More than a year ago, when we were just starting the project, I enthusiastically declared we'd "build in public from day one." The code was open source, yes. But true openness? That took time to develop. It's one thing to declare transparency – it's another to make it part of your DNA.

The default in tech is to build behind closed doors. And while you have nothing concrete to show, it doesn’t make sense to be open about it either. But this fall, as our product approached beta, we realized it was time to truly embrace openness.

We moved our engineering and product discussions from private conversations to public Discord channels. We started recording and sharing our path to soft-launching the SaaS version of our product – over three hours of meetings now live on our Operately Backstage YouTube channel. Our documentation, decisions, and debates are happening in plain sight.

The benefits weren’t immediately obvious. There were no instant wins, no viral moments. It’s still early, but we did notice subtle shifts. Our team became a little more thoughtful in how we communicate. We naturally started leaving better documentation – "breadcrumbs" for others to follow. Most surprisingly, potential users started discovering us organically, even before we had proper marketing materials ready.

As companies grow, their internal complexity creates an invisible shield from market reality. Each new person, process, and project adds another layer of separation between the team and their customers. Building in public punctures these layers.

This approach isn't about transparency theater or building in public for its own sake. It's about removing unnecessary barriers between you and your potential customers, partners, and community. Unless something explicitly needs to be private, why not let it happen in the open?

Start by flipping the default question. Instead of asking "What can we share?", ask "What must stay private?" The rest becomes your competitive advantage in plain sight.

This release marks a significant milestone for us: it's the first time users can install and run Operately on their own servers, bringing our open-source commitment to life.

Wait, I thought you guys are building a SaaS?!

We are! But we're also dead serious about open-source. Self-hosting needs to be easy and cheap from day one.

Our north star is WordPress-level simplicity for business software.

SaaS is in our DNA, self-hosting isn't. So if we don't nail self-hosting now, we never will.

OK, makes sense. What's in the release?

Operately v0.1 is your company’s command center that unifies:

• Goals

• Projects

• Activities

• Areas of ownership

Watch this quick video:

Nice! When can I try it online?

Soon. Join the waitlist to be first in line.

Behind the scenes

It took us 2 months to ship v0.1 after deciding we were ready. There's always a slew of not-so-fun stuff to take care of the first time. To give you an idea, here's the brief from our development project:

Shipping builds momentum. It's not new to us but the feeling is exhilarating and never gets old. We're committing to:

• Monthly releases of self-hostable Operately

• Continuous updates once we launch the SaaS

We want to bridge the gap between open-source flexibility and SaaS convenience. Stay tuned for what's next.

But how often do you find yourself so deep in the trenches, working on current projects and reacting to problems, that by the time you finally catch a breather, you have no idea what to focus on... until the next fire erupts?

Being a proactive manager means spending an appropriate amount of time up front to minimize the number of fires you'll need to put out later.

On the far end of the spectrum of mastery, we have people like Jeff Bezos, who claims he's always working two or three years into the future.

Replace years with months, and you have a good target to aim for as a startup founder.

Here are a few things you can do to get there:

• Start sketching and writing down a detailed plan of what you'd like to see happen at your company over the next 3-6 months.

• Think about upcoming work and identify any potential issues. Remember, it's your job to clear the road. Your team will feel more supported and less likely to burn out.

• Draft wireframes and scope out projects for 1-2 iterations ahead.

• Set up logistics. Something as trivial as not booking a venue or scheduling work with your external partner up front may delay the schedule.

• Align the appropriate people to be ready when work comes their way.

• Know everyone's holiday schedules.

• Be ready to pivot when new information, opportunities or challenges arise.

• Deeply understand each ongoing project and the issues they're running into. Ivory tower mode is for corporate types making a career at EnterpriseGlobal.

Look, unexpected stuff will always pop up - that's startup life. But by carving out time to think beyond the current fires, you're giving yourself a fighting chance.

Sketch out that new feature. Prototype that crazy idea. Or even just close your eyes and imagine where you want to be in six months.

You'll see how things will flow from there.

The future you will be a lot less stressed — and a lot more excited about what's next.

Now, challenge yourself: how could you accomplish all of it in just one month?

Let’s be clear, though. It's not about burning yourself out with an impossible todo list. There are only so many projects you can handle at once, and sure, some things inherently take time. But what if you pushed the boundaries... just a bit?

