Creation of a team. Product management for everyone!

A minimally viable team

At the very beginning, at the stage of the idea, when the founder is not yet the founder, but only the person who came up with a brilliant idea, the whole team is himself. At this stage, this may be enough, because now a future startup has a goal to test its idea for viability (to conduct initial market research, describe the characteristics of a product that will bring value to users, communicate with these very future users). If the founder copes with these tasks, then he can be called a minimally viable team.

This is how it is customary to call a team that is able to convey the minimum value to the user of its product, solving his problem. A prerequisite is the sale of value or the promise of delivery of this value when the product is created.

Naturally, no one is able to do everything on their own, especially if they plan to launch a startup.

?Hipster, Hacker, Hustler?

The theory of “Hipster, Hacker, Hustler” or “3H”, first expressed by AKQA technical director Rei Inamoto, describes exactly what kind of people are needed for the success of the company. Ray identifies 3 types of roles that, being in your team, together create a kind of formula for success. It is these 3 roles that should be in a minimally viable team in order to interest the investor, move forward to success and actively grow.

The Hipster

A hipster is the person who, in some incredible way, already knows today what the audience needs tomorrow, is able to “ride the trends”, clothe the dreams of other team members in something similar to the company’s mission and formulate the value that will be embedded in the product, even if it was just born on a napkin in a cafe. Moreover, the hipster will also be able to formalize the idea into a slogan or image that is understandable not only to techies, but also to future consumers. Hipster does not just generate ideas into the void, he knows exactly who and why it will be useful to acquire.

Moving away from abstract arguments about expensive coffee and strange musical tastes that are attributed to hipsters, with some degree of conditionality, one can equate their role to the role of a visionary, including from design, and often from marketing.

As a hipster, the example of Johnny Ive, Apple’s permanent chief designer for many years, the man who made Apple products the way the whole world knows them, is usually cited.

The Hustler

Perhaps all that you knew about the Hustler before your startup present is that there is such a magazine. Great! Then you know that there is almost nothing forbidden for a hustler. On the way to sales, of course, and what did you think about?

He has just enough charm that he is enough to make any competitor vomit from envy. His network of contacts is such that it is enough to sell your product to about… your entire target audience, and then offer to go to an adjacent market. This is provided that you have a separate budget for business cards for your Hustler.

The hustler will be your key to the market, more precisely, he will crack the market for you, sometimes climbing through the window if the door is locked.

As an example of a Hustler, Western experts call Sheryl Sandberg.

Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg is both a business mogul and an inspiring figure for young women. Having started her career as a graduate of the Faculty of Economics (Harvard), Cheryl quickly climbed the career ladder and got places in prestigious institutions such as the US Treasury Department and Google. At the end of 2007, Cheryl met Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg at a Christmas party, and soon she was offered the position of the company’s chief operating officer. How do you like such communication skills?

The Hacker

If you studied at a technical university or worked for a technology company, then you can well imagine the guys in the hoodie at the computer. Ok! You know everything about hackers that the filmmakers attribute to them. In reality, the main thing you need to know about hackers is that they are able to make a reality of the scribbles on napkins that the Hipster threw. And, yes, often you have to sit at the computer for hours for this, and the hoodie has nothing to do with it at all.

These guys usually speak their own language, individual words in which you will be familiar. Although no, they won’t.

These guys and girls should be protected, they are your secret weapon. I’m serious, competitors will lure them away while you went for a cup of coffee. You will have no problems with their motivation, they are genetically programmed to make the world a better place in its technical part.

However, there are risks. It is important to clearly control the hacker’s product vision. The understanding of the ideal product from a technical point of view may differ from that of the consumer. Except in cases when the consumers are the same technogics as themselves.

I’m almost sure that you, like me, will name Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, the man who, together with Steve Jobs, gave rise to the first company with a capitalization exceeding a trillion dollars, as an example of a Hacker. At the same time, Steve often remained in the shadows, becoming, however, a multimillionaire. I wonder if he’s wearing a hoodie?

Who else?

Sometimes the role of “analyst” is added to this trinity. Of course, management based on numbers has much more chances to lead to success, but my own experience suggests that a Hipster is not just aware of fashion trends, it is the result of market analysis, competitive environment, modern technological trends and other things. Therefore, the role of an analyst can be singled out if you don’t have a real Hipster.

The perfect team

The next stable combination is 5 people. I call this a minimal ideal team (VIT) with minimal hierarchy.

Naturally, two more people are also brought by the “human resources” (he is also a producer, entrepreneur, Hustler). Up to this point, the main sales were on him, with the growth of the business, he attracts another seller to the project. They can divide sales according to the principle of b2b/b2c or sales/account manager, etc.

There is also a growing need for accounting, analytics, accounting, payments, cost control — an economist/financier/ analyst is in this role.

As a result , the command takes the form:

? Entrepreneur/Human resources/Hustler — main sales and customers, team selection, finance, energy and vision of the whole project, drive. Communication with investors, tracking the main KPIs. At this stage, this person can be called CEO/CEO.

? Sales&Marketing — a person who is responsible for sales and/or generating potential customers. If an Entrepreneur is engaged in b2b sales, then the second person is engaged in traffic / leadgen, etc. The Commercial director. In two-sided platforms (marketplace), one person is needed for each of the parties.

? Expert /Builder — a person who is responsible for the development of the functionality and support of the site. In technological projects related to the development of software products, this is CTO.

? Finance/Administrator/Accounting — cost control, payment systems, reporting, metric analysis, accounting. Findir.

? Operations/Hipster/ Delivery — content, support, logistics, delivery. Everything else. This is a COO, an operating or executive director.

Mentor

It seems that, in principle, you can do without a mentor. Especially if you have some business experience behind you. Yes, but without a good mentor, you will remain a “yard” team and are unlikely to get into the top league.

My opinion: a mentor is always needed for every project. This gives a huge boost to the business as a whole, especially at an early stage. Believe my experience, one hour of communication with an intelligent person saves millions and years of life, and in case of success gives at least $1M (one million dollars) to the valuation of your business.

How to find a mentor and how to attract him? Your Elevator Pitch (brief essence, message, message, value proposition — we’ll talk about this later), your energy and your faith in what you are doing. Why will he help you? Due to the fact that an experienced person is always pleased to share their knowledge and see an enterprising young man as a young man, to know that his ideas and experience will not be lost and will be useful to the student. And, of course, a possible share in the project.

Who can be a mentor for you? Someone who has passed your way and is more experienced than you by a head. Plus, it is important: you should be comfortable communicating with him, and he should be comfortable with you.

If you copy someone’s business model, the best mentor in the world for you, of course, will be the one who has already launched this project and is successfully developing it.

The simplest instructions in the world for starting a business sounds like this:

1. Formulate an idea, a value proposition, a message.

2. Find a mentor who will tell you what to do and what not to do.

3. Find the first customer, find the second customer, etc.

You won’t believe it, but this is really a working instruction.

Conclusions

Now that “Hipster, Hacker, Hustler” is on board, you can go to investors with a much higher chance of success, I remind you to tell them about your team: “We have all the necessary people, when you get acquainted, you will have no doubt that we will achieve the goal.”