Joy in the Journey

There are a lot of different personalities in the workplace and a lot of different people. There are many different ways to dissect the population; people vs. processes, analytical vs. emotional, etc. In addition to these differentiations, I've found one other way to divide the people I work with in 2 main groups: 1. Those who take joy in a journey, and 2. Those who only take joy in finishing a journey.

Being an OpzGuy myself, can you guess which side I take? I have the hardest time not picking processes over people, I am analytical to a fault, and my main goal in life is to get things done. I've come to realize that I don't take any joy from doing the work of a project. The only time I'm really happy is when I'm actually checking something off my list.

This is pretty sad, because it means I'm probably not enjoying life enough but I just can't help it. Once I start a project, I can't think of anything else until it's done. It's like an unfinished project leaves a loose end in my mind that distracts me so much I can't focus on or enjoy anything else until I finish it.

I've actually taken this a bit to the extreme. I hate having any email in my inbox. I can't leave the office for the day until I have completely cleared out my inbox. If I did leave while there was still email in my inbox I wouldn't be able to give my full attention to anything until I return to the office the next day and I probably wouldn't sleep very well with that unfinished business hanging over my head.

My coworkers have discovered this and take joy from sending me email right after I leave the office. They know I will get the email on my phone a few minutes later and it will distract me for the rest of the night. Of course, it doesn't usually bother me enough for me to respond to it that evening because I try to hard to leave work at work, but I might be better off if I just replied to it and got rid of it.

The Other Side

Now, I have a coworker who I work with closely who is the exact opposite and takes great joy in the journey. He loves the challenge of a task and is not overwhelmed by a project that might take him months or even years to complete. He enjoys the journey and revels in the things he's learning and accomplishing while working on the task. It's possible that the unfinished task may wear on him a bit as well, but overall he is much better at enjoying his day-to-day work and not being concerned about taking on a task that will take him weeks to complete.

I believe my personality might be better suited to an early phase startup, but as the startup begins to mature and get to a point where it has more resources to put into fixing bigger problems, I think the person who takes joy in the journey might be better off. My current company is hitting this phase now, and I'm having a hard time taking the time to do the big projects we need to take our business to the next level. In the meantime, my "Joy in the Journey" coworker is in his element and frankly is exactly what we need right now. I'm working to be more like him but am also glad for the contrast.

Which are you? Can you take joy in the journey or are you only happy when you are completing a task? How about the people you work with? Do you think one personality is more conducive to a startup environment?

Eliminating Redundancies

Is your Opz Team ever like this?

Project Management in a Web Startup

Project Management in a Web Startup is usually like this.

Parkinson's Law in Opz

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"

You might recognize this line as Parkinson's Law, which basically states that a task will take as much time as you give it. Now what does this mean for Operations in a Startup? To me, it means that you need to set strict timeframes for everything you do and don't let tasks become more than they should be.

Don't write a blank check for any task, allowing it to just "take as much time as it takes". Before you start any task, set a timeframe for completion. When you are ready to start the task, start the timer and don't allow yourself to get distracted. Complete the task within that timeframe. I recommend using a stopwatch or a website like e.ggtimer.com to time yourself. You can go to http://e.ggtimer.com/30minutes and have a timer in your web browser for 30 minutes. You can change the last part of that url to be any time that you want for your task.

Scope Creep

And now to the other part of Parkinson's Law. Not only will a task take exactly as much time as you give it, but if you give it more time than is necessary, the task will grow in your mind, which likely means that it will take even longer. If you give yourself 1 week to complete a project, then in your head that project will grow to include every little thing imaginable so it can take as long as you've given it.

However, if you only give a task 30 minutes your mind will automatically break it down to the mere essentials and figure out a way to get it done in the time allotted. I recommend giving yourself half the time you think a project should take and seeing what you can accomplish.

Give it a try and let me know if this works for you. If you're looking for another great article on how to apply Parkinson's Law check out http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/how-to-use-parkinsons-law-to-your-advantage.html.

Must-have Opz Apps

Are you looking to make the most of your time with the latest productivity apps? There are plenty of lists of must-have productivity apps out there (like here and here), but honestly I haven't found too many are worth the time they are going to save me. My list of must-have productivity apps is pretty short, but the apps below have really saved me time and increased my productivity.

