Table of Contents
Define the different roles on your team
The first step in any project management strategy is defining elements of the process, what they do and when they need to be done. One of the most important parts of this process is creating a list of roles that will be used throughout the project and understanding what each person’s unique responsibilities are. Roles could include:
Product Owner – a person who is responsible for gathering input from stakeholders, defining requirements and managing the product backlog.
Product Manager – a person who is responsible for gathering input from stakeholders, defining requirements and managing the product backlog.
Project Manager – a person who is responsible for facilitating communication among the business users, developers and other project staff.
Delivery Manager – a person responsible for managing the project and doing work that is typically done by software development.
Business Consultant – consists of staff members needed for business analysis, market research and system design.
Collaborator – a person who is typically an expert in one field of expertise, but is required to work with a team in order to help deliver the product.
Technical Consultant- a person who has expertise in one or more of the following areas: architecture, development, testing or quality assurance.
Pre-Production Support – a person who is hired to help manage a project from the beginning to the end of the development process.
Project Manager [or equivalent] – responsible for defining, executing and tracking all project progress.
Assign each role to a specific individual
The next step is to assign each role to a specific individual. For example, if your project has an entrepreneur, CFO and COO then these roles should be assigned to specific individuals. If your company is still in the startup phase then you might have an entrepreneur, CTO (Chief Technical Officer) and Chief Marketing Officer. It’s important to stress that the role of CEO is very different from the role of COO. The CEO requires an aptitude for business management, leadership and making sure that all departments are working together to reach the common goal of profitability. The COO, on the other hand, is like a hands-on manager. They will be responsible for day-to-day operations and implementing the CEO’s vision through the right departments.
The CFO is the person in charge of making sure that all financial data is correct, whether it’s revenue, expenses or budget management. Remember that your business will be spending a lot of money at this stage and as such, taking care of your financial data is a very important role.
The entrepreneur is the one who will have their name with the business when it launches. That person will be in charge of sales and marketing to ensure that prospects are converted into paying customers.
Title:Assign each role to a specific individual
Person #1, Person #2, and Person #3 are examples of valid roles. For example, here is an excerpt from the wikipedia article on Steve Jobs:
Set expectations for each role and how they contribute to the overall success of the startup
Once roles have been set, it’s important to set expectations for how each person will contribute to the overall success of the startup. This is done by defining what success looks like for each role and making sure that everyone involved understands that if they aren’t meeting their own goals then it will be because of a lack of communication. In the end, you’ll need to agree upon a set of goals that everyone can work together to accomplish. It’s important to note that each role will have its own set of goals and be responsible for keeping this list current. This is one of the most important parts of startup team structure as it will help you understand where you need to focus your time and effort.
While defining goals for each member of your startup team, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind:
· The clearer your goals are, the easier they will be to follow. Vague goals won’t accomplish much. Instead, you want measurable standards (e.g., how many cold calls you make) that can tell you whether or not a goal is being met. If a goal isn’t being met, you should understand why.
· Every member of the team must have goals, not just one person. This means that everyone needs to assign themselves goals and meet them. If someone else on the team meets their goals for them, it won’t be effective for long.
Encourage team members to work together and support one another
It’s important to make sure that team members work well together and support one another. This is achieved by making sure that they all understand what the others are working on and why it’s important to reach a common goal. The best way to do this is by setting regular meetings and making sure that these team members have ample time to talk. Communication is key when establishing startup team structure. It is important to talk about the problems that a company is facing, and how each part of the team can help. Encouraging team members to work together and supporting one another will help solve these problems.
There are always going to be problems, and these should always be solved however possible. In order to help solve these issues, it is important for each member of the startup team structure to understand all of what someone else is working on. This will give each team members a sense of what the others are working on, and can also help to uncover new ideas.
Encouraging team members to work together and support one another creates a stronger startup company by knowing what is going on at all times. This will also provide a more efficient startup team structure that is united in their common goal. Encouraging team members to work together and support one another will benefit everyone, both existing and new staff members.
Celebrate successes as a team and learn from failures together
Another thing that you can do to reinforce startup team structure is making sure everyone involved reaches their individual goals. Before the project is complete, it’s an excellent idea to sit down with each member of the team and let them talk about what they have learned. This should be an open and honest conversation where you can talk about what worked and address any possible issues so that they aren’t repeated. It is important to recognize the good ideas, even if they came from team members who are leaving.
By making sure that everyone is successful, you show employees that you appreciate their work and are concerned about them as a person. You also create stability by showing them how much you value their contributions. If a team member leaves because of problems in your organization, he will take those concerns with him. This can lead to negative word-of-mouth marketing, which can seriously damage your business reputation.
