Lack of Focus
Problems in Dreamland zeroes in on the operational reasons once promising startups melt down - and how to avoid it. This is perfect for founders, leadership teams, or anyone in a highly cross functional IC role (Chiefs of Staff, product managers, biz ops, etc).
The third meltdown trigger: lack of focus
Squirrel! Squirrel! Squirrel!
That's all I hear when I walk into most startups. Sure, the people I'm talking to are using very eloquent words to describe a compelling new idea or initiative or customer segment, but all I hear is "squirrel!"
Squirrel syndrome is more popularly known as shiny object syndrome, but as someone who has learned my most important life lessons from Disney content, I call it squirrel syndrome in honor of Dug the dog from the Pixar film Up. It's perfect - Dug has an incredible piece of technology, a collar that translates his thoughts into any human language. But it never amounts to much because he keeps getting distracted by squirrels.
If that's not a startup parable, I don't know what is.
Anyhow, what was I saying? Oh yeah - FOCUS. Seriously, just focus. It is the single most important piece of advice I give founders, to the exclusion of nearly everything else. In fact, I can draw a direct and compounding causal relationship between a founder's ability to focus and the startup's ultimate outcome and valuation. It's that powerful.
Everyone knows it, too. Share that advice, and you get a look like ... "yeah, totally - that's it? I focus." That's it. The problem is that focus is very hard to actually achieve, nearly impossible, especially with product strategy and product builds.
Let's start by taxonomizing the types of squirrels, or distractions, that run rampant through most startups.
Types of distractions (squirrels)
Great ideas from on high: founder (or worse the board) has an idea, it's THE BEST IDEA EVER, and they want to do it immediately. It might actually be a genuinely great idea. Or maybe it's half baked. Doesn't matter, because it feels monumental and it's coming in hot!
Important customer or prospect wants something: customers are very want-y. This does not mean they are wrong, but they're trained to ask for what they want, and many startups fold and give it to them, if the customer is big enough. Wants, however, are not the same as needs. This is especially challenging when the want is presented as critical to unlocking incremental revenue (closing a prospect, etc).
Things catch on fire: usually unexpectedly. This happens. You can't build a plane while flying it and not have the engines at least start to smoke.
Competitor makes a move: exacerbated if the move is accompanied by a glamorous sounding press release. Just remember - most press releases are bullsh*t. They're the idealized form of something that is pretty janky in reality, or may not even exist.
Old fashioned fear: founder wakes up in a cold sweat at 213am, convinced that nothing is working. And therefore everything needs to be changed. Because change feels good. It restarts the clock on hope.
These distractions cannot be prevented. They are inevitable. And they are not a priori good or bad. Their mere presence does not mean we lose focus. The challenge is that they are all surprises and pop up unannounced, and we need to make decisions in reaction to them.
In its simplest form, you have one decision to make over and over again: chase the squirrel, or keep focused on executing your plan?
Why does focus breakdown?
So what causes us to chase those squirrels?
We seek perfection. Startups are packed with type A personalities who want to fight all the fires. Solving a problem feels good, even if it's totally off plan and not necessary.
It's very hard to sustain enthusiasm for the plan over time. We can quickly forget, especially at an organizational level, why we started the journey.
The plan is harder than we expected and grass looks greener with the new initiative. Yeah, startups are hard. And guess what? The new initiative will be just as hard - even harder actually, because you're starting cold.
We hold a misguided belief that keeping options open is the likeliest path to success. Numerous research studies have shown that the more different versions of the future a human being sees as possible (I could be a doctor... or a lawyer... or an engineer... or a DJ) the less likely it is that any of those versions come true.
We believe the fallacy of costless explorations. This belief is announced by phrases like "no, I'm definitely not asking you to deviate from plan... I know we just agreed on it last week in the product strategy meeting. I just want you to explore this idea on the side."
How can you create a self correcting system to maintain organizational focus?
Good news - you can build a system and way for the company to operate that is designed to catch squirrels, analyze them calmly, and make a thoughtful decision on whether to deal with them or let them be and maintain focus. Critically, this is not just about founder focus (although it starts there), it's about organization focus.
Note that blind commitment - ostrich head in the sand style - is not focus. That is ignorance. You must stay focused while being open to the possibility that your chosen path is non-viable.
Have a clearly documented and aligned set of shared company goals. It is impossible to decide whether to stick to plan (focus), or whether to chase the squirrel (new path) without an objective way to score each possible path. The easiest way is to ask "does it further our goals, and by how much?"
Set up disciplined idea intake, triage, and feedback loops. Product teams or biz ops teams are often excellent at running these processes. The feedback loop is the piece that is often missed, and it's the bit that tells the person who came up with the idea if it's on plan, and will be incorporated into the focus, or a distraction (and if the latter, why). Without the feedback loop, we can't train our teams to generate value generating squirrels instead of value destroying squirrels.
Say "no" at least 10x more than you say "yes." I see so many founders and executives say "good idea, yes, but not right now" when what they really feel and mean and should say clearly is just "no" (without caveats that leave the door wedged open).
Frequently pressure tests the hypotheses that caused you to focus on the plan in the first place. Are they holding true and being validated? Are the coming apart? In the former scenario, be ironclad about staying focused. But if the hypotheses are failing, look to the squirrels - they may hold the answer on where to go next.
Celebrate small wins! Focus takes energy, and great plans take time. Celebrations feed and nourish teams along the way.
If you hear and see squirrels running rampant at your startup, contact Lemonade Stand to assess the situation and help you put in place a system for maintaining focus.
Confession: I felt somewhat guilty writing this because I am, in the real world, engaged in a forever war with squirrels. They tear apart the patio furniture and eat the tomatoes in the garden. One even chewed through the cafe lights and brought them down (how it avoided electrocution is unclear). I have strategized. I have raged. I have employed BB guns in my weaker moments. And yet the squirrels still win.
Problems in Dreamland is a five part series:
Lack of focus
Stumbling over the second act
Who's the boss... really?
