How to make it all

work in a startup?

Karol Pokojowczyk from Colibri.io

• Someday I read very interesting

article called “get shit done” and it

reminds me about David Allen’s

Get Things Done philosophy.

• GTD is about making it all work -

it’s concentrated on self-

management, because as we all

know everything starts with you.

To “make it all work” you

have to focus on two

areas:

Control

• The main aim of taking control is to

get rid of everything what distracts

you and disturbs you. Don’t waste

your time on things which gives you

more troubles than profit.

Perspective

• Here you should ask yourself two

things: “what’s next?” and “what to

focus on?”. If you have the right

mindset you will have no trouble

with answering.

• It’s a super effective to prepare it

in this way for a busy week – list

things which you want to do, think

of distractions, eliminate them and

later, peacefully focus on your

tasks.

Applying “control” area to

a startup culture

• The GTD philosophy defines 5

stages of taking control which in

my opinion are the best steps how

to organize culture at startup.

These are:

1. Capturing

• This is basically about capturing an

idea. Listening your coworkers,

reading articles and case studies,

talking with customers, observing

competition – these are the best

sources of an ideas.

2. Clarifying

• Don’t leave room for doubts. Be

prepared to answer every question

and be sure that everyone gets

what this is all about. It’s also the

stage when you validate your idea

and make it perfect thanks to the

feedback from coworkers.

3. Organizing

• This is a simple stage where you

have to identify tasks and delegate

them. As a CEO or manager you

have to consider which skills are

needed and choose right person to

do it. It’s tricky but I’m sure you

know your team good enough :)

4. Reflecting

• This is the last moment when you

can rethink the whole undertaking.

During planning the process you

can miss something – it’s natural.

Take a moment, take a distance if

it’s possible and catch small things

which you can improve.

5. Engaging

• This is the last stage of taking

control. And the hardest one. You

have to engage your whole team to

this concrete idea. Attempt

requires positive attitude for every

member.

• This system is perfect for startups

– small/medium-sized teams.

I would only add one step – from

my experience it’s an important

one – checking.

• Organize a short meetings and be

updated what causes troubles,

what went wrong, share small

successes. It’s the best way to

support your team and motivate

them to keep going.

• It would be also nice to have one

location where you can access all

of your data at one time to check

the progress.

• Colibri is a tool to measure the

effectiveness of your efforts to get

insights and improve your goal

conversions.

• Briefing personally every member

of project won’t do the trick – you

have to remember about the

engaging stage, while it’s

considering as a one step. In real

it’s an ongoing in background

process.

By the way, it sounds familiar, doesn’t

it?

• That’s because you have heard

about growth hacking already. This

is where it starts – in our heads.

The best growth hacks are often

simple ideas but with special touch

and careful process of preparing.

This article was originally published on Karol’s blog.

Find out more: How to make it all work in a

startup? The GTD philosophy.

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Author: Karol Pokojowczyk

CEO Colibri IO

@KarolPokojowczy

@Colibri IO