September 2013
Beginner
368 pages
5h 56m
English
book
The Agile Startup: Quick and Dirty Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know
by Jeff Scheinrock, Matt Richter-Sand
Content preview from The Agile Startup: Quick and Dirty Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Take a Timeout
Starting a company is like having a baby. You and your team are creating something special where there was nothing before. Because you and your team care so much about what you’re building, highly contentious conversations are inevitable. You will have disagreements about everything—from completely meaningless things like how you should answer the phones, to key decisions that will fundamentally affect the course of your startup.
The question is not whether you will have conflicts—all founding teams do. Instead, you have to figure out how to turn the lemons into lemonade, and ensure that these clashes result in positive and productive outcomes. The best way to do this is to take a timeout. When the conversation is counterproductive and spiraling downwards, ask your team for a 30-minute timeout to take the emotion out of the equation.
It’s even better to be proactive when you can. If you need to make a contentious point, ask for a delayed reaction. For example, if you want to give your partner important feedback, but have experienced negative, knee-jerk reactions in the past, start by saying, “I want to give you some feedback, but I don’t want you to react right now.” This delay will diffuse the emotion and give your partner time to think rationally before engaging emotionally.
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.