How to form an innovative project team? Do managers need geniuses?

The launch of an innovative project is a very difficult matter. It's nervous and it takes a huge effort, which even the worker does not even dream of from a quiet and cozy corporate world. Do not want to offend professionals in corporations, they are very worthy people, but it is so. Therefore, every founder must choose a team, which together with him can go through all the difficulties, turmoil and failures. And the failures will be, and very much. Even the most incredibly smart and hardworking professional can not start a startup alone. A solitary builder is one of the 18 reasons for the failure of start-ups, which Paul Graham, the founder of the most successful business accelerator in Silicon Valley, says in his article.

But, on the other hand, the project at an early stage can not afford to maintain a really large team. Therefore, it is necessary to find a certain balance between hiring all the necessary people and saving resources.

First, before we start listing all the necessary or useless for the innovative project of the staff, I would like to convey one idea. The founder of the project will be sure to do everything. Absolutely everyone: he will have to poke his nose into the work of each of his employees, because no one knows exactly how to startups. Even if these people are engaged in their profession is not the first year. Especially if this is the case. Because the process of working in a stable company and in a start-up is different as the sky and water. The color is similar, but consists of completely different things. So, the founders, please leave the hope that you will hire an experienced marketer and you will no longer have to deal with marketing and sales. It is fantastic.

So who needs the founder first? Let's consider the classical correct situation when the founder of a startup is a young engineer or scientist. Which is good in its business, but not very well versed in business. Who can he hire?

1) Marketer

One of the most frequent positions in the list of plans for hiring young innovators. "We will hire a marketer and he will make us an excellent marketing" - that's what you can often hear from innovators in response to a question about plans to enter the market. Why this does not work - in Russia there are simply no good specialists in promoting innovations. Our marketing market grew mainly from branches of Western marketing agencies that were launched in Russia. They work with huge brands, like Coca-Cola or Mercedes. Of course, not all specialists built a career in such agencies, but this imprint imposed on the entire market. Even the best specialists from the industrial market will not be able to do anything for just starting a project. Not because they are bad specialists, no. Because the goals of the companies in which they are accustomed to work, and the goals of the startup are very different. In addition, such people are used to getting good money, which you can hardly pay them. You can lure a share in the project, but think again, is it worth it?

The second way, as starters often do with marketing, is hiring a person without any work experience at all. Often, this is a student of the marketing and journalism department, who falls down writing texts and communicating with the press. This method is better than the previous one only in that it requires much less expenditure. Firstly, such a person learned from books, and it is good if for really good books, because he himself is most often unable to assess them. Secondly, the complete lack of understanding of what to do and unreasonable actions most often can do harm, not good.

Summing up, we can say that a marketer or a PR man is only needed when the founders themselves clearly understand what he will do and they simply do not have enough hands. In this case, both options can work well. But with one condition - a person should love your project, your team and be ready to learn or re-learn. This applies to both the green student and the venerable pro, because both of them will have to retrain.

In all other cases, it is also not necessary to forget about marketing. But it's better to just have an excellent specialist or freelancer on the spot, who can perform one-off work and advise the founders in case of lack of competence.

2) Engineers

In the same category we add scientists. Development of new technology is often beyond the power of the author of the original idea. In this case, you have to hire people more experienced in the subject area. You can lure them into the project in two ways. First, an interesting topic for research. People who love their work are always the best engineers, and they are truly fanatics, so they can go to your project for a lower salary (within reasonable limits) just because they like what you are doing. But in this case, to offer a really valuable person a share to keep, will not be superfluous. The share in the project and the future income is just the second motivation. By the way, in Silicon Valley engineers understand their business very well and often go to work in a startup because of the share.

Relationships build with them, as practice shows quite difficult. First of all, because really good engineers are people who value themselves very much. And they are not ready to accept instructions from a person with less experience. And this is inevitable, because the vision of the project is only founding in the head and if they can not deliver it to their team, then the project can be boldly buried.

3) Managers

The most controversial topic. Do managers need geniuses? Everyone watched the movie and remember how Steve Jobs was fired by the same hired John Scully. In addition, the role of a manager in an innovative company is very ambiguous. Someone says that such people are still useless, someone believes that without a professional entrepreneur, no innovator will achieve anything.

In fact, there is a very clear study, which is called the Startup Genome (the first part of it), and in which it says that the ratio of engineers / managers in the successful teams is very much different from the specifics of the startup. In order to clarify this issue in detail, you need to rewrite the entire study, so we recommend that you just read the study itself. His Russian translation is available at http://freshle.com.

In addition, there is a very obvious solution to this dispute. At the first stage, the start-up manager should do everything himself. Because he has a vision and at a stage where the most important is the development of the product and the search for the first customers, then no one can replace the founder in this. But in the life of each company, sooner or later the period begins when it grows so much that business processes start to slow down progress, it is necessary to build communications between different departments, and plan expansion to new markets. In a word, optimize and scale processes. That's when the person who knows how to do this professionally - the manager - should appear. By the way, Steve Jobs just behind this hired John Scully. And he coped with his task, because Apple showed good growth the first time after the dismissal of Jobs. But the hired manager could not cope with the role of the visionary - to lead the company further into the future.

And at an early stage, the entire management process should remain in the hands of the founder. A good investor or mentor should help you find your way around the world of business.

The general meaning of the above is that a founder must hire a person only when he clearly understands what goals he should achieve. Otherwise, you can easily find yourself in a situation where an employee tells you "I do not understand what you are asking of me." Therefore, it is worth to cook in all activities first independently, and only then look for a professional who can do it more effectively.