Early-Stage Startup Problem-Solving: Pick Your Battles In the Moment

At some stage, early-stage growth startups can’t solve every problem they are facing at once. They are forced to solve the problem that is of most consequence to earn the right to solve the next etc. etc. This is how founders earn their right to elevate.

However, knowing which problem to solve and how to go about it can be difficult. There are so many trade offs and “guess work” involved. Therefore, most startups default to speed and learning through doing versus theorizing. However, if you aren’t thoughtful enough, you could end up burning money, time, and human capital unnecessarily.

Here’s are 4-lenses to decide where to focus next: 

1. Constraints

• Time: How urgent is this problem? Is there a looming deadline (e.g., board meeting, fundraising, customer churn)? Can you negotiate those deadlines? 

• Capital: What can you afford to invest? Would solving this now stretch us thin or unlock more capital? 

• People: Do we have the bandwidth, or do we need to hire/contract/partner to solve this well? What tools or processes can we invest in to help leverage the team’s time and efforts? 

• Levers: Can we intentionally add a constraint (e.g., a launch deadline or OKR) to create focus and urgency?

Questions to ask: What constraints can we remove and what constraints should we keep? 

2. Consequences 

• Irreversibility: What happens if we don’t solve this asap? Is this an irreversible or reversible consequence? 

• Unlocks: What are the second-order effects if we do solve it successfully?

• Trade-offs: What is the opportunity cost—what important thing are we not solving while solving this?

• Time: Could solving this too early create waste or complexity? Are we getting ahead of ourselves? 

• Truth: What difficult or valuable truth do we want to discover sooner than later? 

Question to ask: What important truths do you want to discover sooner than later? 

3. Dependencies

• Sequence: What needs to happen before this can work well?

• Parallelization: What can be done in parallel versus what must be sequenced?

• Paradox: Is this a chicken and egg problem that can only be solved with speed and risk-taking?

Question to ask: How will prioritizing this problem impact the important people and other aspects of my company?

4. Psychological Frame

• What unspoken fears (e.g., about investor perception, team morale, or optics) are shaping this decision?

• What risks do I think I can’t take? Why not?

• Are we holding back due to perfectionism, a need for control, or a need for comfort/familiarity?

• What new behaviors do I have to learn?

Question to ask: What are the limits of my current mental model– beliefs, assumptions, and risk-profile?