Give it a shot. Craft three pieces of content, even if they're not perfect, before lunchtime. That job description you're mulling over for next week? Finish it today. Planning to reach out to prospects "later in Q1"? Send emails to two people right now; the perfect CRM and a comprehensive playbook can wait.

You might just be surprised by the results.

At the very least, you'll be energized by the momentum you've created. This energy is contagious and your colleagues are likely to catch the vibe. You'll realize that many roadblocks are internal, not external. And once you start, you won't want to stop.

There are enough voices out there telling you what can't be done. Psyop yourself for a change. Shake things up. You might be amazed at where you end up.

The guiding principle of ours—making it possible for all developers to test & deliver cool products quickly—didn’t seem grand or hairy enough. It felt like we were missing some secret ingredient that successful leaders supposedly have to spell out their success.

But as time went by, Semaphore just kept growing. What drove this growth? It was a mix of steady, continuous learning and iterative improvements, peppered with a few bold moves. Like when we decided to overhaul the product for a new era of container-based cloud computing workflows. Or launching an enterprise offering.

You hear all the time that you need some grand, sweeping vision to make it in business. Here's the thing: you don't. If your product solves a real problem that people are willing to pay for, just keep at it:

• Stick to the core reason why you started in the first place.

• Maintain close contact with your customers.

• Pay attention to how customers get creative with your product or where they hit walls. Let these insights guide your product's evolution.

• Know when it's time to step up from iteration to a bold leap. Pursuing a high risk/reward opportunity falls squarely on the shoulders of a founder.

Along the way, your experience might just lead you to grander, wider-reaching ideas. You'll figure out what resonates with your team and you. Maybe one day you'll pen down that big, bold vision statement that feels just right.

For now, there's plenty to tackle with what's in front of you. Let your vision grow and change with your business – that's how it should be.

Ever noticed an engineering team, when judged by ticket counts, suddenly breaking tasks into smaller tickets? Or a call center team, gauged by call numbers, wrapping up calls quicker, often leaving customers furious? What about that social media intern boosting engagement metrics with divisive content that jeopardizes brand reputation?

In our age of information deluge, there's an undeniable appeal in finding a singular guiding metric or "north star". But there lies the trap.

Goodhart's Law warns, "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." This translates to: if you single-mindedly chase one goal, you're likely to pursue it, even if it spells disaster elsewhere. Achieving one goal by neglecting other pivotal aspects is hardly a win.

Consider a marketing team zeroed in on ramping up blog traffic. They could easily drum up content and campaigns luring pageviews, neglecting to ensure these visitors align with the brand's target audience. The result? A surge in irrelevant leads unlikely to ever convert.

Goodhart's Law offers us a clear lesson: balance is crucial. Rather than fixating on a lone KPI, a set of varied metrics offers a more holistic, and less short-sighted, approach to reaching our goals.

Does the world really need a website about KPIs?

It's a common adage: You can't manage what you don't measure. A proven method for efficiently getting things done is by assigning each team member a specific metric for accountability.

A few years back, while establishing new departments at Semaphore in areas I wasn't familiar with, my initial step was often hunting for a comprehensive list of KPIs for that specific function. Because a robust KPI list essentially outlines what excellence looks like in that domain.

In that job, I kept returning to kpilibrary.com—a comprehensive crowdsourced database that, regrettably, is no longer online. Nowadays, if you search for example KPIs, much of what surfaces is content that lacks depth—aimed more at SEO or product promotion rather than providing clear-cut insights.

KPI Examples is open source and a work in progress

We want the content we publish—especially since KPI Examples is open for contribution—to be around for a long time. That's why the website is open source on GitHub, and the KPI database itself is a public Google Sheet.

You'll observe that some categories on the site are currently empty; however, you can leave your email to be notified once they're populated. We're committed to expanding the database of KPIs and categories on a weekly basis.

If there's any feedback you'd like to share or if you're interested in contributing, please don't hesitate to reach out. For our newsletter subscribers, simply hitting 'reply' will direct your message straight to me.

My response was straightforward: You can't force with some paid ads or clever outreach what you don't see already organically happening inbound.

