Seven counts of a start-up team

As one of the testers who have worked in mobile internet startups, the author has experienced many entrepreneurial projects, and also worked with various entrepreneurs for a while, and has seen some attitudes towards products from internet start-ups or entrepreneurial teams. There are many successful entrepreneurial teams in the country to create a user favorite products, but have to say, some may be called "common problems" still exist in many domestic start-up companies. The following seven "guilt" does not exist in all entrepreneurial teams, but it is also the author as a tester for the real feelings of the entrepreneurial team.

The following seven "guilt" is only the author from the point of view of a tester, there is a description of the wrong place please ignore.

1. The difference between the team and the company

Many creative ideas to put into practice, there will always be a lot of unexpected setbacks, a start-up company may initially be a 35-person group of entrepreneurs. In a start-up team of only a few or more than 10 people, many resources are limited to a certain extent. It is possible that a team member needs to complete the work required of two or three normal positions, while members of several start-up teams who are co-founder are not strictly subordinate to each other at the beginning of the project. So it can be said that at the beginning of the start-up project is a passion and a common dream to support the team to continue to go on. When it comes to an entrepreneurial company, there are problems that don't exist in a team of several people, and these problems can even have a profound impact.

Leader and boss may be the obvious difference between a start-up team and a start-up company.

As a leader of a start-up team, it is not only to point the way forward for the entire team, but also to work with team members, to encourage each other in the team, and to collaborate with all members. After all, a start-up team in the early days of entrepreneurship by the Passion and dreams to support everyone to continue to go on, of course, this is also the capital from the angel investors support, but the whole team needs to have a common goal. A team leader is really essential, but the leader needs to work with other members, rather than setting the general direction on the high side, posing a bossy posture in front of other team members without any benefit to the team. Once the team leader prematurely posing as boss, the distance between the team members is also in the invisible, disunity team can not make the whole team efficiency maximization.

As a start-up company boss, the role played by nature also needs some changes, but some of the most important qualities should not be discarded. In addition to having a strong insight and the entire industry (specifically the Internet or mobile internet industry), the unique vision of the market, entrepreneurial boss should not deliberately with the company's other employees to open up a larger distance, whether physical or psychological. When one version of a company's product succeeds or a product's user reaches a new high, an encouraging email is necessary for the boss, but not enough. Imagine a scenario where a five-person team finished a product with the first user, in a cramped cubicle, with five bowls of instant noodles and a few bottles of beer on the table. Such scenarios will never appear in startups, but what is needed most after getting results is to make every member of the company realize how much value they have created for the user as a member of the entire start-up company, and to identify the achievements and challenges that will be faced. However, many start-up employees get more just empty encouragement and illusory outlook, can not let employees understand the real situation of the company's products can not improve employee loyalty to the company, in this case the entrepreneurial staff is often less cohesive than several people's entrepreneurial team. There are many differences between the entrepreneurial team and the start-up, but there are too many things that startups should not abandon. From the team to the company is a difficult process, but the passion and dream of entrepreneurship throughout the process should not be abandoned, from members of the team to the company's employees, passion and dreams should not fade away.

Politics is a problem in some startups, and I think that's one of the most damaging problems for startups. The power struggles within the company will always have one or several victims, and the process of struggle has greatly weakened the company's overall strength. The full focus of entrepreneurship should be on products rather than positions and power. In fact, the power struggle is a common problem in many companies, and then the results in startups are often devastating.

2. Make products for yourself rather than users

This will happen not only in startups but also in other Internet companies. Products are always generated for the needs of users, not for developers themselves. The most common manifestations of this problem in startups are the following:

Not enough user research at the beginning of the product

The product development process lacks the special user to express the opinion to the product prototype

No sufficient user feedback was collected after the product was online

Shoot the head and make the product

The first three points due to the company's resource constraints, not all companies can be completed, but the necessary work or should be done in place, however, "Pat head to do products" is typical for their own products. I have had a similar experience, several people after a night of brainstorming, decided to start a product, without the necessary user research and market research to start research and development. Six months after the product on line, the user reflects flat, did not achieve the original expected effect, and eventually the whole project stopped ending. In the whole project development process, a large number of human resources into which, resulting in the online continuous updating of the products are forced to stagnate, the impact of which can not be measured.

The so-called brainstorming, after drawing some preliminary ideas should be done to the target user base to do the necessary research, if the O2O products should also be related to market demand and other relevant studies. However, some entrepreneurial teams are often ill with the problem of desperately, "Pat head to do products" phenomenon is very common. The most common words to hear in brainstorming are: I think users will like ... I think the user is used to doing this ... I think users will be interested in such products and so on. Can not be implemented to the user's needs, also can not make users need products. For the entrepreneurial team, even if the time is tight, the necessary steps should not be omitted, but also to recognize a point: the use of products is a variety of users, not just the office of the few people.

3. Product process is not standard

This problem in the entrepreneurial team can not be avoided, because of the lack of human resources, a few people to complete the work need a person to complete, so the process is not so much attention. But the start-up company is different, the necessary post will guarantee the personnel to be complete, the staff also all performs their duties, therefore in the start-up company product flow is extremely important.

