Embracing Discipline: The Key to Startup Success
“Discipline equals freedom” — a quote by Jocko Willink, a retired Navy SEAL and leadership expert, should serve as a guiding principle for startups striving for success. Discipline creates a structure that allows a team to work efficiently and effectively. For a startup to thrive, this concept of discipline must extend across all roles, from leadership and product management to engineering and support. By embracing discipline, startups can secure the freedom to grow, innovate, and foster positive customer relationships.
One of the main challenges startups face is managing the delicate balance between developing new features and addressing technical debt. Mounting tech debt can lead to unsustainable growth and poor product quality, which, in turn, can sour customer relationships and increase churn. However, with a disciplined approach, a startup can allocate resources wisely, ensuring that tech debt is addressed while maintaining a steady stream of new features. As H. Jackson Brown Jr. so fittingly observed, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.”
Discipline must begin at the leadership level. Organizational leaders should encourage engineers to provide accurate time estimates that account for proper planning, thorough testing, and potential challenges. This may require a shift in mindset, as leaders must resist the temptation to pressure their teams for faster delivery at the expense of quality.
Product managers also play a crucial role in fostering discipline within a startup. For example, they must understand the importance of addressing tech debt and automation and allocate resources accordingly. By giving engineers the space to work on these crucial aspects, product managers can help ensure a higher-quality product and long-term success.
Discipline in software engineering extends to planning projects properly and investing in accurate solutions engineering. This approach helps prevent excessive bugs in production and ultimately leads to more satisfied customers. By fostering a disciplined culture across all roles, startups can create an environment where engineers are encouraged to prioritize quality over speed.
In addition, disciplined software engineering teams ensure that test cases are well-documented and thoroughly thought through. This requires collaboration between engineers, QA teams, and support staff. A disciplined environment allows teams to rely on one another to deliver quality work and creates a sense of shared responsibility for the product’s success.
Another area where discipline plays a critical role is ticket hygiene. Ensuring that tickets are well-maintained and organized can prevent unnecessary back-and-forth communication between product, engineering, QA, and support teams. This streamlines the development process and allows the team to focus on delivering high-quality products.
The Shape Up methodology, developed by Basecamp, can help foster discipline within a startup. This approach emphasizes the importance of collaboration, focused work cycles, and iterating based on feedback. By adopting Shape Up, startups can create a disciplined environment encouraging innovation and stability.
Jim Rohn’s words serve as a reminder: “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.” By providing your team with clear expectations, ample documentation and training, and supporting disciplined practices across all roles, you can help guide your startup towards success.
Ultimately, the foundation of successful startups lies in discipline. By cultivating a culture of discipline that permeates leadership, product management, engineering, and support roles, a startup paves the way for a high-performance product that satisfies customer needs. William Arthur Ward aptly stated, “The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment.” Embracing discipline empowers startups to experience the freedom necessary for growth, innovation, and delivering exceptional products.
Author’s Note:
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to read Jocko Willink’s book, Extreme Ownership. One of the most resonating points from his work was the concept that “Discipline equals Freedom.” But it was hardly the only insightful lesson. I strongly recommend this book to anyone seeking to elevate their business or personal life. While this is not a paid promotion, I wanted to share a link to his book for those who might be interested: https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs-ebook/dp/B0739PYQSS
