Project Management and Start-ups

I am a believer in processes.

People believe working in a start-up means to have no processes, a free-for-all, do-whatever-your-heart-desires.

But this is far from truth.

Post my MBA, I have been part of start-ups and I have seen the benefit of having processes first hand. They need not be something that is copied from elsewhere it can be something you create and follow. But you need to have one.

For instance, I was managing this small service based start-up where the only process seemed to be to attend the daily sprint by the client. But as a manager this was in-sufficient.

It did not give me, the manager, the time to respond to queries that needed or could be addressed within the team.

As any manager would tell you controlling the "narrative" of the project is key to project management.

So, I asked the team to provide me updates before the call or often times to have a team call during the day. This gave me a chance to understand the issues that were being encountered during the day. A chance to provide my inputs or direct them to members who could.

Did it work? Hell yeah!

Over a period of time the team realized the queries that could be handled internally and those that really needed inputs from the client.

You see a simple addition of a simple process of checking updates (in the right spirit! of course) and having the team share gave me two benefits -

1. a more cohesive team and.

2. better turn around of work as we could answer our own queries.

So having a process is more important than what it is

What are other simple processes that you have introduced that have given you benefits beyond what you expected??