The Restaurant Analogy
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From ages 16 to 23, I spent a great deal of time working in restaurants. I cooked, washed dishes, waited tables, bartended, and even bounced.
I worked at a beachside snack bar, an “old money” country club, an Irish pub, a small cafe, and a new age fine-dining restaurant. Most importantly, I worked at some restaurants that were utterly dysfunctional, and others that were surprisingly productive.
These jobs taught me more about teamwork, customers, products, and humanity than any other education or work experience. I’ve heard other people refer to service industry experience as a positive indicator for potential hires, and I definitely agree.
Interestingly, a restaurant provides a useful analogy for a software company.
Let’s start by walking through the who’s who:
- Host/hostess: marketing
- Servers: sales
- Bussers: customer support
- Sommelier: Community
- Chef: Design
- Expeditor: Product manager
- Line cooks: Engineering
- Dishwashers: QA
- GM: CEO
Now, if you’ve ever worked in a restaurant you know that the interests of these different parties are often misaligned.
Here’s how it looks in your somewhat-typical, less-than-functional restaurant:
The servers (sales) make big tips for selling food made by the line cooks (engineering) and designed by the chefs (design). The host (marketing) provides the incredibly important initial touch-point with every single customer, but often garners little respect from the rest of the organization.
Without the dishwashers (QA), service would literally stop – but you wouldn’t know it if you saw how the dishwashers (QA) get treated. The sommelier (community) can seem like this over-paid, charitable role that doesn’t impact the core product or even the bottom line.
When the chefs (design) ask that the haricot verts lie on the plate perpendicular to the lamb lollipops, the line cooks (engineering) don’t respect why such a pedantic detail matters. When the line cooks (engineering) explain that they sell 45 orders of lamb lollipops an hour and an extra 10 seconds of plating time will break down the whole process, the chefs (design) don’t listen.
The expeditor (product) sits between the servers (sales) and the line cooks (engineering). When food comes out late, the expeditor (sales) hammers down on the line cooks (engineering) – who might fire back by saying prioritization was mis-aligned.
Each server (sales) is focused on pleasing his or her customers above all else – so if the expeditor (product) plays favorites or prioritizes the most vocal servers (sales), then the line cooks (engineering) might be giving disproportionate attention to certain customer needs for no good reason.
If an item runs out, it’s the expeditor’s role to make sure everyone on the front lines hears the “86" call before they start selling a product the restaurant no longer has.
Servers (sales) work for tips (commission), so they are singularly focused on delivering service and up-selling the customers in their section. When another server is swamped, there’s little incentive to help out. When a server screws up, the easiest way to save their tip is to blame the kitchen. If the server (sales) promises something the kitchen (product/engineering) can’t deliver, they’ll threaten the loss of an important customer if it doesn’t get figured out.
The bussers (customer support) are on the front lines with the servers, but tend to be vastly under-utilized.
The kitchen (product/design) likely thinks of the servers (sales) as slimy deal-makers with no respect for their craft.
The GM can give pep talks and yell at people, but without true leadership, these problems won’t improve.
How it could be
Are you horrified yet? Here’s the other side of the coin. Sometimes, a restaurant functions like a beautiful, well-oiled machine. It’s a special, unforgettable experience to be a part of, and the key factor in making this happen is respect.
If the GM (CEO) can lead by example and instill a culture of respect, it can go a long way.
If the servers (sales) respect one another, they’ll help out without solely focusing on their own tips. If the servers respect the kitchen, the food will come out faster and the last-minute product changes will be less contentious. If the kitchen (product/design/engineering) respects the servers (sales), they won’t end up with customers being promised things the business can’t deliver.
When chefs, line cooks, and expeditors (design, engineering, and product) can create a culture of empathy amongst one another, they can make the best possible products for the customers without compromising on speed or quality.
When the dishwashers (QA) are respected as the truly integral piece of the team that they are, they hustle along with the rest of the organization. Same goes for the host/hostess (marketing).
When you consider that having a good sommelier (community) is an investment in your customers’ understanding of food and wine and how they pair together – and that in the long run it’s key to the company’s success – suddenly the somm is a valued member of the team.
And the bussers (customer support), being on the floor interacting with customers constantly, can be hugely valuable if given the opportunity to weigh in and contribute to serving (sales) and expediting (product).
Anyone who has been a part of a restaurant with a culture of respect like this can attest that it’s a beautiful thing. It becomes an ecosystem of symbiotic functions, that all coordinate together toward common goals.
The same goes for a startup. So if there’s one thing you can do to improve your company’s culture, productivity, and performance, it’s this: create a culture of mutual respect.
I think in both restaurants and sales-driven startups, there are interesting opportunities to redefine compensation structure in a way that facilitates this respect, but if it’s not driven by culture then these changes won’t help.
