Focus on areas where you have the biggest impact
I’m sitting next to my cofounder as I’m writing this.
He’s fixing a bug, while I write a piece of content.
A few weeks ago, I would’ve been coding some other piece of software next to him… until he told me to stop.
As a bootstrapped company with a small team, our resources are scarce.
I know I can help ship some features faster or fix a few issues in Superdocu’s product.
And for a long time, this is exactly what I’ve been doing:
- Opening my code editor,
- Committing various fixes,
- Working on small features,
- …and spending less time with customers.
But the truth is, development isn’t my speciality.
Although I can (somewhat) code, I’ve been studying and holding positions in marketing/growth only.
Like a lot of people, I believe I have a T-shaped profile: a general knowledge of different topics, but only one expertise.
It sure helps to know how to scrape a website or interact with an API. But if it was my main strength, I would be the CTO.
As you can see on my GitHub profile, I’ve been less active since the end of September, and my commits are mostly wording updates.
When you’re in the “start” phase of your startup, you might be tempted to help wherever you can. But as your time is limited, focus on what has the biggest impact, and leave the rest to the experts.
Lesson: spend most of your time doing actions that will maximize your output, especially when you’re in a small company. This non-critical bug can wait for a few more days!
