Startups and Enterprises operate very differently. Product management is done quite differently. What about product strategy? What are the differences (and similarities)? What do we need to pay attention to? What is important to consider if we move from one to the other?
In this episode, I spoke with Jonathan Rodriguez, Product Lead at Flieber, a growing startup in the logistics industry. Before, he was a lead at Eventbrite, a multi-business, multi-national, enterprise-sized company.
With this transition, Jonathan has a very interesting view of how strategy is done differently in these opposite contexts.
My Takeaways
- Good enterprises generate the space for strategy work, usually with regular cadences, and empowering teams to contribute.
- In large companies, the importance of “sub” metrics that help each team explain how they contribute to the bigger goal.
- In startups, a problem I hear frequently is CEOs involved in every tactical decision. It’s interesting how the role of product can create a more strategy oriented conversation, still with high frequency but having the CEO adding much more value to the context instead of the tactics.
- There is a big contrast between corporate quarterly strategic review, and the constant learnings of Startups, that are weekly having learnings about their strategic assumptions. These require much more frequent interaction, constant alignment, and more communication. Product plays a critical role to fulfill these needs.
- I find this useful for any company size: while you may have an overarching strategy, it is good to focus on one segment/need/niche at a time. While you do it, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.
- At startups, you need to have results every day, and there is more tension between short term achievements and the long term aspiration. Large corps sitting in big existing streams of revenue, tend to have a focus on future grow and long term stability.
I hope you enjoyed it! If you think it may be useful to others, sharing is much appreciated!