Hello Friends,

Have you ever tried to explain your expertise to someone with little to no background in your field? How did you find it?

In today's issue, we talk about how communications between technical and non-technical co-founders can be tricky and hard to navigate.

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The Situation:

Igor is a computer programmer and co-founder of a startup fitness app. His co-founder, Melissa is non-technical and deals with partnerships and user growth.

He likes to keep himself updated with what their competitors are doing by downloading their apps and using them often to test their existing and new features. This allows him to ensure their app is up to par.

In their strategy meetings, Melissa will provide Igor with direct user feedback and app feature suggestions from their top users.

Igor likes such updates as it shows that their app is well utilized with committed users who are interested enough to provide their feedback.

What bugs Igor is Melissa's oversimplification of his job. During their strategy meetings, Melissa's focus on user growth and drive towards profitability often takes centerstage. When she thinks of a new idea or suggestion, she would immediately add it to Igor's plate.

Some of the ideas are solid; most are nice to have but not needle-moving.

It's becoming harder and harder for Igor to push back and communicate the fact that some ideas are not worth pursuing at the expense of their limited resources.

He notes that this push back demoralizes Melissa who is like a dog with a bone, thinking that all they need to do is to do more, in order to increase their chances of success.
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Igor has to find a way to not come across as a wet blanket.

He wants to be the voice of reason and to communicate in a way that can get through to Melissa.

THE HOLLYWOOD TAKE

In HBO's TV series, Industry Season 4, it starts with two good friends / co-founders who have very different working styles.

Both smart. One more serious than the other. The fun one is a rational realist who knows where the company's bread is buttered and makes the unsavory lucrative deals. The serious one is commercial-minded, longer-term focused and we find out later, trying to run a longer con.

They get along fine in the beginning until the fun one becomes a liability, resulting in one merciful but ungraceful exit.

The fun one (Kumar from Harold and Kumar) was given an opportunity to course-correct but it wasn't an outright overture. He was blissfully unaware and therefore blind-sighted and voted out at a surprise Board of Directors meeting.

This stresses the importance of learning to read obvious and non-obvious signals before it's too late.

SOCIAL SCRIPT:

In a startup, co-founders start out with the same vague goal of SUCCESS!

Traction! Customers! Market Share! Sales! Profits! Fund Raising! IPO!

The challenges of running a startup's operations can often cloud or confuse one's direction and focus.

Single-mindedness and focus is good.

The ability to see the forest for the trees is also good.

That's the whole point of having a co-founder or two. Someone who has the same goal, working alongside you to point out things that you might not be able to see.

Hopefully, co-founders can recognize this even in testy ego-driven arguments.

INNER SCRIPT:

Igor recognizes that Melissa views him as technical and not a great communicator. He acknowledges that and that is also the reason why he decided to partner up with Melissa on this app. They complement each other's skill sets.

He also acknowledges that he has pushed back many times on build suggestions that might give Melissa the impression that he doesn't want to add more work to his plate. Melissa may be thinking that he is not as enthusiastic as her in driving the app's growth.

Igor gets pissed off when Melissa doesn't realize that the reason for the push back is because a lot of the requests involve a lot of technical heavy-lifting for something that isn't impactful to the app.

He wants her to understand that context so that she can be more empathetic towards his circumstance.

ACTUAL SCRIPT:

Igor approaches Melissa for a meeting to talk about their feelings towards the app and to give each other feedback.

This is how it could go:

PAST

Igor starts first. He gives Melissa a good picture of how the app has grown, from ideation, to the first MVP, to the various new versions and the detailed work that has gone into each of the phases and the time taken to build up certain features.

He sets the stage and primes Melissa's understanding on how things that look simple to execute actually takes a lot of planning, coding and testing to create.

He adds key data about user adoption and retention and how that correlates to Melissa's implemented suggestions. Some were hits, some were not.

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PRESENT

Igor continues to update Melissa on what he is currently working on and how the competitor analysis is useful in ensuring their app reviews stay top-rated on all the app stores.

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FUTURE

Igor expresses his goal for the app and how he appreciates how Melissa has contributed to the growth of the user base and how some of her suggestions have become confirmed features within.

He stresses that while it is important to try new things, they have to be mindful of their limited resources and have to think strategically about what is really worth their time to build out and spend marketing dollars on.

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Using the PAST - PRESENT - FUTURE framing method when speaking to Melissa, allows Igor to approach the conversation from a very objective and big-picture perspective.

It also serves as a jog down memory lane to show Melissa that despite her recent memory of him saying NO to her requests a lot, there were many instances of Igor taking Melissa's suggestions positively and implementing them. It also reinforces Igor's message that these things aren't as easy to implement. And even implemented, there is no guarantee of success.

He stresses that he is on the same page as Melissa with regards to striving for the app's greater success but these are his concerns and constraints.

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He then invites Melissa to share her point of view so that they can work together more seamlessly.