Defining Success

One of the major milestones in developing a small business is building the right team to meet the needs and expectations of their customers. At Engineered Software our first team members were engineers and programmers. We were very fortunate in finding the right people to join our team because we hired interns from local colleges and if they worked out well we would offer them a job after graduation.

In 1990 we started hiring people to help us run the business (entering and tracking leads, selling the software, and fulfilling orders) that’s when the wheels fell off the bus. We put ads in the newspaper (this was long before the Internet and Job sites), got a list of applicants, asked some superficial questions, and if they sounded good we would offer them a job. We expected them to do their job, sell our products, and let us get on with writing software.

It seemed like my partner and I were spending more time taking care of people problems than developing the business. Sometimes we felt like we hired people to sit around and watch us work. In addition we had constant turnover of the support staff further compounding the problem.

In looking back, the reason we had problems finding the right person is we didn’t know what we were looking for. Since everyone in the company up to this point was a "techie," none of us had absolutely any experience in running a business.

All of my business knowledge had come from reading business self-help books; you know the kind written by consultants to help them get their consulting business off the ground. So I figured it was time to find a book on hiring the right people, I purchased Interviewing and Selecting High Performers, by Richard H. Beatty. I learned why we continued to hire the wrong people for the job, and more importantly what to do to fix the problem.

It turns out we hired the wrong people because we didn’t have a good idea of what the right person's qualities were. Following the wisdom on my paperback business consultant, we developed a list of things including:

• A detailed job description
• Identified the tasks a person in this position would need to perform
• The traits this position would require to be successful in this position
• What required work experience was needed
  
• And even developed the interview questions.

In other words we had a definition of a “perfect candidate” for the position. We were then able to compare each applicant to our “perfect candidate” benchmark so we could easily tell when we had the right person. In other words we took the time to “Defined Success”.

Over the years I discovered that a good definition of success is needed for every project, whether it’s a new software application, the addition of a program feature, or making a major purchase of equipment. If you know what you’re trying to achieve with a project, it’s much easier to accomplish. Some people call it a Business Plan, Job Description, Request for Proposal, but I always like to succeed, so I like to have a clear “Definition of Success.”

Now I must be honest with you, not every project we started has been a wild success; we are just like every business we have had our share of failures. But when we look back at each troubled project we discover that it was lacking a good definition of success.

That's all I have to say, now I would like to hear from you. Please feel free to share your experiences, or opinions on this blog entry or any other subject that is of interest. I can be reached at blogger@eng-software.com.