10 плохих ошибок менеджмента в ИТ бизнесе и что с ними делать д-р Дженнифер Трелевич СТО Google-Россия This presentation does not necessarily reflect the intentions or opinions of ООО «Гугл» or of Google, Inc. Copyright 2009, all rights reserved.

Fallacy №1: It is better to be later to market than to launch “imperfect” product.

Fallacy №1: Launch the “perfect” product at any price. Case Study: Micromind

Use customer feedback to improve the product. Update the product with upgrades or new version. First to market is often first to capture market. Solution №1: Launch an appropriate product early. Launch as soon as you have something appropriate. Delays to market are delays to revenue.

Fallacy №2: It is most appropriate and honest to give the same information to all audiences.

Fallacy №2: One presentation for all audiences. Too many potential startups do not interest investors for lack of a good business plan. Potential clients have seen many interesting technical stories. What they need is your value proposition. Why should our customers give us their business? What do we give them in return for it, that makes it worth it to them?

Solution №2: Adapt your presentation to your audience. Common mistake of entrepreneurs that do not succeed Business story for your investors (internal or external). Strategy, Differentiation, Customer segmentation, Partnership plan Technical story for your engineers. Brand story for your clients. Brand is how people think about your product.

Fallacy №3: You can ignore politics and relationships, they only distract from “real” work.

Fallacy №3: Relationships and politics are not important. Case Study: [many large companies outside of “home” market]

Solution №3: Build business relationships as first priority. Relationships are the foundation of sales, internal or external. Often sales are made through small business partners. Playing bad politics is dangerous, but know when other people are. Align yourself with positive decision makers and influencers.

Fallacy №4: You need every customer that you can get.

Case Study: [Startup - automation]

Solution №4: Keep the profitable customers in your segment. Which customers are not part of our target segments? Pursuing too many customer segments defocuses our work, and can damage our brand. Implementing every feature request can make the product too complicated or too difficult to maintain. Some customers will make us lose money. Lose them instead.

Fallacy №5: Good products sell themselves. Good work automatically gets you promoted.

Fallacy №5: It is enough to do good technical work. Case Study: Advanced Propulsion

Solution №5: Do good technical work and excellent marketing. Maybe most common mistake of startups. Variant 1: Plan for marketing/sales from the beginning. If you cannot support this person, the business opportunity may not be viable. Variant 2: Be captive to a client. Variant 3: Do not plan to grow your business.

Solution №5: Do good technical work and get visibility. Also important in someone else’s company… Variant 1: Work to make Impact and to get Visibility. Variant 2: Align with someone powerful. Variant 3: Do not plan to grow your career in the company. Variant 1: Plan for marketing/sales from the beginning. Variant 2: Be captive to a client. Variant 3: Do not plan to grow your business.

Fallacy №6: Any expert on the technology can estimate the resources needed for the job.

Fallacy №6: Technology expertise is enough for project estimation. Engineers tend to “under-bid” technical jobs by optimism. There are many aspects of a job that are not based on the technical content. Staffing Suppliers Payments Uncertainty on requirements “Getting up to speed” Unforeseen problems

Solution №6: Use experience to estimate projects better. Risk management is possible to do well only with experience. Use experience from “similar” jobs to estimate this job. What common supply-chain problems? What implementation complications? What problems with remote teams?

Fallacy №7: It is most important to start the work. You can always get more resources during the project.

Fallacy №7: You can find needed resources during the project. Case Study: [Contractor - hardware]

Solution №7: Bid for this project only what you have now. Do not bid what you do not have. Resources almost never increase in the middle of the project, but vice versa. Make risk planning and priorities for handling reduction in resources during the job. If you are expecting investment, plan that for the next generation of product.

Fallacy №8: All decisions can be made by consensus. Only big, old companies need hierarchies.

Fallacy №8: All decisions can be made by consensus. Case Study: [Software company]

Fallacy №8: Consensus is useful, but authority is unavoidable. Democratic and open discussion is valuable among experts to gain fresh ideas and team buy-in. But some hierarchy or authority is needed to take decisions in a timely manner. Remember – first to market often wins the market.

Fallacy №9: You can save money by exploiting employees. They need the job and will not leave.

Fallacy №9: The crisis will keep employees from leaving. “The beatings will continue until morale improves” Crisis does not last forever. Some people will leave despite the crisis, with or without work. Those who stay will be less productive, because of bad morale.

Solution №9: Respect people. Always respect your employees, especially when times are hard. You may not be able to provide the same “perks”, but employees will still remember what you can provide. Be transparent if you need to reduce perks, explain the tradeoffs.

Fallacy №10: People (organizations, companies) will do what appears to be logical. They have the best interest of the company in mind.

Fallacy №10: People will do what appears to be logical. Case Study: every company!

Solution №10: People will do what is logical to them, not you. Never forget that people are human, who think about Fiefdoms, territorial arguments Personal advancement Plan for “different logic”. Verify the work of your partners and employees. Communicate common goals to your team. Build risk management into the plan.

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