Shave Your Head = Lesson #1 to Ship Beta on Time

Editor's note: This is a P-I Reader Blog. P-I Reader Blogs are not written or edited by the P-I. They are written by readers, for readers. The authors are solely responsible for content. If you see any posts you consider inappropriate, please send us a note at newmedia@seattlepi.com.
· Want to blog for the P-I?

« 15 tips to manage an offshore team | Main | Your Tools are Your Best Friend � Lesson#2 to Ship Beta on Time »

At my company, MiNeeds, we're marching towards our beta release which we're targeting to have live by the end of this week. We've had very little sleep in the last few weeks to make this happen. There's nothing more satisfying though than seeing it all come together beautifully.

In this blog and the next, I will share a few learnings from this period that would benefit entrepreneurs to get laser-focused in order to ship your release on schedule.

During my 8-year career at Microsoft, what I found most astonishing is the number of times we slipped off our release dates. We had some of the fiercest and most seasoned entrepreneurs under one roof and we still slipped! Here's our core sins, in my opinion, and what to do when you come across those:

1) Shave Your Head

There was a tradition at Microsoft where the general managers would shave their heads when their product approaches a release date. The idea is to inspire employees to be laser focused on nothing but releasing the product, not even your hair!

Deniz, my business partner, shaved his head a month ago. And while I haven't, we knew it's time to be super focused in order to release the beta of MiNeeds by the end of February.

Unlike Microsoft, if you are running a startup, you know your resources are limited. So, being focused on what's really important during this period is crucial. What really helped us stay laser focused is:
Deniz and I created a list of all the items we, and our development team, are working on. This list consisted of our development work, website design, marketing and branding work, user experience modifications, and so on.

We placed those items into two buckets: 1) Items necessary for this release, and 2) Next release Items. Then, we took the first bucket of items and divided them into three lists: A) Must have, B) Should have, and C) Nice to have lists that we need to complete for this release.

2) Follow ONLY your Sacred List = the 'Must-have' List

The most important of these lists is the Must-have list. This should only include the bare minimum you items you need to complete in order to ship. So when creating this list, brainstorm with your partners to identify which items are must-haves in order for the product to be released. Review this list over and over, and you'll see that every time you review it you'll find one or more items can be removed from this list. DO IT and don't hesitate.

The Trap:
Don't fool yourself by keeping those 'small' unnecessary items on this list. No matter how tiny the item/feature is, trust me, even if takes one or two hours to implement, those little ones are your worst enemy. They quickly add up and they will make you slip.

If you haven't already read my blog, "The Greatest Sins of an Entrepreneur", I highly recommend you read it since it covers the gist of what I'm trying to tell you here which is: to cut features early and not to over engineer your product.

In my next blog, I'll write about utilizing the right tools to organize your tasks, documents, and communication with your team. I'll explain how being extremely organized pays off a lot in the long run especially as the product keeps growing and the clutter grows along.

Best Regards,
Raed Malhas
Co-founder, www.MiNeeds.com: A New Way to Shop Local Services

Posted by at February 17, 2008 9:07 p.m.

Comments

#99854

Posted by Whitney M. Keyes at 2/19/08 5:58 p.m.

I wondered why Deniz's photo on this site looked a little different! How exciting that you're so close to your beta release. You are so right about how often Microsoft products slipped when we were all there, even though they had plenty of resources and big teams of talented people. You seem to be practicing what you preach with the initial launch of mineeds.com. You've kept the extra features to a minimum and focused on a simple, unique customer experience. It is nice to continue to get an inside glimpse into your entrepreneurial journey.

Company	Amount raised
Week of August 25
Daptiv	$9 mil.
RadioFrame Networks	$28 mil.
Week of August 18
AltaRock	$26 mil.
Week of August 11
1Cast	undisclosed
AXI	undisclosed
Mirina	undisclosed
Previous weeks

	Company	# of layoffs
	TripHub	5 (closed)
	Entellium	7
	Imperium Renewables	2
	GalleryPlayer	undisclosed
	MDRNA	23
	Complete list