startups are sequencing problems
not a matter of if, but when.
At many points in our company, someone has raised a question that looked something like this:
“Should we build X? Customer Y really wants it. And it makes sense… probably something we should have built months ago.”
Most of the time, the thing that’s being asked for is something that absolutely needs to be done… maybe even embarrassing it hasn’t been done yet.
It could be small: more extensive documentation. SSO. A Microsoft Teams integration.
Sometimes it’s larger. Something we believe in, or maybe something a competitor already has.
It’s often not a question of if. But when.
I think this tension is often confused with being under-staffed. Companies try to hire the problem away. Our two closest competitors have nearly 20-30x more people than us.
But, hiring a bunch of people won’t save you. Every step you take determines how you will get to the next step. Over-hiring muddies the waters, and makes you forget what path you’re even on. It becomes impossible to backtrack. Impossible to forge a new path.
Imagine you start at A. Choosing to go to D first instead of C means crossing a frozen tundra. Going to C first means a hike up the mountain.
We spend a lot of time thinking about the order we tackle problems. It’s worked for us so far.