Improving Cycle Time
Improving Cycle Time
The idea of putting less effort and time to complete a process is appealing to everyone. Improved cycle time is one key pillar of competitive advantage for a startup.
Spectrum of methods across previous startups have worked to improve cycle time. Based on the startup stage, founders can apply these methods across any process. Be it within Engineering, Customer Acquisition, Hiring or Fundraising.
Embrace Manual Start
Perform the process a few times. Analyze each step. Go back to paper. Sketch a rough process map. This will be the beginning of your process playbook. It is an often overlooked step while building a sizable startup. As a founder, this playbook will help your startup in two ways:
Try to resist the initial temptation of automation and outsourcing any component. Best is to define and fix the process first. Adding to a broken process only compounds the problems.
Use Activity-Based Costing (ABC)
Activity-based costing (ABC) will lead you to ask first-principle questions. Thanks to my Carnegie Mellon professor Sunder Kekre for teaching me this method.
Why are we doing this step? What is the weight of this step towards the desired result? Or does the step exist because someone likes it? Rank usefulness over everything else.
Take this approach further and see if you can apply it to individual team members. This is hard to do. I'll expand more around this in a future note.
Draw Wide Comparisons
Seek help from people who have done that particular process better. This could be a startup in a similar space. Or a large company within or outside your industry. It will broaden the perspective.
For example, let us say you are trying to improve cycle time for customer support for a consumer product. Why does the product need so much hand-holding? Is it because it is a novel idea? Apple's philosophy is to make intuitive products that need minimal customer support. Read the story of how Apple and some other companies redefined customer support:
Involve the Friendlies
Have a friendly observe the entire process. Someone who has done that process many times. Or the end-user for that process. Or an investor with an operating background.
The way you describe the process versus someone seeing it first-hand is different. Things get lost in translation. Some of the best improvements in my work, personal and social life are a result of friendlies. They observe you and give their opinion. Surrounding yourself with friendlies creates an environment of constant encouragement. They should be part of any founder's village (Circle #2) as I've written in an earlier note, Becoming a Founder.
Go Cross-Functional
Use holistic inputs to refine and fix processes. Structuring startup team design around cross-functional teams yields high performance and agility. Engineering should understand fundraising. Everyone should understand the hiring process outside of their teams. Finance should understand customer support. In essence, create a many-to-many model within your startup teams.
Lay it Bare
Visualization is key. Make the process maps available to every startup team member. Hold informal after-hour sessions for process walk-through. Increase transparency and leverage visibility.
Seek Asynchronous Inputs
Best ideas come at random. And anywhere. Think at an individual level, and discuss as a team. Avoid scheduling meetings for group-think. This makes it simple to come up with improvements and reduces pressure. Humans produce better output in the long-term when their mind is at ease.
Iterate without End
Avoid analysis-paralysis and incorporate process review as part of your regular review cycle. This will make the reviews fun and challenging. The processes will change as your startup scales. Be it with the number of team members, products or locations.
Align to Vision
Last and most important, check to see if your processes align with the vision.
Improved cycle time may show small results over a quarter or a year. It will yield compounding effects over time. And create a massive gap with the closest competitor.
Spectrum of methods across previous startups have worked to improve cycle time. Based on the startup stage, founders can apply these methods across any process. Be it within Engineering, Customer Acquisition, Hiring or Fundraising.
Embrace Manual Start
Perform the process a few times. Analyze each step. Go back to paper. Sketch a rough process map. This will be the beginning of your process playbook. It is an often overlooked step while building a sizable startup. As a founder, this playbook will help your startup in two ways:
- Distill team knowledge, and
- Reduce disruptions from attrition.
Try to resist the initial temptation of automation and outsourcing any component. Best is to define and fix the process first. Adding to a broken process only compounds the problems.
Use Activity-Based Costing (ABC)
Activity-based costing (ABC) will lead you to ask first-principle questions. Thanks to my Carnegie Mellon professor Sunder Kekre for teaching me this method.
Why are we doing this step? What is the weight of this step towards the desired result? Or does the step exist because someone likes it? Rank usefulness over everything else.
Take this approach further and see if you can apply it to individual team members. This is hard to do. I'll expand more around this in a future note.
Draw Wide Comparisons
Seek help from people who have done that particular process better. This could be a startup in a similar space. Or a large company within or outside your industry. It will broaden the perspective.
For example, let us say you are trying to improve cycle time for customer support for a consumer product. Why does the product need so much hand-holding? Is it because it is a novel idea? Apple's philosophy is to make intuitive products that need minimal customer support. Read the story of how Apple and some other companies redefined customer support:
Involve the Friendlies
Have a friendly observe the entire process. Someone who has done that process many times. Or the end-user for that process. Or an investor with an operating background.
The way you describe the process versus someone seeing it first-hand is different. Things get lost in translation. Some of the best improvements in my work, personal and social life are a result of friendlies. They observe you and give their opinion. Surrounding yourself with friendlies creates an environment of constant encouragement. They should be part of any founder's village (Circle #2) as I've written in an earlier note, Becoming a Founder.
Go Cross-Functional
Use holistic inputs to refine and fix processes. Structuring startup team design around cross-functional teams yields high performance and agility. Engineering should understand fundraising. Everyone should understand the hiring process outside of their teams. Finance should understand customer support. In essence, create a many-to-many model within your startup teams.
Lay it Bare
Visualization is key. Make the process maps available to every startup team member. Hold informal after-hour sessions for process walk-through. Increase transparency and leverage visibility.
Seek Asynchronous Inputs
Best ideas come at random. And anywhere. Think at an individual level, and discuss as a team. Avoid scheduling meetings for group-think. This makes it simple to come up with improvements and reduces pressure. Humans produce better output in the long-term when their mind is at ease.
Iterate without End
Avoid analysis-paralysis and incorporate process review as part of your regular review cycle. This will make the reviews fun and challenging. The processes will change as your startup scales. Be it with the number of team members, products or locations.
Align to Vision
Last and most important, check to see if your processes align with the vision.
Improved cycle time may show small results over a quarter or a year. It will yield compounding effects over time. And create a massive gap with the closest competitor.
Let's Talk: If you have a true experience that resonates, please send me an email.
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