We made a HUGE mistake
How to make it better?
IT was the spring of 2015. We had just launched a very early version of Floown, our platform that helps organizations always know who's available to work. It was limited, slow and unrefined; but it worked. Naturally we wanted to crack on, so we went out and looked for developers who could help us with the back-end. When we finally landed one he delivered us some bad news and some good news.
That current version you have out? Completely unscalable.
The next version you will have out? It has to be built from scratch, but it will be great.
As we wanted to scale our platform so we could also serve clients who work with more than a handful of workers, we had no choice but to throw away the old, and start building the new. That in itself wasn't so bad.
We came away with a bag full of lessons learned from our early alpha version, had the opportunity to overhaul the design and work with intense focus on the features that could actually make a difference for our customers.
With renewed energy we started re-designing and building, hoping we could launch a real version 1.0 in a matter of weeks, or at most a few months.
And that's when we made our biggest mistake to date.
In our ambition, hurry and —yes—inexperience, we went and basically hired the first people we encountered. Why? Because they seemed alright and able enough to help us out; and that's all we were really looking for we thought. As long as we could crack on and launch a way better product as soon as possible.
We were so focused on that goal that we completely forgot an important rule: first build a team, before you build a product.
It took us months to find out that we ended up doing neither.
We had a perfect product on paper, and in theory also enough manpower to build it. What happened though was that we ended up in endless discussions about who should do what, which people were more important, and what features should be built into the platform or not.
In the mean time, deadlines were missed, unrealistic expectations were created and the entire non-developing team was repeatedly preparing for launches that never came.
A pivotal moment arrived when we travelled to Hong Kong to attend RISE Conf. It was one of the first times we actually got away from the work environment we had been struggling in for so long. We finally had a chance to reflect on the last few months from a distance. Plus there was the hustle and bustle of the RISE Conf itself.
That mix gave us new perspectives, energy and inspiration. We met people at the conference who were battling with the same problems. We were confronted with questions about our vision, our team. We were forced to critically assess ourselves. And that's when we truly realized our mistake.
Upon returning home we parted ways with the people who didn't share our philosophy. That wasn't an easy decision, since you're basically throwing away your entire short-term. It factually left us without a proper team.
Still, we pulled through and re-shifted our focus to our original vision: to build an on-demand versatile team that truly believes in a future of work where people have multiple clients or employers. A team that believes in the platform we're trying to build, and more importantly, believes in the roadmap, decisions and actions of the founders.
It's a process that's still going on. We're constantly looking for the right people that fit our vision. Constantly working on forming a strong team, and not just a band of people who have certain skills. It’s a difficult and challenging process, but with a clear vision of where we want to go, it has gotten a lot easier.
And when you have a core team (supported by a few distributed on-demand heroes) in place that's fighting as hard for the vision as you are, you're less prone to make the same mistake again.
Currently we're in the middle of starting up pilots with our first batch of clients. Needless to say, that's very exciting. The fact that we're now in that phase proofs that we've been heading in the right direction for the last few months. And still are…
We're making great progress everyday, and everyday we become more happier with our platform; the way it looks, functions and feels. We're all proud to stand behind the platform and confident in sharing it with the outside world in the near future. We also can't wait to help our first pilot customers use it.
Although the success of the platform is not guaranteed, we're very confident that our team can make it a success. Mostly because our vision and culture are back on top of the priority list.
That doesn't mean our vision and team are perfect. We're still debating and uncovering our perspective of what Floown is and brings to our clients on a daily basis. We're still looking hard to make our team a more diverse, coherent and versatile group of people.
But at least we came back from a mistake that could have potentially killed our dream. And that realization is something we will benefit from for the rest of this ride.
Thanks for reading. Hopefully our experiences are useful to you. Maybe you've gone through a similar process too. You're very welcome to share that with us in the responses so we can learn from you.
For more on the platform Floown, the future of work and our team, you can always find us through any of these channels.