Products don't just leap from one customer segment to another on a whim. There's always a little wiggle room; you can, of course, cater to those slightly below or above your core market. But go too far below, and your product feels like a behemoth. Aim just a touch too high, and suddenly you're the lightweight with frustrating shortcomings.

Still, if you've made a strategic decision to move upmarket, there's a path forward: cozy up to your most demanding customers. Understand their pain points, figure out what would make your product indispensable to their entire organization, and craft a roadmap around those needs. Balance this with nurturing the needs of your existing customers. And if all goes well, you'll find a new breed of clients beating a path to your door.

This isn't a sprint; it's a marathon. You can make some progress refining your current features, but sometimes it takes an executive decision to make some audacious bets.

Semaphore’s two big bets

Here's a case in point. Semaphore, initially tailored for small dev teams crafting web apps, underwent a full overhaul five years post-launch.

While it's almost taboo to even whisper about a product rewrite—most product gurus would advise against it—it was our ticket out of a cutthroat competition in our primary segment. Fast-forward to today, and we've doubled down on that strategy, building Semaphore On-Premise catered specifically for the enterprise giants.

So, if you're standing at that crossroad, deciding whether to make that leap to another segment, remember this: the journey isn't easy. But with customer understanding, bold moves, and commitment, the leap can redefine your product's destiny.

The pressure to monetize quickly—to validate your worth to investors or merely keep the lights on—can trigger premature product launches, pivot you away from your original vision, or worse.

Funding is a privilege, not a given

Startup culture often portrays funding as being always within reach: craft a compelling pitch, tirelessly network, and if your idea is solid, you'll be rewarded with a cash infusion to bring it to life.

But the reality is starkly different. Despite the advent of remote work, securing funding remains a privilege accessible to a select few, concentrated in global startup hotspots. For most of the world, bootstrapping presents a path of independence, offering an option to either remain entirely self-reliant or leverage future funding on more favorable terms.

Consider starting with services

An established business acts as a financial safety net, offering stability as you venture into product creation. It's a bit like having a secure day job while pursuing a passion project—you have the freedom to experiment, iterate, and innovate without the constant worry of keeping the roof over your head.

Reflecting on my journey, I recognize how running a web development consultancy offered a prism to critically evaluate potential product ideas. It also served as a hands-on training ground, introducing me to business development, hiring, and management, thereby preparing me for the complexities of running a product-based company.

To all the aspiring product creators out there: financial stability isn't just a safety net—it's a launchpad. Take the time to establish a solid foundation before you leap into the exciting world of product creation. It might make all the difference between a graceful takeoff and a crash landing.

Sure, being your own first customer makes things easier. You can "scratch your own itch" and find innovative solutions to your problems. But remember, the world doesn't revolve around you. Your "itch" might not be a viable business opportunity.

Nobody will pay for a nice-to-have

To clarify whether your product is a major pain killer or simply a nice-to-have, ask yourself the following questions:

1) How significant is the problem you're trying to solve? Successful businesses aren't built on minor annoyances. Your solution should address a critical and/or urgent pain point. After all, your greatest competitor is doing nothing.

2) Who is dealing with this problem? Is it a niche group or a broad market segment with potential for sizable returns? How much purchasing power do your product champions have? Ensure your target audience not only wants, but is also allowed to pay for your solution.

3) What alternatives exist? Are there competitors in the market, and how will your product compare? Are there established solutions who could add competing features in the short or mid term? Your product needs to provide a significant, long-lasting improvement.

4) How much would your customers save by using your product? Current economic conditions favor products that enhance productivity and efficiency. If your product can save customers time, money, or stress, they'll be more likely to invest in it.

A weak example: single-purpose AI tools

Right now there's a flurry of AI tool products that are essentially thin layers over ChatGPT or another AI language model. You've probably seen many ideas or MVPs that follow this pattern:

An AI tool that (takes some input) in (domain) and (provides some output).

But think about this: what if every company with a stronghold in (domain) is already building this? Or OpenAI itself? Whoops.

To avoid overcrowded spaces, build what isn't obvious

If you are interviewing prospects in search of problems to solve, keep in mind they might not be able to articulate what they'd pay for. Their pain points could be so ingrained and "normal" to them that they fail to identify them as such.

This is where your deep expertise and observation come in. By truly understanding your customers and their needs, you can unearth problems they may not even know they have—until they see your solution, that is.

