5 Ways To Make Sure Groupthink Doesn’t Kill Your Startup.
Collaborizm — our early stage virtual incubator — has now collected data from over 600 Start up and Enterprise projects, and we’ve learned some pretty astonishing things about how Groupthink dramatically undermines a startup team’s ability to progress. GroupThink is much like the “reality distortion layer” described by Benjamin Yoskovitz and Alistair Croll in Lean Analytics as, the small lies you need to believe in order “to survive the inevitable rollercoaster ride of running your startup.”
Today we’re happy to publish an article covering 5 core ways to remove yourself and your team (at least temporarily) from GroupThink, A.K.A., the Reality Distortion Layer.
[1] Get Your Product Specs Reviewed by an Outsider
Someone on the outside needs to review your specs. You probably think they are well thought out (and they probably are), however, our data shows approximately 92% of project plans benefit from outside advice.
Our Data to Back this Up:
- 92% of Launch Specifications are too large; this is often due to the fact that entrepreneurs fear “the market” will think their product isn’t ready unless it’s a fully finished product…no one’s V1 is final! Outside minds can help to flip that perspective by helping narrow down which features are essential for an MVP so that the product and its features are tested incrementally.
- 85% of Outsiders shed light on issues that the internal team did not notice, or did not want to notice…it’s critical to have an Outsider “call you out” because if you don’t, “the market” will (you’d rather squash an issue before that stage).
[2] Get your Tech Stack Reviewed by Outside Experts
Senior developers/engineers on the outside need to review your tech stack and technical architecture because of the following equation:
EXPERT OUTSIDE KNOWLEDGE = YEARS OF COST + TIME SAVINGS = REAL, SERIOUS, PAIN SAVED.
- 1 informed outside senior engineer is ~10 years of work knowledge.
- 2 minds is 20 years worth of knowledge.
- 5 minds is 50 years worth of knowledge.
- …it’s real leverage to access outside minds…, it can save you years of pain and hundreds of thousands of dollars, to simply vet your implementation before you build it.
Find senior engineers from different industries to review your implementation. What are you waiting for?
[3] Review your Team (Strengths AND Weaknesses)
Who is your team? Do you have one?
Have you objectively plotted out strengths and weaknesses of your core team members?
Are internal loyalties built in to your decision making? eg…We’ve seen CEO’s favor people loyal to them and ignore those peoples’ weaknesses, causing inefficiencies and failure.
Review your team carefully. If you don’t have the resources to hire more people, then you need to set goals and benchmarks as to when you target to fix/correct those weaknesses.
[4] Core Execution — Does the Product Really make Sense?
Ask Yourself:
Have you run the strategy by outsiders?
Do you make every person sign an NDA to hear your idea? (You’re that sensitive to exposing your “precious” idea?)
Do you fear someone could rip your idea off?
Advice: Don’t. Fear. Exposing. Your. Idea. It’s the only 100% fail safe method to kill your startup. Get feedback. Find the logical flaws in your business plan, because odds are, they are there. Might as well find em fast.
[5] The Actually Exercise.
We’ve learned that the word “actually” has an effect on the brain. It creates a temporary hack to better perceive reality, if even for just a few moments.
Again, it’s a drill.
- But ask yourself…will your plan actually work?
- Is this product actually going to be 10 times better to beat out competition and methodologies for achieving a similar goal?
- Jot down your thoughts…and see what comes up.
Entrepreneurship always, sadly, or not so sadly, comes down to the Actually. It’s the interfacing with reality. All successful entrepreneurs are reality engineers; they don’t make stuff up. They solve a real problem with a realistic and powerful solution.
This piece is the first segment in Collaborizm’s Defeat Groupthink Series for Startups and Enterprise. To learn more about Collaborizm visit www.collaborizm.com/hire or email me (CEO) at steven@collaborizm.com.