Before we get to that let me state the obvious, that you if you really want to be more productive you need to get a smartphone. I personally prefer the Android platform. By the way, do you know why the last several updates for Mac computers have been named after members of the cat family? According to a great article by Eric Snider which can be found here, it's because "A Mac is like a cat, after all: it can generally clean itself up without assistance, it thinks it's better than you, and people who own a lot of them tend to be weird." Couldn't agree more.

And now to my Top 3 FREE productivity apps, in reverse order to increase the suspense:

3. Google Apps Mail, Calendar and Documents - My company recently moved our email to a free Google Apps account and it's been awesome. Get free mail hosting for up to 10 users, make it very easy to share calendars and create new company calendars, and of course share documents. Great free productivity apps for small companies.

2. Dropbox - Get 2MB's of free file storage that you can access from anywhere. I use Dropbox to keep all of my active/recently used files so I can access then from any device at any time. This also works across operating systems, on mobile devices and you can access your files through a web browser.

1. Evernote - Absolutely essential app for gathering information and task lists. The best part is you can use it on your computer and phone and if somehow you don't have either of those available, you could even login on a public computer and view your notes through the web browser.
I use this mostly to keep my personal and business task lists and then to gather data that I will need to complete my tasks. You can very easily copy an email, a webpage or any text to Evernote and can even share it or email it to another user. My only complaint is that the bulleted list editor is a bit quirky and completely sucks on the Android version, but it's well worth the quirks to be able to easily manage and share lists and information.

Do you have any other productivity apps you can't live without? Let me know if you have anything else to add to the list.

Unsuccessful Men with Talent

As I mentioned in my previous post, "B work" - The Pareto Principle in Startups, in a startup environment it is often much better to complete a "B grade" project quickly then to take a lot of time and resources to complete a project perfectly. This is why Passionate Perfectionists can have such a hard time in a startup.

Calvin Coolidge stated, "Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent." Many people are so good at what they do that doing anything less than perfection is very hard for them. However, in my experience the desire to achieve perfection can often be the biggest mistake in a startup. Usually we have such limited time and resources, it's important to be able to make do with "B work".

If you are exceptional at what you do, don't let your passion for perfection get in the way of pushing out work that is good enough for that phase of your business. This is especially important if other people are waiting on the results of your work. Many experts agree that in a technology startup it is very important to just get a product out there as soon as possible and to not be afraid of selling something you know isn't perfect.

Don't be afraid of "B work"
In my experience, regardless of how much time you spend getting customer feedback and input on how a product should work ahead of time, there will always be advancements and changes needed that no one ever imagined until the product is actually being used. So, in actuality even if you think you have completed a perfect project to begin with this probably isn't the case anyway.

In a startup trust among coworkers is crucial, but it is developed in a different way than in a big company. In a small startup, trust is developed by always being accountable to complete your projects on time. Trust is created by being the type of person who your teammates don't have to wait on and who never holds up the process.

That is why, it is far better to be able to complete all of your projects on time than to complete everything perfectly. If you want and need to to have everything completely defined ahead of time and to have all the time and resources you need to always complete every project to perfection, you might be more comfortable at a big company. This will never happen in a small company.

No excuse for "D work"
Please don't think I'm okay with not doing your best, though. There is no excuse for doing sloppy work and not paying attention to details. I'm just saying to do your best but know when it's okay to call it done and move on. Focus on the most important thing to a new company; getting things done. Hit your deadlines, move the project forward, sell it, get customers feedback and work on making the next version better. This is the way to be successful in a startup.

Are you able to hit all of your deadlines? Does your desire for perfection ever stop you from getting things done? Or can you be okay with completing "B work" and moving on?

"B work" - The Pareto Principle in Startups

I recently finished reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Let me start by saying I highly recommend this book. Just don't read it thinking you'll learn how to create a brand new business that allows you to live the lifestyle of your dreams with only 4 hours of work a week. Granted, that is the purpose of the book, but I don't think that is the reality for most people who read it. However, this book does offer a lot of valuable suggestions on how to be more productive.

If you have any desire to get more done, take advantage of some of the newest trends and technologies and properly prioritize the most important things in your business, this book is a must read! I plan on sharing some of my thoughts from this book in a number of different posts, but one of the best spots was when the author discusses how he implemented the Pareto Principle in his business.

