Startups and Process Development

Developing processes are one of the most important things that a business can do. It is a bit challenging though, because, while it does need to be done at the 30,000 foot level, sometimes we don’t want to remain there. Sometimes ground level, or maybe hovering over the helipad at 200 feet is a better choice. Unfortunately, in both of these situations, the end result is that important information is missed due to the reduced altitude.

The most important thing to do when starting up a company is to realize that, as a subject matter expert, you clearly understand your field well. However, understanding your realm of expertise is entirely different from being able to run a business that services the field. I have worked with start ups before in which the founder clearly knew and understood the field. However, when it came to the administrative technique required to turn their vision for the company into reality, they simply could not execute from a business perspective.

Therefore, when starting a business, it is important that the founder realizes that the product is why you are in business (your expertise), but in order to succeed, you need to build the vehicle (the business) to deliver the product. This is one reason why some founders just can’t seem to get anywhere: product development is important, but making sure that the business is built to deliver it is equally important: in some cases, even more so, since the focus initially will be to build the business so that the product can be delivered successfully.

This brings us to the first topic in this newsletter: Process Development. If you are not quite sure what this is, no worries. When I began my career in business, I didn’t really understand much of the terminology, and as a founder, unless you have had classes in business, you likely will not be familiar with the proper nomenclature.

Think of a process as a factory assembly line, much like Henry Ford developed to produce his famous Model T cars. We all know what the care looked like at the end, but at the beginning, it clearly didn’t resemble a car. It was during its time on the assembly line that all of the parts required for it to function properly were assembled, giving us a car that could then be used for transportation.

In order to properly develop the process, think about every single aspect of your field and the proper sequential order. What needs to happen, when, and what can be staged in a way to actually save time? For example, when the New York Metropolitan Opera is in the middle of their season, one opera could be in the early stages of rehearsal in the morning, another in its final rehearsal during the afternoon, and the opera performance of the evening is actually in the middle of a long run. By staging these rehearsals in this way, they are able to get the maximum benefit of their resources while delivering performances of the highest quality.

What might be most helpful is to open up a word document and write out every step of the process. There is a very good chance that as you write it you will begin to remember things that actually should be done in between previously written steps. Then, you will begin to see that some items might actually be done at a different stage, possibly even concurrently with other items.

At this point, you might be feeling like you are on the right track. You definitely are, but stop and review everything. If your business is like most businesses, you will probably have a selection of similar products. You might even notice that while there might be some overlap between them, there will likely be steps that one product has that others don’t. Therefore, you might find the need to split this one process of product development into separate tracks for each product.

Of course, there are other processes that will need to occur. What happens when a customer does a return for a defective product? While the return itself will likely fall under the realm of procedures (an area which we will discuss next time), that will likely start a series of events (what will you do with the defective product? Will you have it tested to determine why it failed?) While you might be in an industry that doesn’t create a product, the point is this: every business is creating a product. Whether it is a physical product or a service, each business creates a product (or line of products) that is designed for use by customers. In addition to the creation of this product, there are other support processes that will need to occur and that will require development.

It is quite possible that you will be able to identify most of these as you begin. Some you will identify as you are moving out of the start up phase, and others might take a long time until you have successfully grown your business to the point that it is mature. While it is likely impossible to be thoroughly comprehensive in your process development, what is important is that you try to identify as many processes as possible initially. That way, you can get everything figured out as quickly as possible so that you don’t waste time as you work to ramp up operations. Be as thorough in your planning as possible now, so that you can focus on being productive down the road.