Product-focused and sales-focused companies

Re:Product-focused and sales-focused companies by PragmaticPulp on Sunday April 18, 2021 @09:41AM (#26852380)

It seems obvious in retrospect, but over-focusing on a single domain (sales, product, design, marketing, engineering) to the detriment of everything else is a common problem with first-time leaders. Inexperienced leaders tend to focus on their own background while downplaying the importance of topics they are less familiar with.

The genesis of these problems is often the CEO or other executive’s own background. A CEO who came from a sales background tends to give sales whatever they want at the expense of everything else. A CEO who started as an engineer might overengineer everything and neglect distribution. A CEO with a design background might focus too much on making a beautiful product while neglecting usability, engineering, and distribution.

These are common traps for first-time leaders, especially those who have risen quickly through the ranks. It can take time to understand that balance is necessary.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Product-focused and sales-focused companies by drc500free on Sunday April 18, 2021 @04:28PM (#26856011)

I’ve also seen the flip side of this. Sometimes the founder understands the need to hire and build for the other domains, but their own function remains immature because they rely on their own skill and don’t know how to externalize it into a self sufficient department. They get the high level stuff right but don’t have time for the details anymore.

[ Parent | on HN ]