Project Management for Founders
Manage a few things that matter and focus all your other energy on doing
At the start, project management is about focus. Most of individual steps are easy. Have the right sequence of things to do, and you can manage it well.
There are a few project parameters that you should always keep in mind. The earlier you know about trouble the more time and money you have to fix it.
Action steps:
- What stage are you currently on? What is your top priority at this moment?
- Have you tried weekly reports? Can you manage them in 10 minutes per week?
Things to control
Cash and burnrate. How much do you have right now? How much do you spend per month? How many months can you survive if no more money will come in?
Launch date. What is the first day when you product becomes available? When a customer gets something useful out of it? You need to be honest and specific here. Given all you know today, what is the concrete calendar date you are launching? Ideally, you should spend less than a third of your resources before the launch.
Revenue projections and timing. When the first revenue comes in? When will you reach a certain revenue target (e.g. $20 000 per month)? When will you break even? Again, this estimates should be honest, concrete and up-to-date.
Project stages
A new company goes through stages. Every stage has its own key priority. Your team should know where you are now.
- Preparation. You’ve made your mind and start looking for ideas. At that time you should focus on “co-founder trials”, saving money, building your network, market research and learning the missing skills (sales, financial modeling, naming).
- Opportunity search and validation. At this time you are actively pre-selling ideas that come to your mind and look for something that has strong demand proof. You can have many ideas in the pipeline. You do not have a product but you sell aggressively. This stage ends with one opportunity selected.
- Starting a company. At this stage you manage team assembly, legal setup, product creation and promotion campaign planning.
- Market entry and promotion. The product is available to the customers. You work on product iterations and growing customer base. Listening is the key activity at this stage. The stage ends with a feeling of “product-market fit”.
- Optimization and growth. You fix and grow the team and work on distribution and scaling.
- Building a company. Turn your one-product company into an organization that constantly brings new solutions to the market.
Processes
In parallel with working on your current priorities there are a few processes to run. Like breathing, they happen in parallel with everything you do.
- Market research. Learn something new from your customers. Never stop listening.
- Recruitment. Always look for potential employees, mentors, partners or vendors.
- Team happiness. Get open input from your team. What are the concerns? What can you improve in your management style?
- Planning and financial control. Goals, bookkeeping, contracts, deadlines.
- Resources. Always think how to bring more resources to the project: investments, business loans, real estate, equipment, technology, distribution deals.
Weekly review
It is great to have a weekly ten minute routine to check where you are. It can be a face-to-face meeting or just an email process.
- Reports. What was achieved by everyone during the last week? Celebrate your small victories!
- What are the individual plans for the next week?
- Challenges. What are the key worries at the moment?
- Goals and expectations. Remind everyone, what are the project goals for the next 1-2 months. Are you on track?
Focus
As Paul Graham wrote, our subconscious can work on just one hard problem at a time. Use this power wisely. At every moment know what is the most important problem to solve. Is it the one you think about in the shower it in the morning? Is it the one you think about late in the night?
This article is a part of Earlydays, an open guide for first-time entrepreneurs.
Written by Yury Lifshits — yury@yury.name — @yurylifshits
