The Process of Architecting a Startup
Sometimes when you take a moment to lift your head up and look around you get valuable perspective from a whole new context. From this original view you realize how a perspective derived from a novel experience squarely applies to your daily efforts.
Such was the case for me recently when — for the first time ever — I sat in on an architecture school design review. Reclining comfortably in the back of the studio, I watched and listened as one-by-one each student presented their work. Through a collection of pieces that represented a path towards a finished project, the review exploration highlighted the component parts, ideation, and R&D that each student rolled into a 15 minute discourse with their teachers.
The next morning the full architecture program faculty shared more about the program, using the design class I visited as an example of how the first-year students were beginning their journeys to become architects. At one point someone in the audience asked a senior faculty member a provocative question related to the students’ pieces laid out around the floor: “Which one do you like best?”
After describing how every project was defined by the unique direction each student received about the assignment, the faculty head further described how the program seeks to develop every student to be their own architect. Then, the teacher paused briefly and succinctly closed with the perfect answer to the question: “Architecture is a process”.
Immediately her simple statement became rephrased in my mind repeatedly as “Building a startup is a process”. In fact, in many ways the approach architects take to create a structure, building, or designed space parallels the way a CEO might approach “architecting” a company. Building a business is a process — it comes together in pieces like those the architecture students presented in their design review. And as the professor elaborated that morning, there are at least three essential elements to this “process”:
1. It’s iterative
The process never goes perfectly or “by design”. It’s messy. Like a younger sibling, it’s always pestering you about something. You will never feel comfortable or in that state of surety that comes when a task is complete. Get used to the notion that you’re never “done”. There is always something new to test, improve, throw out, or rebuild. Get used to this feeling — thrive because of it. This is why the journey should be enjoyed and not dreaded as some painful right of passage required to reach your mystical finish line. Remember these three words: always be iterating!
2. It’s 360 degrees of learning
Learn from everyone around you. Learn not just from your teachers, coaches, or managers — but from your peers and colleagues. When you really pay attention to the presentations given by others, you benefit from the diversity of how each of us processes the world. As I watched the students presenting in the architecture studio I could clearly see how each student in the audience learned something meaningful from each presenter. This happens every day in a startup if you lean into this learning. The engineer who learns a little finance, the marketer who learns a little product management, and so on throughout your company, all combine to strengthen what you are building together. Finally, hone the talent of how you incorporate what you learn from someone else into your individual work. I’ve learned so much from listening and watching how different functional pros do their work, and I’ve benefitted by then weaving these lessons into how I approach my role as CEO.
3. It’s based on individual efforts
In architecture success is measured by the architect and the architect alone. This too is the case in growing a startup. Successful outcomes for a company are built everyday through the compilation of individual efforts. From engineering to sales, (and every group in between), each team member must be held accountable for making progress on their own body of work. Yes you have company goals and a board you report to, but like the architect’s vision, you are the ultimate arbiter of success. “Do you like it?” is a question the architect is often asked — and they eventually learn to ask the question of themselves: “Do I like it?” And so it is in building a company — do you like the work you have done individually to help build your company?
A startup’s strength derives from every individual link in its chain. Thankfully, we don’t live in a command and control society — especially in Silicon Valley — so we rely on the agency of individuals to build something special together. Focus on the process at an individual level. For every member of the team, enable a process that inspires amazing individual performances, supports continual learning by the individual from those around them, and fosters the desire and patience to iterate constantly in order to build something that matters. I’m fortunate that I was exposed to the process of architecture and the helpful model it provides for how we might think about architecting a lasting company.
