Being Effective in a Startup Job Transition

With the rate at which people jump jobs in Startup land it’s surprising how common this mistake is. If you’re jumping roles at startups and want to be effective, consider the following.

If you’re jumping you probably have some past experience that will help you add value in your new role. It’s very important how you go about turning that past experience into new business value. Let’s say you know how your last company implemented a critical business process and at your new company, that process is woefully broken. We’ve set the stage what do you do?

Most people seem to want to immediately tell anyone who will listen that the process can only be improved if they implemented the solution from Company A at Company B. Then they diligently start going about trying to solve X the same way it was solved at Company A. Usually this runs into internal resistance, causes conflict and the wrong direction.

So what to do instead? Conventional wisdom holds that the best thing to do when you join a new company is to listen. That’s some great advice for this scenario. The thing is that every company is different and cloning the solution from one company directly into another is not a good strategy. That’s probably why people in your company are resisting it - they are actually right! Quite simply Company A is not Company B. “But… but… I know that X is broken! and I’ve seen it solved in exactly this way!” you say. And you’re quite right.

Instead of focusing on the “what” you need to focus on the “why.” Not what you did at a different company but why you did it and you need to start thinking if those same reasons apply at Company B. Then you need to ask the people around you if those reasons make any sense to them and you need to listen because I promise that Company B problems are not exactly the same as Company A. Then you need to think about how the solution at your old company solved the problems in the old context and explain that to the new team. You need to incorporate feedback and adapt your ideas to the new personalities and context.

The reason you are valuable isn’t because you know the recipe for a delicious 3-layer cake, it’s because you’re a baker and you work well in a kitchen. After all, your new company might not even be trying to bake a cake at all and, with few exceptions, it’s not exactly the same one you happened to make last week.

So in sum, “Yes!” to leveraging your past experience and “No!” to assuming just because something worked in one context you should cram it down the throats of your new co-workers. Stay curious!