Small Companies Need A Hat Rack
There are 3 of us here that run 4 sites which will soon be 13 sites in the upcoming weeks. In contrast Digg is 1 site with over 20+ people helping to make it run. I can only assume that at Digg each person is given a specific role. With the Triad, we all have our specific roles and responsibilities, but there are times where we have to cross over and help out with something that doesn’t always fit under our role.
We don’t have the luxury of always having time to wait until the right person can get a task done. We don’t have stockpiles of VC money to tide us over. When something needs to get done there should be someone around that can get it done. Before we all stuck to what we knew, but I have found that each of us are getting more and more comfortable with letting someone else handle a small task that we would usually do ourselves.
Here is a very, very general breakdown of the areas we cover:
- Mike: Design
- Scrivs: Code
- Tyme: Content
Now if there is a small change in the design that I see needs to be done I have two options, ask Mike to do it or I can do it myself if it can be done. Many times if Mike is already on it I will ask him to fix it, but there are times when I know I can jump in and make a quick change. If Tyme sees something that needs to be moved around in the backend then she can usually do it herself. In the past there were a lot of requests for Mike or myself to do them, but over time I think she has grown comfortable with managing our sites which I am sure has made her job of getting stuff done much easier.
Give Up Your Territory
In larger corporations there is a need to control what you do. If you are the designer you don’t want anyone else touching the design because that might make you feel less valuable or more expendable. You don’t want to teach anyone how to make a change across the site because then if they can do your job and their job, why would the company need you? In a small company you can’t have this mentality. With three people we don’t have the time or resources to stake claims in territory. Sometimes if we need to cross over, we need to cross over.
We need it to be efficient. We need it to survive. We need it to keep moving.
Now this doesn’t happen overnight. We’ve been together for a while and we still aren’t the most well oiled machine, but we are much better than we were in the past. As an individual you have to trust the people around you. You have to trust that they won’t attempt to do part of your job if they really can’t do it. You have to trust that when they do part of your job they will do it correctly. You have to trust that if they need your help they will ask for it. You have to trust yourself that when the time comes and you see an opportunity to teach them an aspect of your job that will make everyone’s lives easier that you will do it.
You see in a small company there needs to be a hat rack because you will wear many hats. When you are done with one hat you put it back on the rack because someone else in the company might need that hat for a bit. Remember though just because you can wear a hat doesn’t mean you should. Also remember that there are some areas where only you will ever wear the hat. With us these areas are:
- Always nice whether he hates you or not: Mike.
- Always willing to ask a question that makes no sense to anyone in the world: Tyme.
- Always good looking even when he just wakes up: Scrivs.
Nobody will take that hat from me.
Alex # —
Agility is key to a successful business, especially a small one. Fortunately small businesses are typically more capable of being agile than monolithic sloths like say, SAP. SAP has all the money and connections, so when they consistently screw up, miss deadlines, and put out crappy products they can still coast along. Small companies can’t.
I’d go so far as to say that even in a large company, you can’t continue to have the mentality of “silos,” or “ownership,” of one area. It is very common, but at the pace of innovation these days it is a severe disability. That isn’t to say that you have to be an expert in everything; it’s more that you need to be able to look and talk out of your comfort zone to get a view on the bigger picture.
I am completely against hiring experts as employees… at least narrowly focused experts. I want someone to be good at their tasks, yes, but more than that I want someone who is comfortable at taking on new tasks or collaborating with others outside of their area of expertise. If I need an expert to do a job, I hire a contractor for the duration of that job.
In this day and age you need to be able to adapt very quickly. Smart people that are good communicators and capable of learning new skills are invaluable.
Scrivs # —
Excellent points Alex. Reminds me of what Gruber said about Apple and how they try to keep a culture of being small even though they aren’t. Being agile is very important and it’s surprising to see even small companies not being able to take an agile approach to things.
The first example I think of is Digg. Reading a summary of the townhall you can see the problem is too much content flowing throughout the site. There is no purpose to it any longer and yet their solution is small increments to help filter content.
In contrast we have a site like Digg in Chawlk and there is a lot of content throughout a lot of different areas. This is not the way to go in our minds so we are doing something about it that you will see very soon. We get accused of not being able to stick to a path when instead we see ourselves moving quickly when we see something not working. That to me is the definition of agile and we wouldn’t be able to do that if we all didn’t excel in multiple areas.
Post A Comment