Don’t Do Product Management in an Early-Stage Startup
The thoughts and resources that helped me find my place in the startup
“I think I want to leave the project… I don’t feel like I belong.”
And I left a startup project.
How do you feel in a project where you don’t know what to do?
When everyone else is busy doing the same thing, and you feel like you’re just blowing hot air? You’re not adding any value. You feel useless, lost and frustrated.
That’s exactly how I felt, and what prompted me to take this decision.
For several months, my friends have been working on a high-potential product. We’re at the MVP construction stage.
My background is in project management, and I work as a Product Owner. Before that, I worked in sales, marketing and project management. I really have a complete background, which I think is necessary to launch a new product.
It’s true on paper, but when you embark on such an adventure, no one comes along to tell you where to start.
In this article, I’ll tell you why I had trouble finding my place in launching a startup. I explain the thoughts and resources that helped me understand the right positioning to adopt.
Because YES, I’m back with a bang on this existing project!
Misunderstanding my role
I didn’t have a defined role, but I provided support to my colleagues, method and organization.
I have a product and project vision, so naturally I turned to what I knew how to do. I think that was one of my first mistakes.
On Notion, I created a backlog to receive and prioritize functionalities. I defined milestones and then started learning about project management from start-ups.
Soon our project looked like this:
A Product Management vision without a product
As the weeks went by, I began to lose focus. I move from task to task, with no real logic and no real vision.
I’m asking myself a lot of questions:
- If I don’t define the scope of the product, how will we have the vision and the notion of priority?
- If I don’t conduct user interviews, won’t we waste time on useless functionalities?
- If I don’t take an interest in start-up incubators, aren’t we going to miss out on opportunities? Won’t it be too late?
- How much do we want to sell the product for? But first I need to carry out a competitive and market study.
In the meantime, my acolytes continue to develop on their own.
In fact, I realize that I’m everywhere, but in the end I do nothing.
The impact of my contribution on the project
I must confess that I felt overwhelmed. I had the impression that I didn’t belong, that I wasn’t contributing as much as I’d like and as much as the project required.
The last thing I want is for my colleagues to feel that I’m not the right person for the job. It’s making me have a lot of doubts, and we’re starting to have friction points, which isn’t helping the situation.
I’m in a situation that seems complicated to me: I have two friends opposite me who are committed to the project.
I’m afraid I’ll hurt their feelings if I tell them I don’t fit in and want to leave.
But at the same time, I can’t go on like this, and as things stand, I can’t find a solution.
I waited two weeks before announcing that I wanted to take a step back. I don’t want to leave the project for good, but I need to see things more clearly before coming back.
Strangely enough, my decision was very well received by my friends. They thanked me for my honesty and thought it was a courageous move.
It’s amazing how our fears can turn out to be assets.
Clarifying my scope
So it’s time for me to clarify things.
I began my research by listening to a podcast on Pre-Product Market Fit. The podcast, which is in French, features renowned guests:
- Valentine Ducharme, Senior Product Manager at Soil Capital (ex. Matcha, Miimosa)
- Olivier Courtois, co-founder of Beep (ex. Comet, ManoMano)
- Enzo Avigo (june.so), CEO of June (ex. Intercom, N26 and Zalando)
It wasn’t until I started reading Enzo Avigo’s work on pre-Product Market Fit that I began to understand:
We’re in the early stages, and it’s not necessary — indeed, it’s completely counterproductive — to apply a product management methodology.
So it’s not to these skills that I need to turn, but rather to communication, sales and digital marketing.
Lessons learned and action plan
When I left the project, I turned to writing.
I took a training course, the Medium Writing Academy, run by the talented Sinem Günel.
I discovered how to make Medium platform my own, and how to write quality articles.
This period, during which I devoted myself to what I loved, enabled me to take a step back. I’ve been working a lot these last few months, and I think I needed to take stock.
What I like is combining start-up work with writing medium articles to share what we’ve learned.
Did I make a mistake?
Do I consider it a mistake to have left the project midstream?
No, I don’t think so, because I was honest enough to tell my colleagues what was on my mind. This reinforces the trust we have in each other, and in the meantime I’ve been training and experimenting.
In the future, however, I’ll make sure that what’s put in place meets our needs.
In conclusion
When you launch a start-up project, you don’t know what you’re getting into. And that’s normal, because we’re full of conviction, and every other time, we don’t know what we’re doing.
It’s never too late to question yourself, take a step back and come back with a fresh start.
That’s what happened to me, and in the meantime, I’ve continued to train, learn and sharpen my curiosity. It’s thanks to this that I’ve come to understand what my real added value is in this wonderful project we’re building.
Thank you for reading this article, I hope it brought you as much value as I 🖤 writing it.
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