3 Ways to Drive Impact at a Start-up and Stay Efficient 

Congratulations on your new role!  You’ve been brought in to a startup to fill a particular need, but no one is sure of where you should start, or what you should tackle first. However, don’t be surprised if everyone agrees, in a hyper-energetic way, that you’re now responsible for needing to have your tasks “done yesterday.”

So, it’s agreed: your first experience in a start-up can be overwhelming.  On the plus side: it’s an exciting change of pace; your work makes an immediate and tangible impact; and you’re working with a great bunch of people set on making a difference in whatever they are doing.  On the down side:  Roles aren’t well-defined; expectations and timelines may be out of synch; and you may have been brought in to fill voids that simply can’t be remedied overnight.

How then to get past the challenges so that you can enjoy the benefits of your new culture and start making an impact?  Here are three ways you can start adding value from day one.

Assess the Landscape, and Make a Plan

There are several possible scenarios you may encounter in your new, slightly contradictory, wing-it-with-a-plan environment:

• You may think you’ve been brought in to do one thing, but there may be three other people or groups who have responsibility in the same area.
• Your primary role may not make sense until other activities have been scoped and completed.
• Or you have a role, but it’s ill-defined — or there’s no guidance around what that role will achieve.

So, it’s time to assess the landscape and make a plan:

• Spend your first week at work meeting with counterparts and other critical groups.
• Develop an understanding for what needs are being met, and what’s working, and what’s not.
• Write down where you think you can take your role to have the most impact, while at the same time complementing the current workstreams and responsibilities of others.
• Lastly, set a meeting with your manager and review your findings.  And make sure to include their feedback and let them know that you’re moving on to the next step: creating a detailed plan with timelines.

Once you have determined (through assessment) what you hope to achieve, put together a plan with a timeline for each step. Then share that timeline with your manager, cross-functional counterparts, and key stakeholders. This way, when there is pressure to have completed a particular task outside of timelines, you bring the plan back into view, and make it clear that you’re working towards the ultimate goal, and when to expect project completion or results.

That said, the tough part is sticking to this timeline.  Thus, try your best to deliver against your plan with as few changes as possible; after all, in your new role, you’ll want to prove that you’re a man or woman of your word.  Even if “things happen” – as they do — try to adjust for them within timelines.  And if you do need to change the plan, make sure to keep the right parties updated.

Prioritize, not only Ruthlessly — but Daily

There will always be too much to do each day.  So if you have too much on your plate, make a list of tasks that need to be done, and prioritize it based on urgency and impact. This can be tougher than it sounds, so if you need tips on how to determine prioritization, check out the project management company LiquidPlanner’s blog on “How to Prioritize Work when Everything is #1”.  Work through your list, and get as much done as you can before you go home for the day.

Important Tip: When you come back the next day, don’t start off on your list where you left off.  Instead, make a new list.  Priorities move fast, and focus can shift at a startup — sometimes as quickly as day-to-day. Most likely, your leadership team has developed a great method for daily communication and transparency with their team, as noted in this Forbes article – they really have to, in such a quick-moving environment!  So review the daily atmosphere, and reprioritize for that day accordingly.

Focus on One Thing to Get Done Every Day

There is so much to do each day, it’s easy to try to do a little bit of everything – and, often, in the end, accomplish or finish nothing.  Therefore, to avoid trying “to boil the ocean,” as the saying goes, follow this tip from Hilary McGuiness, Director of Marketing for Intel’s New Business Group focused on wearables: “Focus on one thing that you’re going to get done every day. Sometimes the thing you pick is really big, so that can make it really hard, but stay on it.  Decline meetings that don’t help you focus on what you’re trying to get done that day.”  How do you pick that one thing to focus on?  This is why daily prioritization is so critical (see above!).

Working at a startup can be simultaneously exhilarating and overwhelming.  It’s easy to feel ineffective until you establish yourself in your position.  These steps will help you ease into your new role, hold back the pressure, and figure out how to deliver impact the best way you can.