Keeping Your Startup CEO & CTO from Thrashing

Q: How are startup CEOs (and CTOs) like seagulls?

A: They both fly by, swoop in, ruin your lunch, shit on you, and leave.

Ahh, the Startup CEO and CTO. God bless 'em. The ones that are capable enough to grow their company to the point where they hire product managers (usually after closing A-series funding or later), well, they tend to be of a certain personality type:

• Driven, intense
• Smart as hell
• Attracted to bright, shiny objects and the latest ideas suggested by a sales prospect or potential investor or that they read in a magazine article
• Memory-challenged; cannot recall fundamental strategic decisions s/he made 2 days ago that were based on extensive research and discussion with their team.
• Over-confident in his/her own abilities and their team's ability to deliver even more than what they have already committed
• Full of ideas -- both great ones and shitty ones
• Somewhat schizophrenic, with a permanent reality distortion field around them. These folks often change minds very often, yet they will insist that whatever they believe this very moment is what they have ALWAYS believed (even if they said EXACTLY the opposite thing yesterday).

These characteristics helped these visionary, entrepreneurial types get to where they are today, and helped your startup get to where it is right now. If they were NOT like this, you probably would not be employed right now. Otherwise, they would have given up on the company long before needing Product Management.

In fact, your CEO's/CTO's lovable qualities might be exactly why YOU, product manager extraordinaire, were brought on -- in order to insulate the Engineering team (and the rest of the team) from strategic thrashing and daily massive changes in the product direction.

So, next time your boss or some other ne'er-do-well comes by your desk and says something misguided like:

"Instead of focusing on market segment , can you shift the target to 'everyone with a computer or mobile phone?' I don't want us leaving money on the table."

or

"Can't we just port the entire enterprise server product so it runs on an iPhone as a standalone app? Within a month? That would be SO COOL and a really awesome demo!"

or

"I know that our target market is officially healthcare and insurance providers, but there are some great opportunities in the kids' toy market. Can you figure out what features we need for that and add them on the roadmap?" ^[1]

Well, Just Don't.

Don't entertain these crazy-assed notions. Not at first, anyway. Things that "visionary" type execs say when they are walking by your desk are not to be taken seriously until you're sure they are not just fixated on the latest shiny, new object. One of Product Management's vital functions is insulating development from the never-ending ideastorm that plague many company execs. ESPECIALLY startup CEOs and CTOs. Coming up with random ideas, forgetting all previous decisions, and wanting to act immediately is part of the personality profile for these folks.

However, don't provide a long-winded answer about why this idea is not possible, un-researched, counter to decisions the same person made just 2 days ago, inhumane, or whatever -- even if they are true. Don't bother. At best, you'll seem like you have no vision and just like to say 'no' all the time. At worst, you'll have to move forward with the insane idea.

INSTEAD, I recommend you use a technique that I have perfected as the mother of two small kids:

DISTRACTION.

That's right. Distract 'em. Get this person focused on some other 'critically important' issue that requires this derailer's boundless experience, profound business sense, and executive judgement.

And DON'T feel guilty about it. Because if this person's idea truly IS important, you will not be able to distract the idea out of their head. If this person comes back to you two or three times about this idea, well, time to take it seriously and do some research.

If you can't think of any distraction activities on the fly, here are some suggestions.

5. The "tag line" for your product, and its exact buzzwords ("What do you think of calling this the Capitalist Analytic Cloud?").
6. Code names and numbering schemes for releases
7. The marketing website's color scheme
8. Whether you are really doing Agile Development, Modified Agile, or Not-At-All-Agile-But-Claims-It-Is.
9. How much product development and product management process is too much, and how much is too little.
10. How AWESOME that new professional-grade espresso maker thing is -- you know, the one that the Executive in question spent about 3 days painstakingly researching?