On-goingbuild-measure-learn

makes iteasier and smarter


WHAT ABOUTCULTURE

???Culture permeates everything


Your culture manifests itselfin ALL your decisions.


Your culture is rooted in the belief system

of the startup leader(s).


Want to have an awesome culture?

First, evaluate your ownbelief system.


MULTIPLIERSReferrals

Process and Infrastructure


Referrals Can Come from Anywhere

Referrals = Other people recruiting for you

•Employee referrals

•Network referrals

•Candidate referrals

•Job description referrals

•Stranger referrals


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


www.colourbox.comwww.hometalkies.com


Don’t do average.

Average startups fail.


To excel in building your startup team

isto survive


And…it starts with

YOU


How to find me

Mei Lu - [email protected]

linkedin.com/in/meiiam

@meiiam

www.Jobfully.com

www.Geekology.biz


mailto:[email protected]

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)


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

http://cmr.berkeley.edu/documents/sample_articles/2002_44_3_4776.pdf

https://hbr.org/2016/09/diverse-teams-feel-less-comfortable-and-thats-why-they-perform-better

https://s3.amazonaws.com/startupcompass-public/StartupGenomeReport2_Why_Startups_Fail_v2.pdf