Your startup is experiencing rapid growth. How do you decide which tasks to prioritize?

Before scaling up your startup make sure you have 5 things: 1-A strong structure for this growth. 2-Solid pillars (people & resources) you can rely on in growth stage. 3-Self-driven team (accountability). 4-A pre-determined vision (People are aware of the next stage). 5-Well-planned growth monitoring procedures & processes.

When the startup begins to scale quickly, a more strategic approach to managing our expanding workload becomes necessary. One practical application was when I had to choose between accelerating our marketing efforts and enhancing our product features. I decided to prioritize product development because feedback indicated that enhanced features would not only retain current users but also attract new ones more effectively than scaling up marketing alone. This decision was based on data-driven impact assessments, which allowed us to allocate our resources more effectively and focus on tasks that offered the highest return on investment.

It’s not just a matter of priority; it needs to be foundational. When your startup is in full-scale mode, I know many focus directly on the activities that have the fastest ROI, but I have found that usually ends up going a bit haywire. Because so many are focused on pushing it out, it doesn’t get the attention it needs. Delegate—break up your teams to focus on everything at once. Your greatest ROI activity—have a senior team focus on this, not to be fast, but to be great. Create small teams to get everything else done. This allows the foundation to be built strong and the biggest ROI to be achieved on top of that solid foundation. And YES, it is important the entire team knows what is going on, not just their part of the puzzle.

To prioritize tasks during rapid growth, focus on those with the highest impact on revenue, customer satisfaction, and efficiency. Start by identifying tasks that directly align with your strategic goals and are critical for immediate results. Next, evaluate the urgency of each task, addressing time-sensitive issues first. Allocate resources based on your team’s strengths and current capacity. Set clear short-term and long-term goals to guide your task selection. Finally, regularly review progress and adjust priorities as needed to stay aligned with changing needs and data. This method ensures you tackle the most important tasks first, keeping growth on track and operations smooth.

Three things to keep in mind: - Tasks that have tight deadlines, high stakes, and immediate impact, during the growth stage, must be prioritized. - Line up the tasks on the second front, which could create bottlenecks if delayed. - Now, while focusing on the urgent tasks, don't forget to schedule tasks that contribute to long-term growth. What needs attention here is not every task demands your involvement, so always learn to delegate tasks and responsibilities on others.

Determining which tasks to prioritize and how to delegate them wisely is a smart move. Firstly I wanted to manage everything from client relations to everything done at the backend. This became unsustainable as the business scaled. Knowing the bottleneck, I started delegating tasks to the team, analyzing each one's strengths and areas of expertise. This helped in two ways. One, my team felt empowered for their respective roles, two, I was better able to focus only on client engagement and manage the workload more effectively.

When your startup is growing rapidly, monitoring progress is essential for effective task prioritization. Start by identifying tasks based on urgency and impact, then consistently track their progress to ensure timely completion. In my experience, during a period of rapid growth, we held weekly check-ins to review high-priority projects. This approach helped us stay on track, quickly address any delays, and adjust priorities as needed.

Listen closely to your customers. Resolve their pain points. Regularly gather and act on their feedback. And if you are really serious, you will watch your customer base grow.