Be Patient During Customer Discovery
December 3, 2024
Customer discovery is a grind. It’s not intellectually challenging, but it will test your motivation, as getting dozens, if not hundreds, of calls with potential customers is a lot of work.
Today, we’re talking about the basics of managing people. Many first-time founders find themselves in the challenging situation of managing people with minimal guidance. So, here’s the basics:
Establish clear company-level and team goals with individual responsibilities. Build consensus with your team around these goals, so they also feel connected to their completion.
Keep a close eye on people’s progress. Weekly updates are the minimum but many engineering teams do daily check-ins. Outside of status updates, you’ll need to conduct bi-monthly 1-on-1s with your direct reports to give them space to vent and raise concerns.
Hold weekly all-hands meetings to track goals and deadlines. Openly address failures and when something goes well, be sure to celebrate — even a few statements of gratitude and some applause can boost morale.
Best of luck out there.