If you don't know what the Pareto principle is, it is also known as the 80/20 rule. The author tells a story of how he used this principle to cut out the 80% of his customers who only brought in 20% of his revenue. This allowed him to focus more on the 20% who were responsible for most of his revenue, increasing revenue from them and giving him more time to find more customers just like them.

The Pareto Principle with Customers
If you are in a startup company with limited resources this will be a very valuable exercise. Honestly, though in a small company where everyone feels such ownership for things, this can be a difficult process to go through and might make for some uncomfortable conversations to start with. It's also really difficult to cut customers early on when every dollar counts. Though you may not be able to perfectly follow it today, there is value in starting the conversation now. By talking about this early, you might be able to learn some things from evaluating existing customers that will help you create more profitable situations in the future.

The Pareto Principle with Projects
Recently, I've noticed that most of our projects, whether they are implementation, operations, or web development projects seem to follow this rule. On a lot of projects we can complete 80% of the outlined requirements of a project in about 20% of the overall time allotted for it, but the final 20% usually takes the remaining 80% of the time.

This begs a very important question. How important is it to complete a project 100%, especially if the final 20% of the project will take 4 times longer than the first 80% did? I am a perfectionist, but I also hate to waste time so in these cases, I believe that in a startup, "B work" is good enough. So if after 20 hours of work, a project is 80% functional and it's going to take an additional 80 hours to get it to 100% perfection, it's just not worth it. Stick a fork in it now, cause it's done!

Time is often the only resource a startup has at its disposal and it's just way too precious to waste on perfection when "B work" will suffice. Granted, if the product doesn't work at all at 80%, then you'll have to adjust this, but find a way to make the 80% work for now and move on. If the remaining 20% is really that crucial, then it will keep coming up and you'll know you need to address it. However, you might be surprised how little that 20% mattered and it is far better to finish a task that is 80% perfect than to not finish because it will never be 100% perfect. I'll talk more about the value of completing imperfect projects later.

Let me know what you think. Does the 80/20 rule apply to your customers? Are you in a company where you can openly discuss this and get the buy-in to cut the 80% that is only responsible for 20% of your revenue? What about with your projects? Can you be okay with "B work"?

Introduction

Welcome to the OpzGuy blog, a place for me to share my passion for the Operations Role in Internet Startups. For my first -post, I thought it might make sense to start off with a little about my background. I have done Operations for 5 different tech companies in the last 11 years, 4 of which were internet startups. Though my title hasn't always been officially Operations, my roles have always been very operations-related. So far my time has been split between working in Fort Worth, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah, where I currently reside. Here's a quick run down of my experience, in chronological order:

• 2 years as a Technical Support rep for what was then the largest web hosting company in the world. Not a startup and this job was while I was still in school, but it gave me a good technical start to my career. At the end of my time I was a Level II Tech on Unix web servers.
• 4 years as General Manager for the Asia Pacific markets for a mobile software startup company.
• 2 years founding and running my own online cell-phone store. I started this company with while working for the above company with three friends and family members and in our second year in business we did $700K in sales, with no outside capital or funding. We also won the Fort Worth Chamber Small Business of the Year Award, which was one of my proudest moments.
• 1 year as Lead Generation Campaign Manager for an inventory management startup.
• 3 years with my current company. We started as part of a larger organization, and I was the first official hire for this startup. Within our first year, we were spun out to be our own entitry. We have now been in business for just over three years and just recently broke into the Top 10 Companies on the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum Top 25 Companies Under 5 Years Old.

In most of my jobs I have been the jack-of-all-trades, which may not have always been the best thing for my career. I've found that being responsible for a lot of different roles may make you irreplaceable, but that doesn't mean you are irreplaceable or guarantee that your contributions are as valued as they should be. However, I believe that my broad experience in so many different areas is now my biggest strength in the Operations role. As an example, in my current position as VP of Operations, I have the opportunity to work in the following areas:

• Business Development
• Partner Management
• Product Development
• Project Management
• Accounting and Finance
• Sales Engineering
• Implementation

In addition to sharing my thoughts on the Operations role, I will also have posts by some guest writers, links to other relevant articles, and even some posts on other topics of interest to me. Please feel free to introduce yourself and join the conversation. I look forward to hearing from you.