Today marks two years since I started working at Employee Navigator. It’s been an exciting journey so far and I am looking forward to seeing what the next two years hold in store for us. I wanted to take a few minutes to jot down some of the lessons I’ve learned over the past two years. Some of them we’ve done well at, others we have room for improvement, but I certainly think we’re on the right track. My hope is that I can look back decades from now and still believe in the importance of these lessons.
- Engineer your team with the same focus and commitment you place on engineering a great product. Friction in your organization leads to friction in your product, which leads to unhappy users. In short, the team you build is the product you build.
- Stay focused on creating a great product for a niche market. Don’t try to be all things to everyone, you’ll end up with an incomplete product.
- Be a customer centric organization. Make sure they know their feedback is crucial to your success.
- There is no way to improve what you aren’t measuring. Identify a few key metrics, communicate them to your entire staff, and report on them on a regular basis.
- No one ever accomplished anything without going through the ringer. Don’t let naysayers and non-believers discourage you from building the future you envision.