Compound Thinking

Build teams, not products!

I think Jared is right on target with this statement:

“I don’t grow apples. I grow apple trees.” One is a result of the other. Overly focusing on the apple can cost you the tree.” –Jared Richardson

If you throw together a team to build a product, you might get lucky and create a great product. If you are really lucky you’ll get a great team that works well together, is motivated to build amazing software, and is starting to learn and grow as a group — not just as individuals.

Unfortunately, the next step most companies take is to pull that team apart, promote some of them, and try to start all over again new products with new teams. This is a colossal waste of time and money. Great companies find ways to re-use existing teams who have already learned to work effectively as a team. I’ve found that small companies, who have no choice but to re-use the same teams over and over again, have a competitive advantage over their larger competitors who constantly reshuffle their product development teams.

If you constantly grow your capacity to build great things, your competitors will always be playing catchup. But if you slow down and focus on your current cash cow the milk will eventually dry up.