structure, product, service, teamMany books have been written about Lean Start-ups, Y-Combinator, Incubators, UX, Agile and various other philosophical approaches and ideas that the modern entrepreneur needs to be familiar with.
I was wondering if there is a much simpler way to look at it in terms of the type of team/structure you need depending on the product or service you want to provide. Perhaps it has already been covered in these previous discussions, so there should be something generic that has been distilled from past experiences and successful models?
For example, looking at KickStarter projects, there is sometimes a link between the type of project, the funds requested and the delivery time, and I assume this would be related to the team structure in some way?
The simplest answer to this, which you have hit on already, is the issue of product-market fit. Lean, Y-Combinator, incubators, Agile, and most UX stuff are all focused on one idea: release quickly, iterate until you figure out what the customer wants, then iterate until it works (i.e., is profitable).
Team structure and size should be driven by this same process. Until you know what your product (or service) really is, you can’t possibly know exactly what team you require to make, sell, and deliver that product (or service).
In short, focus on getting a product out there, then grow your team as needed. Launching the product comes first; everything else is just conversation.
Don’t stick too much to the books. It’s all about the theory.
In the real life, at least at the begining of your project/company life, the most important thing you need is called “the common sense”…
It sounds simple but (too) often, it’s not so obvious.
Look at you product/service, look at the vital procedures, look at what can be outsourced, look at your budget, look at the HR administration, at the legal requirements (contracts,…),…
It’s good to have an idea about your team since the beginning but don’t lose the focus. Your first concern should be your customer, then your product/service and only then the “structure of your company”.
You can spend hours by reading “new management style” books but if then, you projects turns in failure (and, let’s be honest, it happens quite often in case of startup businesses), you will realize that “lean & co” are just tools and not a goal itself.
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