15 Roles Every Startup Needs Filled

This post goes through 15 critical roles then suggests which ones can be added later. Lots of discussion in the comments too…

I’ve been thinking about how to prepare for Startup Weekend, which is approaching quickly. Part of the registration process was assigning yourself a “specialty”. Of the seven designations, I chose architect for myself, whatever that means. But the role-designation question might be useful, and I think it’s worth looking at all the hats to be worn and shared in a startup.

In my previous startup I tried to wear so many hats — too many — and we failed.

Walls of Separation

I know the whole Tropicana is old news but I should’ve posted this last month:

Today as I watched a video of Peter Arnell describe the rationale behind Tropicana’s rejected package design, I had a bit of an epiphany. Many companies, brands and organizations are inadvertently building walls between themselves and their customers. It’s unintentional, happened over time—but ultimately in this age of empowerment, customers feel more connected to each other than they do to your business or brand. Maybe it’s always been this way—but it seems to me that it’s getting worse, not better.

Getting serious about your meeting problem

Really good suggestions from Seth Godin.

Some folks are going to eight hours of meeting a day. At Ford, they used to have meetings to prepare for meetings, just to be sure everyone had their story straight.

If you’re serious about solving your meeting problem, getting things done and saving time, try this for one week. If it doesn’t work, I’ll be happy to give you a full refund.

I especially like “2. Schedule meetings in increments of five minutes; 4. Remove all the chairs from the conference room; 7. The organizer of the meeting is required to send a short email summary, with action items, to every attendee within ten minutes of the end of the meeting.

A Naked Audience?

Presentation prep advice from Nancy Duarte:

“Imagine everyone in the audience naked.”

Are you kidding me?!?!? Why would I want to imagine standing in front of a large group of naked people? Just thinking of that makes me shudder. I mean seriously what if you are presenting to a group of engineers? No offense, but I can’t imagine presenting to Steve Wozniak as he stares at me in the nude! Steve, I love you, but…

The point of this advice is to lighten your focus, relieve your stress, and allow you to relax into the moment. The secret is, there’s no secret–the key is preparation and rehearsal. Here’s some techniques I’ve been shown over the years to help me obtain focus and be more relaxed onstage.

The Best Way to Understand Your Customers

Adaptive Path’s Peter Merholz is now writing a column for Harvard Business Publishing:

Recently, Sprint Nextel announced that in Q4 2008, they lost 1.3 million customers. It’s tempting to blame the recession, but then how do you explain AT&T Wireless gaining 2.1 million subscribers, and Verizon gaining 1.4 million? Forrester’s 2008 Customer Experience Index suggests a reason. Sprint Nextel was far and away the worst-ranked of the wireless service providers. Out of all the companies (from a range of industries), Sprint Nextel ranked 108 out of 114. Verizon Wireless ranked 59th, and AT&T 64th. It’s in difficult economic times that customer experience matters most — you don’t want to make it even easier for your customers to walk away because they’ve been so frustrated working with you.

optimism + the idea industry: 5 directions for living on purpose

A smart approach to tough times:

Via facebook magic, I’ve gotten so many messages of sadness, angst in the last few weeks: layoffs, survivor guilt, meaningfuness of work. The conversations are tough. The last thing I want to offer is a handy motivational speech or the “not to worry” quackery. But as you ask for advice (or comfort or a reality check), I have a bit to offer.

And the first part is :: we’ll get through this.

After that, no easy answers. Instead, I offer something looking from way above the fray and then, later, back into the guts of reality.