The inception of Operately wasn't a result of random inspiration or systematic research—it came from over a decade of experience running software businesses. We've come to realize that disciplined and efficient processes are critical for successful execution. Yet, until now, most organizations have been piecing together makeshift solutions. So, even without direct competitors sharing our vision yet, we're confident that we're addressing a real, substantial problem.

In conclusion, understanding what customers want is just the start. Digging deeper to unearth overlooked but critical problems they'd willingly pay for—that's what sets successful products apart.

For both Semaphore, twelve years ago, and Operately, more recently, the simplest answer is—it felt inevitable.

Of course, creating products isn't about one eureka moment or a quick sprint. It's a meticulous day-by-day process that unfolds over years. So, setting the final product aside, how do you reach this point of inevitability?

It all begins with developing deep, first-hand expertise in a specific area.

The birth of Semaphore

Having first-hand expertise gives you the power to intimately understand the market's pain points, gaps, and opportunities. It allows you to design solutions that are genuinely useful and desirable.

Rewind to the early 2010s, when our company, Rendered Text, was a modest web development consultancy. Every single one of us was on a mission—to become the best developer we could be. Automated code testing and deployment were the backbones of our workflow. As our team and the projects we worked on expanded, we realized the need to formalize the continuous integration process with a dedicated tool.

Our best option at the time was Jenkins—an antiquated software that required end-users to install and maintain both Jenkins itself and the infrastructure to run it—a far cry from user-friendly cloud products like GitHub and Heroku that we were already used to!

This glaring gap presented an opportunity. We envisioned a SaaS solution that required just minutes instead of days for setup, was inexpensive and fast, not expensive and slow, and offered one-click scaling over manual labor. We were confident we weren't alone—after all, we didn't invent the product concept or the core customer needs.

Our hands-on experience enabled us to design Semaphore's MVP with features that directly addressed the problems our very first users were willing to pay for.

In a nutshell, our journey with Semaphore wasn't sparked by a random inspiration or a casual idea—it began with an intense immersion in our domain and industry. That deep expertise gave us the lens to identify opportunities and create something genuinely helpful for our customers.

So if you're wondering when to kickstart your product journey, my advice is this—immerse yourself in an area where you have innate abilities and interests. Develop your unique expertise and let it guide you to the point of inevitability.

Now, let's unpack that a bit. Founders are known for their ability to wear multiple hats. They're often polymaths, possessing the knack to navigate the early days from idea to launch—handling everything from coding to sales, from fundraising to customer support.

But, as the company grows, the founder's role needs to pivot too. They must transition from being the jack-of-all-trades to leading a team, and later, an entire organization.

Here's the catch: when circumstances change, our biggest strengths can quickly become our biggest weaknesses.

The world-class expertise that got the company off the ground can become a hindrance in hiring someone else to take over. It may be tough for first-time founders to realize that 80% quality delivered by an autonomous, fault-tolerant team is far better than a distracted genius's scattered efforts.

If you're highly independent and self-sufficient, you may find it challenging to delegate, causing burnout and opportunity cost before finally making the leap. Similarly, while founder's natural optimism keeps morale high and promotes perseverance, if left unchecked it can lead to underestimating risks and ignoring negative outcomes.

As founders, we need to recognize that in parallel to our startup's journey, our own journey unfolds too — one of self-awareness and maturity. With great power, there comes the need for great adaptability.

Well, let's clarify what they're really expressing.

Take the example of Thomas Edison, the famous inventor known for his dogged pursuit of innovation. When asked about his repeated failures while inventing the light bulb, Edison famously remarked:

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

For him, and many like-minded innovators, being proven wrong is not about the failure itself. Instead, they relish the clarity that each "failure" brings, taking them one step closer to the truth they're pursuing.

In school, we're frequently rewarded for right answers and penalized for wrong ones. This binary perspective often fosters a mindset that equates being wrong with failure, embarrassment, or incompetence. As a result, many people might strive to avoid being wrong or view it as a negative experience.

People who break free from fear of being wrong open up new possibilities for innovation and problem-solving. For these progress-oriented individuals, mistakes are not roadblocks, but signals: "Good. Now we know. We can move forward."

