"Would you like to come to a client meeting right now?" Zohar, Port's CEO, asked me. I was barely two weeks into the job, drinking my morning coffee at 9 AM in the office.
I looked at him, surprised, and said... "What?"
He said, "A client meeting happening soon. A quick yes or no decision."
I thought fast and said, "Let's go, I'm in!" I rushed to grab my bag, notified my upcoming meetings that I wouldn't make it, and we set off, just the two of us, combining walking with the light rail.
I didn't even know what the meeting was about, but I knew I would learn a lot. Zohar also told me it was fine if I just listened and learned.
On the way, we got to talk, and one of the things I asked him was how he decides what to focus on and which directions to pursue. One of the things he shared regarding strategy is that every so often, they sit down and choose what to focus on and how much "bandwidth" each area receives. This way, you can know what's important and make decisions across the company relatively well because you know what's essential, what's prioritized, and what bandwidth is allocated.
Imagine it like a 4-lane highway suddenly flooded with cars speeding like rockets. Some are new customers, some are existing customers who need investment, some are people who have just joined the company, some are new products to develop, and on and on and on. Endless things are happening, endless decisions. But the bottom line is – the bandwidth is pretty fixed.
Similar to running a company, which is challenging on levels I can't even imagine, the role of a Team Lead managing a team can be viewed similarly to what was described here, just in the context of the team.
The moment I, as a manager, know what is more and less important – important for the company, important for the group, important for the team, for me, and for the people – I can create a strategy. Ultimately, I derive my daily schedule from it in the most practical and quantifiable way, but also my perspective and the way I make every decision, sometimes even choosing to forgo investing in something because it's simply not part of the strategy.
But wait... aren't you flexible? Of course, it's super important to be flexible. Therefore, it's possible at the bi-weekly or monthly planning level, depending on the company's pace and need, to make small adjustments and shift slightly left or right, but not to change the strategy every moment. Moving in a certain direction sometimes requires time, persistence, and depth. If every small push or urgent request from the side is answered, we will constantly be in chaos and won't achieve our goals in a controlled manner. Organized chaos is part of the job, especially in startups, but you have to be careful not to get sucked into it and just go with the flow without a specific strategy, because sometimes it's very easy and comfortable but not necessarily the right thing to do.
At Port, for example, as part of the onboarding I did (and it was also the case at Forter at a certain stage), I built buckets of things I want to invest in. They must not only be in my head. It's important to share them, for example, with the manager and perhaps with the VP/CTO to make further adjustments and refinements to the company's strategy and introduce more parameters. But starting by preparing something so clear, written, and maybe even visual (if that's your style) helps to speak a common language and build a better strategy that changes and improves over time. Once this becomes a routine and enters the calendar, we can also see in terms of "bandwidth"/percentages how much we invested in it and make adjustments. As practical as it gets.
At the Team Leads retreat I'm leading in early January, we're going to do just that and build an initial strategic direction for everyone using the Buckets method that suits them. From there, they can take it back to their company and continue using the tools they received at the retreat.
Pictured: My initial drawing on a whiteboard at home before the feedback from my manager and the CTO changed the distribution.
