Prioritization? A Simple Matter of Resource Allocation Prioritization

Prioritization? Eh. A lot of company blogs yap on about the ‘startup life’ or some nonsense.

It’s more a matter of resource allocation.

So many hours, so many opportunities, so many things you can execute on at a time. At any given time there’s usually one thing you can be doing that will double revenue or double user growth. There’s a lot of things that won’t. Anything that doesn’t make a large impact isn’t much worth doing, so you focus on the big ticket items.

Now, in the process of constantly focusing on what doubles you next, you’ll find some blind spots, sometimes publicly.

Yeah, turns out, you actually do need to thoroughly test releases before pushing them out to hundreds of thousands of people. Yup, you should approve in-app purchases before the app goes live. No, you probably shouldn’t have an ‘Unlock for $4.99.’ button that reads ‘Unlock…’, because you went a couple characters over at the last minute (…my bad.).

Those are all easy fixes, though. A better pre-release checklist, a more thorough testing before releases.

The bigger thing is strategic- what’s the way you double in the next six months? For us, it’s never been executing on the plan that took us though the last six months. It’s coming up with something that goes in a slightly different direction, with a slightly different product focus. It also has to be a sustainable focus- if you’re a private company, if you aren’t taking VC, if you’re in it to build a lasting business— well, Red Bull just isn’t going to cut it. You need to be able to kick ass on a regular basis.

A plan isn’t a plan unless it works in the worst case scenario- I take my most conservative estimate and cut it in half. If we can double with that, we’ll be in damned good shape in six months. This means a lot of excel geekery and it means a lot of quick tests to see if the underlying numbers are feasible. But, if those early signs are good, if those small-scale allocations work out, then it’s time to go full-throttle. That’s when it’s time to set the overarching goal and execute.

That’s prioritization.

Not a list. Not a set of ‘strategic possibilities’. No, it’s a a vision, a runthrough in excel, some quick tests, and a full-throttle blast to increasing revenue. Sexy? No. Profitable? Hell yeah.