Startup Problems: User-Oriented or boss-Oriented?
Most software and technology companies usually have a channel or group in the chat system where they try to report possible system bugs before their users, and suggestions for improvement come up. They do, they talk about productivity and how they can have a more successful product. The first signs of a boss-centric product (or rather, a culture) appear in these channels and groups. These groups get crowded and the discussion of a particular topic gets hot only when the discussion is started by one of the managers, investors or C-Levels of the organization.
You may have seen that when an issue is raised by one of the top managers, there is a commotion in the organization and everyone tries to develop the desired service of that high-ranked person with incredible speed to Reach the final output. During the day, they work hours and hours, they work all night, constantly report performance, and act with the highest possible motivation levels. The surprising thing is that these are exactly the same team or individuals who, a few days ago, claimed that their efficient work is about 2 hours a day, and if we expect more from them, it will be more than capacity and their productivity Will decrease dramatically!
Incidentally, these are the people who always have a data-driven claimant in mind, and always challenge the performance of product or UX teams, believing that most of the money spent on user research teams is wasted. Their tone of voice, energy level, and productivity vary throughout the day, depending on whether one or more of the managers are around. They don’t take tasks from anyone and don’t accept anything easily (in some cases they don’t accept it at all!), And their motto is always: “Talk to me with data”. Sometimes these “with-data” people (!); will accept The stupidest ideas and the most childish words from the managers, without the slightest delay; Not only do they accept, but also they immediately start the development operation and work productively for long times!
What’s wrong?
First of all, if you see any of these behaviors, congratulations, you are in a boss-centric organization. The name of a startup in Iran, when it was established, strats with events such as “Startup Weekend” or names such as “Accelerator”, “Sarava”, “Angel Investor” And things like that. In the very first years, these structures introduced topics such as “user-centric”, “data-driven”, “user experience”, “interactive designs”, and similar names and maps into the so-called startup culture. After that, the ecosystem became familiar with user research models based on what they heard, and realized that “we have to do something that the customer likes!”. So, the rapid testing models and feedback-based structures got so popular. Do you also feel that the previous sentence has something missing? This is exactly what wasn’t included in this structure:
“This feedback should be collected from potential end-users of the product, not investors, managers or so-called stakeholders!”
Let’s be fair, that part of “feedback and MVP & blah blah” in startup culture; Incidentally imported, fully imported. but slightly localized! The ruling totalitarian thinking also overshadowed the startup ecosystem. The SuperApps, and investors’ interest in investing in this model of concepts is a clear indication of the penetration of totality into the ecosystem. “Community ”; In today’s world, doesn’t necessarily mean people within a physical boundary. For example, people with a similar thought, an ability, a title or … can be called a community. “culture” also is“the average behavior, thinking and characteristic of individuals in a community.” The subject we’re talking about is a kind of modern culture of ostracism in the startup ecosystem, a culture that makes teams, organizations and individuals act rather than user-centric; Be boss-centric!
How did this happen?
When a person or persons, with the aim of gaining support, began to explain and teach startup structures to the pillars of power (meaning investors or accelerators, and not necessarily sovereignty), first, to evoke a sense of empathy, the heat of the issue certainly increased. Second, because they want to make Dependencies, some of the explanations and concepts probably wouldn’t have been conveyed, and it would probably have been interrupted and conditionally continued. The traditional investment structure was questioned, and the person or persons who were aware of the details weren’t investors. This made the pillars of power more dependent on these people. Most of these people were either closely acquainted with such structures or were just famililer with this model through hearing and writing. And of course, since they probably didn’t do anything in the correct structure model of such structures, they had to return to the Iran and try to implement their own standards on this way of thinking. (startup models)
In many cases, they were able to attract support from the pillars of power, based on what they heard and saw, without accurate knowledge of the concepts, and relying on the ignorance of the other parties, only with the help of Show-off, without providing any productive estimates. Imagine the same process extending from the pillar of power to the founder, from the founder to the CEO, from the CEO to the team leaders, and from the team leaders to the developers of the organization. The developer should likely ransom the team leader to attract support, the team leader should likely ransom the senior manager, the senior manager should likely ransom the founder and so on! If the slightest knowledge of the concepts is made in each of these layers, this chain can be broken well!
On the other hand, the culture of totalitarianism, which witnessed the progress of this model of business development, quickly penetrated and gained power in those structures. Since in govermental organizations and cultures, relational structures are much more powerful than normative structures, and glorification, lying, cheating and so on, are part of their unwritten rules, this model of boss-centric thinking has been reinforced in all of the Structure and the ecosystem.
Well, before we get lost, let me say: The result of all this kind of cultures, is the birth of a boss-centric culture in almost the entire Iran’s startup ecosystem. Managers in this culture; are powerful, are very extrovert, and the show-off is almost an inseparable part of their lives. They stand still with the same pest culture, and also trying to continue their progress with the same model. Which are often successful because of this pest.
What happens now?
Organizations, startups, and teams all claims they have non-hierarchy but they are operating in the most hierarchical way possible. We constantly hear from all of them that the structure of their organization is flat, but nothing happens without the consent of the managers. They always shout “We’re User-centric, but the outputs don’t have even one single satisfied user! They claim to be very normative but it is almost impossible to get into those organizations without a relationship at all. They think they are process-oriented but they don’t show the slightest sign of structure. Govermental symbols can be seen on the front of their website and they place the orders of Govermental organizations on the highest periority. They claim that human resources are their most valuable things, while large-scale layoffs are so easy for them. I have seen some human resources managers that forces people to sign temporary contracts so that if the company don’t succeed, the employees can’t receive their natural rights! In such an atmosphere, productivity, creativity and such concepts, are nothing but lazy jokes.
You may say in your mind right now that might not this bad, but I have to say that in such a structure, there are no more than two possible ways: First, your business, startup or productive team or organization will never be so powerful that be able to attract the attention of governmental guys. In this case, goals such as millions of installations or tens of millions of monthly users and things like that will be almost nothing but a foggy dream. And second, the effect of this model of thinking through the penetrate of Govermental individuals or close to government to your organization; In this case, too, creativity, productivity, and motivation will die, as I said before. Organizations will Fell back, and if there are no imposed structures (eg filtering), no one will use the services and products that are born of this structure.
As a result, the output of products, teams and processes are manager-friendly, investor-friendly or …, rather than user-friendly! Products that even the managers of those products and services wouldn’t use, or even sometimes consider the use of these products as a sign of degradation and decline of status. The question is, how should a product that don’t feed the manufacturers’ needs, and don’t believe in, should feed the user’s needs?
What is the solution?
In such models, we can at least clarify things and be honest with ourselves. If you have the dream of millions of users and billions Dollors of revenue stream, in your head, you should think some times may come that you will no longer be a decision maker and things won’t go on your way. For example, you need to define a milestone for yourself, where you have met your minimum expectations, reached the minimum personal financial level, and minimum satisfaction by yourself. At that point, you really have to justify to yourself that from now on, whatever happened to the business, don’t upset too much, or if you can’t stand with it, when you reach to those milestones, in any state of the product, give it up and exit. Let this sick structure go its own way and don’t confront it too much, because unfortunately, most of the time, it is almost impossible.
The only hope that can be for, is the only major change in our thinking patterns, which starts behind our desk, expands slowly, fights the DNA of bad thoughts, and will made improvement generation by generation. It starts repairing everything and everyone: from the prisoner organization to education system, from economics to the science, from politics to the religions, and of course our own startup ecosystem. Until the next hundreds of years, there will be no news of this mire in Our Countries.
Hoping that day…
