Micromanagement, the new Startup culture? | Hacker News Reader

Micromanagement, the new Startup culture?

7 pointsfatalerrorx37 comments

Has anyone ever been micromanaged at a Startup? I'm a partial equity owner of a Startup that I've been working on for about 5 months, and I get requests from one of the co-founders for the most minute details and now they're starting to become impossible to complete.

Early on it was details like "move this popup 2 inches to the left and an inch lower and have a green blinking arrow pointing to the area that the popup is" -- positioning stuff like this never made sense to me...I don't think users will care that the popup is moved where it is, but maybe that's just my thinking

Now requests are getting to: "the page can never refresh and the content has to be 100% editable, addable, and deletable without ever refreshing" -- keep in mind that the same content is now being displayed in 3 or 4 areas of the site (as per requests), and that making everything update (now knowing about this feature after the fact) would probably take a miracle.

I've just about programmed myself into a corner taking these ridiculous requests and rolling with them, now the code-base is so confusing. Keep in mind that this is still just a PROTOTYPE that just keeps getting bigger and bigger with no end in sight. I've done a SINGLE iteration and haven't been given much time to refine anything. I think they even now are looking to LAUNCH with the PROTOTYPE which I think is a mistake. What the hell am I supposed to do in this situation?

Discuss your issues with them. Tell them that you don't like the way things are going and that you believe that you should all focus on the things that really matter instead of minute details. Tell them that you should all think really hard for each iteration you make and that you shouldn't allow each and everyone's beliefs dictate everyone else's workflow. Suggest a simple process or methodology that will help you all find out the things that really matter and focus on them.

Plain, simple talking is underrated. If you won't let your voice be heard you will always be the pixel-pusher.

5 months is a long time to be prototyping.

You need feedback from real users not co-founders. Who else has seen the prototype ?

Perhaps you can gently turn this around by introducing the concept of the MVP and estimating how close you are to it.

If you can negotiate everyones perception of the MVP down to what you already have, then the next task would be to show it to potential customers.

So your co-founder needs to be aware that you're only going to be concerned about real feedback from real customers.

This would benefit you all.

Yeah, you have to discuss your issues with the additions. If they are non-technical then you can make up some story about the world exploding if they go through with it...

...I'm a non-technical co-founder and I DO micromanage, but I keep an open mind if my programmer says it is more difficult, harder to implement etc. We have a good relationship with that type of stuff. Marketing/business people have reasons for where they put buttons etc., but you need to get on the same page with him about projects that can't be added.

If they are non-technical then you can make up some story about the world exploding if they go through with it...

Yeah, don't do this. Eventually even a non-technical person will figure out he's being bullshitted, and then you end up with a guy who doesn't trust you (for good reason) and often developers as a whole.

why DO you micromanage? It puts unnecessary pressure on the people involved and it causes a significant loss in productivity, I had a hard time sleeping last night because of it...no one being micromanaged is going to be as willing to discuss their ideas with you, no matter what kind of open relationship you think you have with them, it makes them feel bad about themselves and their work

Well I micromanage in the sense that a button location will be changed if I have a purpose. A font will be changed if I have a purpose. A function will be perfected if it serves a purpose. Like I said, everything I ask will serve a purpose and I will explain that purpose to the programmer and we will discuss what we think is best. Nonetheless, I'll keep that in mind..

Its really really bad to micromanage employees, People better work in a good healthy environment, micromanaging really effects productivity, and I think psychologically employers who do micromanagement are ill, Usually micromanagement is done when you have no trust on employees, I had a very very bitter experience with a company, doing micromanagement, thats why I practically know what it means when you are not trusted as a employee and yet micromanaged.

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