Comments on: Surrender to process

By: » Weekend Reading - September 21, 2008 | StartupNorth

» Weekend Reading - September 21, 2008 | StartupNorth — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:37:47 +0000

[...] McDerment, founder of Freshbooks, shared the story of how the team surrendered to process and elected a Design Dictator (less scary than it [...]

By: Jon Lax

Jon Lax — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:58:32 +0000

Just to add to Mike’s comment…

I suggested that they needed someone who at the end of the day was held accountable for the user experience and design of the site. I refered to this as a design dictator, someone who had a vision and voice for the site.

The team was getting caught up in squabbles about very subjective things where there was no right or wrong. The stress of making collective decisions was just too much.

However, I never said WHO that person should be. I didn’t advise them that it should be Mike. I actually encouraged them to hire a Creative Director for Freshbooks. Someone who could make design decisions and would have to answerable for the decisions they made.

I don’t think my recommendations were that profound. Really all I did was listen to what everyone told me and then tried to give feedback mainly based on what I was hearing.

A good design leader, like any leader, listens to all points of views and makes a decision. They can do it democratically or autocratically both approaches have pros and cons. A good leader knows when to use both judiciously.

By: cjagers

cjagers — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:23:15 +0000

Very interesting – I have just read The E-Myth for the second time (should be required reading for every new business) and it addresses this issue exactly. It don’t think it matters so much who sided with who, but that you all decided to create specific roles and systematize your process. This ends up providing the most consistent experience for the customer and the most stable situation for your business. Well done.

By: Mike McDerment

Mike McDerment — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:40:37 +0000

@ryan – interesting. I sent this to Joe to see if he will drop by and comment, but like I said: “in this case, the group agreed”. What I meant by “the group agreed” is that was Jon had no part in the decision – he just recommended that we (the group) make a decision, so we did.

By: ryan

ryan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:09:57 +0000

I wonder if things would have turned out different had Joe brought in someone HE admired to mediate and provide advice.

Mike, you seemed to have pulled off a power trip by bringing in a “neutral” party to side with you. Perhaps I’m wrong but this does go on quite often in the business world. At times it’s necessary, while other times it’s simply petty power trips.

In this case, it seems to have worked out well no matter what your motivations may have been.

By: Alistair Morton

Alistair Morton — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:05:05 +0000

Autonomy is important and is usually offered in every other department of a company, but when it comes to design, a company will generally attempt to utilize a committee styled design approval approach.

Recognizing this is a great revelation for any company!

God Speed FreshBooks!