How to capture the needs of users

The author used to work as a tester in a mobile internet start-up company, and the developer submitted the test after completing a version, which did not mention the location of the new version, the test points, the possible test cases, and so on, just give the new version of the installation package. Even some versions are directly online without testing and are tested and released after receiving feedback from users. The process of testing this loop is already confusing, and it's hard to imagine what's going on in other links. Standard product flow is a key to ensure product quality, strengthen coordination among departments and improve overall efficiency, no matter what internet companies should have a set of standard product flow.

4. Lack of awareness of crisis

A wrong idea is often found in the Internet startups, is that if I do not have a small number of users of this product, then the problem does not matter, anyway, the number of users affected. To know that for a product with tens users, a small problem will affect a large number of users and even irreparable damage. For entrepreneurial companies, product quality is a need to ensure a link. Regardless of the number of users of the product, product quality standards can not be reduced, to know that a small problem may have long been the list and channel to promote the efforts of the wasted. Many times startups do not understand the impact of a slight problem in a product on the user, in fact, for some of the more demanding users, a mobile phone application of a typo will leave a bad impression on such users, Because of this small detail can be seen in the developer's attitude towards this product and the user's attitude. Such a small problem will have such a large impact on users, not to mention an application in the process of using the flash-back.

Crisis awareness needs to be nurtured by all the employees in a start-up, not just a QA or product manager. Although the company can not guarantee that every employee is a heavy user of the company's products, but the use of products in the process of any problems encountered should be timely feedback to the relevant personnel to ensure that the problem can be positioned and repaired the first time. Users in the use of feedback information also needs to be given a high degree of attention, found to affect the user's use of product defects need to study the solution in a timely manner. For startups, every little flaw in a product should be treated as a "small crisis". Unfortunately, too many small problems are marked as delay, leading to more serious problems later.

5. No brain mimicry

As a Chinese feature, Shanzhai is ubiquitous in various industries, and internet start-ups are also hard to escape. For example, a burst of foreign hot after the reading of the burning application Snapchat in the country quickly have clicks, run the letter and second beat and other imitators. And in hit's crazy guess chart is also borrowed from foreign a similar game. A plethora of similar applications appear in front of the user, as if the word "innovation" in the domestic sense can be understood as a copy of creativity and adopt different interface styles and manifestations to produce the so-called "new product."

For startups, imitation is not scary, and the scary thing is no brain mimicry. The success of a foreign product, with a specific country's user composition, user habits, market characteristics and consumption forms have a close relationship, no brain imitation can be the product of the form of plagiarism, but could not replicate the use of product users and market characteristics.

Take the "monthly subscription" service For example, the service can be welcomed abroad, not only with the income level of foreign users, consumption habits also played a decisive role. Foreign users generally use credit card consumption, monthly subscription mode from the user's credit card automatically cut the corresponding costs and mail products for users, so that users create a very smooth consumption experience, to avoid the monthly payment of manual payments pressure. and credit card in the domestic popularity degree is not like abroad, most users are accustomed to using card for credit card consumption, so the "monthly order" service model in the country is not as hot as expected. Because different regions of users have differences, no brain imitation is not necessarily can "success" also imitate. Just consider the presentation and ignore user habits and potential business models, waiting for the results of the founders to fail.

6. Blind Trial and error

Trial and error in the Internet start-up companies are unavoidable, but can not blindly carry out the process, the cost of trial and error also need to consider. This problem often with the "head to do products" together, in the formulation of a project's preliminary plan to consider insufficiently comprehensive, always think that there are plenty of time and resources to try the wrong, a big deal to give up the project and start a new one. No wonder in the whole project cycle, a large number of human and material resources into the output should not be due, input and output is not proportional. So try it wrong, it is not to take the money of investors.

In the start-up company, a project in the initial stage will always have a lot of uncertainties, trial and error is unavoidable. However, a risk assessment of these uncertainties is needed in the formulation of projects, especially if such a project is of value to the user. Blind trial and error brings a lot of waste of human resources, the ultimate waste is the capital of investors and the valuable time of the start-up company, the end is the user's trust and loyalty.

7. Lack of incentive mechanisms

The incentive mechanism is essential in a start-up or start-up company, as mentioned earlier. When achieving the results of the time to give staff a certain degree of encouragement, so that employees are clear at this stage has been achieved and the next to face the difficulties. And in the presence of problems, we should summarize the reasons in time to avoid the same problems. Many startups, however, disagree with the incentive mechanism, thinking that entrepreneurship is hard work and no need for extra stuff. But as I said before, five bowls of instant noodles and a dozen beers are simple enough to be inspiring, far more authentic than a good Job in a mass mailing.

When it comes to incentive mechanisms, you have to mention team Building. It is no exaggeration to say that this word is far away from me, the last time Team Building had no idea what year it was. The TB process is not just to sit around and eat and talk for a day, but it's more important to be able to use an opportunity like this to increase the cohesion of the team, to celebrate the stages of success or to summarize the lessons of failure. Especially for the entrepreneurial team, it will be more difficult to go on, and it will require the entire team to have clear goals, firm convictions and a common vision, and TB is an opportunity for these goals, beliefs and ideals to take root in every member's heart. Without the necessary incentives, the team becomes disunity, and it's hard to imagine a team that can make a good product.