As a start-up team you’re ideally a heterogeneous bunch of people with different ideas and opinions. You will have to make decisions that are not unanimous. On the other hand successful startups seem to always have a shared vision and one plan of actions. How do they do that? They can’t be living in a happy fluffy everybody agrees world, can they?
The magic word is “commitment” and so far our team has decided on important things like this:
- Discuss about available options.
- Argue as much as you like about your favorites.
- Decide by area of expertise, majority vote or hierarchy, but then
- Commit to the decision.
There is no step 5: Bitching, Complaining or Backstabbing. I know it’s hard to accept anything that you don’t fully believe in, but for the sake of the adventure you’re in you have to try your utmost to act as one team and one mindset (at least facing outwards).
How am I coping so far? I try to over commit. Print and wear the t-shirt with the logo that wasn’t your first choice, write the user guide prematurely for the feature that you think is a waste of time and also watch out for colleagues that aren’t aligned. Stop and remind them to align with the group decision. Over time it will become second nature and you will forget you ever had a different opinion (at least until the company biographer asks).