So, the next time you hear someone say that they love being wrong, remember that it's not about finding some twisted joy in failure. It's a declaration of commitment to learning, growing, and relentlessly pushing forward. It's a profoundly effective approach to personal and professional growth—one that entrepreneurs and startup founders would do well to embrace.

1. What your team, customers, and company need

2. The big bets and most critical areas, in other words, high-leverage work

3. Where your personal strengths lie

Where these three factors overlap, that's most likely to be your sweet spot—the perfect work to invest your time in.

Maker or Manager?

Once you've identified your sweet spot, your schedule will likely fall into either a maker's or manager's rhythm, as explained by Paul Graham.

If you're in 'maker' mode, focusing on creation, building, or strategic planning, you'll require uninterrupted blocks of focus time, ideally during your peak energy hours. For example, you may want to dedicate your mornings until lunch (or gym!) time to this. Even better, try to set aside whole days for your top priority, using only short afternoon slots for asynchronous communication and meetings unrelated to your key focus.

Conversely, if you're in 'manager' mode, your goal is to stay disciplined and concentrate on your most crucial work for the majority of the day, despite other tasks vying for your attention. And remember, it's crucial to carve out some quiet time for reflection every day.

The Peril of Wearing Too Many Hats

I'll share a personal insight: the most hair-pulling times in my career were when I tried to juggle both maker and manager modes, bouncing between different business areas within a single day.

At one point I even kept a detailed spreadsheet of my daily activities, categorized by work area, type, and purpose. Yet, I was the least productive person in the company. I was always wrestling too much unfinished business, and results suffered.

Forge Your Own Path

For hired execs, the 'what' to focus on is pretty much set in their job description. But for founders, it's a whole other story—it varies big time depending on where the company's at.

In the early days, you might be immersed in building the product, getting the word out, or fundraising. Later, your focus could shift towards hiring or setting up processes. This variability is why you'll get a different answer each time you ask a CEO how they spend their time. It doesn't make much sense to try and mimic the daily routines of famous founders or CEOs, as there's no one-size-fits-all answer here.

The takeaway? There's no silver bullet. Instead, use the trifecta we talked about to reason from first principles and figure out where to put your energy. It's your journey, after all. Forge your own path.

I know, I know, you’re thinking: "Executive? Me? You've got the wrong person." But stick with me here. Peter Drucker, the grandfather of modern management thinking, had a definition of "executive" that's broader—and more applicable—than you'd think.

For Drucker, anyone making decisions that affect the performance and direction of their organization, no matter how small that effect and organization may be, is an executive.

That Social Media Manager who plans and publishes the content that influences a company's reputation and customer engagement? Executive. The HR Manager who vets job candidates and crafts policies shaping a company's culture? Executive. The solopreneur who's juggling sales, marketing, and maybe even a bit of coding? Definitely an executive. Even a Team Lead, who ensures projects get delivered on time while juggling team dynamics, is an executive in their own right.

Surprised? You shouldn't be. In the knowledge economy based on intellectual capital, more of us are "executives" than we realize. The kicker is, many of us are flying blind, not knowing the essential skills we need to rock these roles.

Drucker outlined five practices for business effectiveness - real, tangible skills to level up your work performance. And is it always goes, the oldest advice is the best advice:

1) Know your time: Master time management, strip out the fluff, and focus on what really moves the needle.

2) Know your contribution: Stop asking "What do I want to do?" Start asking "What would be the best thing I do?" Get obsessed with how you bring value to your team, your clients, your company.

3) Play to your strengths: Don't sweat on weaknesses. Understand your strengths, and put them to work. Do the same for your team. Let everyone shine where they're best. Square pegs don't fit in round holes.

4) Make big bets: Drucker was raving about the 80/20 rule long before fancy TED talks. Focus on the most critical areas instead of trying to do everything. Most results come from a fraction of the effort.

5) Make effective decisions: You've got to make calls – some tough, some easy. But that's the job. Gather the facts, weigh the options, decide, move on, and most importantly, learn from the outcome.

Drucker published The Effective Executive in 1966. But the playbook isn’t just for the suits in the Mad Men-style boardroom. It’s for all of us. Understanding that you're playing an "executive" role and having the right tools to play it well - that's how you win.

