5 things I wish I knew before joining a hyper-growth company
When I joined Productboard with the goal of doubling the Engineering team each year, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. Pretty clear objective, right? Well, if only it had been that easy.
But as our Engineering team recently topped 100 people, I found myself looking back a bit on how we reached this impressive milestone. I realized there are a couple of things I really wished I had known or realized way sooner than I had. They would have made my life much easier and maybe I wouldn’t have consumed that much coffee during my first 28 months at Productboard. 🚀
So for all the startup recruiters out there, I’d like to save you some time (and caffeine overloads). I’ve put together a list of the five most crucial things I wish I knew before joining a hyper-growth company! 🙋🏼♀️
- Done is better than perfect. 💪
OK, folks. This one hurts. As a perfectionist with a (not so) slight obsession with to-do lists and an inbox with zero emails at the end of the day, this lesson has been the most painful one. But also really an important one. When joining an early-stage startup, you’ll have a huge workload and a ton of responsibilities. Things will move fast. You need to understand that there will always be more and more work to be done, more and more people to be hired, and more and more processes to be updated as you go. Sometimes, it’s better to let go of your idea of “perfect” and be happy that you have functional foundations that your team can build upon.
2. Documentation is everything! 📄
I’ve been seeing this one a lot in pretty much every tech article I’ve read throughout the years, and I can confirm that it’s equally as important for all People Ops processes and rules that we establish. I can’t live without Notion. I find it’s important to document the interview process and the people responsible for each step. Creating different guides about our hiring processes has been a lifesaver for me. Such detailed guides help a lot with asynchronous work. You don’t have to be glued to Zoom all the time, and they work especially well while working with a team across different time zones, too.
3. People will leave, and that’s OK. 🙏
Joining a company where everyone knows everyone, and colleagues quickly become friends, it’s sometimes hard to let people go. Productboard is growing so quickly that we need to deal with the fact that the size of the company that we’re approaching is not for everyone. And that’s OK. As long as you part with employees on good terms, and they learned a lot during their time at your company, then you should be happy for them and be rooting for them from the sidelines. (But sometimes this is easier said than done — so Maurice, if you’re reading this, I miss you, friend!)
4. Don’t try and do everything yourself. 🙊
Where are all my fellow people-pleasers and perfectionists at?! After I joined Productboard, I thought I had to be the strongest, most put-together person who knew the answers to everything. It turned out that this strategy sucked. I quickly found out that if you work well within your own team and establish some allies on other teams, life’s so much easier! For example, when we were setting up new scalable interview processes, I received so much help from our engineers. I think real power involves togetherness and collaborating. So when, for example, you don’t know something or get thrown on a new project, there is no shame in sitting down to brainstorm with someone with more experience. It’s OK. There’s no nobility in suffering. Oftentimes, it’s really counterproductive to try to figure everything out by yourself.
5. It’s going to be hard, but it’s SOOOO worth it! 🚀
Startups are hard. Hyper-growth ones? I think they’re even harder. You live in constant change and from time to time are under immense pressure. But the outcome? It’s so worth it and SO incredibly rewarding. For me, being able to see a company grow from not even 80 people to more than 350 in roughly two years has been amazing. I’ve been a part of so many new company processes. I love how we all strive to communicate better together, to learn from each other, and to build this awesome company and business together. I can’t imagine a better place to work — both from a professional level as well as a personal one.
I'm curious to hear all your stories, too! Feel free to ping me, let's connect and talk. 🎉