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It got me thinking... It's easy to get sucked into the notion that a business is just a bundle of inputs and outputs, a mix of processes and metrics. Like if we just zero in on the right ones, we could steer the whole ship based on pure, data-driven feedback loops. But as critical as systems and figures are to keeping a business running, there's a whole lot that matters that we simply can't boil down to numbers.

Take the company retreat, for example. Semaphore operates remotely, our 35-strong team scattered across Europe and the Americas. With a few exceptions, most folks who've joined us post-Covid haven't met their colleagues face-to-face. Sure, we've got our virtual watercooler chats as part of the regular work rhythm, but the shift in team energy before and after spending actual time together? That's something else.

A startup's culture — its shared values, behaviors, and beliefs — is a secret sauce in its recipe for success. A startup is, at heart, on a mission to bend reality against all odds, and it needs a strong team spirit, motivation, and trust to make it happen. But here's the question: how do you measure the vibrancy of a culture and the cohesion of a team? It's safe to say you won't get far with quarterly NPS surveys and tallying up employee turnover.

Queueing up for breakfast. Getting turned around in an unfamiliar town in the pouring rain. Convincing the hotel manager to bend the rules for some after-hours pool games. A late-night beach gathering. It's only after such moments that we can truly realize that, as my colleague Ivana has put it, "Each person in our team is so unique, yet our energies match perfectly." It's truly something to be part of, and there's nothing like working with the team battery fully charged to 100%.

Startups go through two stages of frustration before they figure it out:

Stage 1: You aim for goals like "Get the new product/campaign to X people by the end of Q2". Your team pulls it off, but bottom line doesn't budge. You feel disappointed. Then you realize — "We should focus on outcomes, not just output!"

Stage 2: So, you shift gears. You set goals like "Bring in XYZ new trials each month." You run a bunch of related projects, or maybe you execute by a playbook, but you only get about 8% closer to your goal. You feel stuck.

So what's stage 3? Let's dig into that.

..

There’s no doubt that outcomes are what ultimately matters and must drive the plans. But here's the rub: they aren't quite in our control.

When it comes to planning and checking up on ourselves, we need something more within our control.

..

In his 2009 Letter to Shareholders, Jeff Bezos described Amazon's focus on business inputs (emphasis mine):

Senior leaders that are new to Amazon are often surprised by how little time we spend discussing actual financial results or debating projected financial outputs. To be clear, we take these financial outputs seriously, but we believe that focusing our energy on the controllable inputs to our business is the most effective way to maximize financial outputs over time.

So, where do these 'inputs' fit in our "outcome vs. output" puzzle? Here's a few definitions to help clarify things:

Inputs are the stuff we need for our work — and that includes us.

We're talking things like your team, your workspace (be it an office or you remote setup), your hardware and software, what your customers need, your business partners and vendors, funding, etc.

Activities are the tasks and processes needed to get work done.

This can be anything from internal communication, researching, designing, building, testing & deploying, creating & publishing, and closing deals — all of which you can examine more closely for improvement.

Outputs are what you get when an activity is done.

These could be anything from launched products and features, services you've provided, to your team being trained on essential security practices. This is where our direct influence ends and we yield control to the market — and luck.

Outcomes are the immediate, primary effects you get from delivering a work product — usually the actual added value that comes from an output.

Think things like a new product feature being successfully used by all targeted users with uptime of 99.99%, an increase in signups for a free trial, or customers raving about your amazing customer service.

Impact are the long-term ripple effects of the work you've completed.

This can show up as strong customer retention, a healthier financial bottom-line, a competitive edge, or a reinvigorated company culture.

..

Once you've got these ideas clear in your mind, it's much easier to put a continuous improvement cycle into action.

Of course, if you're a startup and you're trying something new, there's no way to know for sure if what you’re doing will work. But with this kind of thinking, you can approach your work like a series of hypothesis-driven experiments, not like a shot in the dark. Your odds of success will surely improve.

You set KPIs to measure your progress and maintain focus on your goals. As things get done and goals change, you shouldn't feel anxious about fading KPIs associated with objectives that have been accomplished.

But KPIs can also turn into energy-drainers that yield zero results. Here's a rundown of common pitfalls to avoid.

Too many KPIs

Remember, they're called "key" for a reason.

Having too many KPIs dilutes their impact and makes it difficult to zero in on what counts.

Instead, pick a handful of essential KPIs aligned with your current objectives. Don't hesitate to let go of or replace them with more fitting KPIs as goals evolve.

Consider this: an early-stage startup can go a long way by tracking just these four KPIs:

1. Finance: Revenue growth

2. Marketing: Leads per week

3. Product: Free-to-paid conversion rate (or Close rate, if your business is sales-driven)

4. Customer service: Churn rate

Not setting clear targets

Sometimes you are measuring something for the first time and you don't even know what to expect. That's fine.

But after a while, establish a specific target or benchmark to provide a clear indication of whether you're making progress or falling behind.

Put this into action with a KPI tracker that color-codes values in red or green (check out conditional formatting rules if you're using a spreadsheet).

Not reviewing KPIs regularly

Regular reviews and upkeep are the bedrock of any system, whether it's a personal to-do list or an entire business:

• Review and regularly update KPIs within a standard cadence of company’s habits.

• Default to reviewing KPIs once a month in each group or department and adjust according to circumstances. Make this a standard agenda item, accompanied by progress updates on goals.

Overlooking the human element

Numbers say a lot but can never tell the whole story. Qualitative metrics can offer valuable insights into customer happiness and team morale.

Take NPS, for example. It has its fair share of critics, but I believe its true worth lies in customers' qualitative feedback and conversations that follow from the process.

Misaligned team

Founders should take the time to ensure that the team understands the KPIs and their importance. Engage them in the KPI-setting process and encourage their feedback to foster a sense of ownership and accountability.

Keep in mind, this takes time. Founders may need to reiterate the point of KPIs at staff meetings for months until everyone's on the same page about the company's performance and goals.

FAQ

How to spot irrelevant KPIs:

• Your team can't influence them.

• A major swing in either direction doesn't make you jump out of your chair.

• It's an absolute number that always goes up—prefer a ratio or percentage instead.

• There's no initiative in the company to affect them.

How to handle less critical metrics? Track them, just don't call them or treat them as KPIs. For instance, conversion rate of a new landing page is a metric that a marketing team will closely track and act on after launch, but is not something that the Head of Marketing will discuss at a monthly leadership meeting.

When to add a new metric? Add a metric to your KPI tracker only when you believe that you need to know that metric in order to make an informed decision.

Selecting and maintaining KPIs that are relevant, actionable, and aligned with your company's goals can be a tall order. We're tackling this challenge head-on with Operately. Stay tuned as we share more on this subject in the near future.

One of the key advantages startups have over established companies is speed. They're nimble, unburdened by bureaucracy, and able to make decisions quickly. This agility allows them to innovate and run circles around incumbents, who are primarily focused on maintaining their market position.

But velocity can be fleeting. After product-market fit, the founding team expands, and new groups form. This growth brings with it a communication and alignment tax—a demand for more structure and discipline. If this tax goes unpaid, operational debt builds up and execution suffers.

It's a problem that’s difficult to see from within. Projects drag on, excitement wanes, and resources are spread too thin. The result? A slew of half-finished projects that never reach completion—or cancellation.

Looking back on the early years at Semaphore, I wish we'd hired our first project manager sooner. It took us eight(!) years. We believed that teams should self-manage, but we didn't consider the value in having someone solely focused on managing projects.

Makers aren't always inclined to ask the same questions week after week, take stock, document progress, or address performance issues. That's where operators come in. They thrive in these roles, and their presence actually empowers a team of makers by freeing them from the burden of project management.

That's why we're developing Operately—to help startups implement just the right amount of cross-functional process so they can focus their resources on building truly unique and valuable products. As we work on Operately, we'll continue to share ideas and techniques right here on our blog. Stay tuned!

Customers aren't clueless. They're always comparing products and services. If you're out of the loop, you're leaving your business vulnerable. And it's not just about having a good answer to when a prospect asks "How do you compare against X?" during a call. Your job is to know what they're seeing, so that you can decide what to do to make your offer compelling.

Instead of dismissing your competitors, learn from them. Studying what they do can provide valuable insights into customer needs and marketing strategies. As the popular book says, "steal like an artist" — adapt and improve upon their good ideas without becoming a copycat.

Competitive insights is valuable information for customer-centric companies. Use that information as you focus your energy on doing what helps you differentiate and provide better value.