One-person startup over-organized?


9

I am currently doing everything for my startup, bootstrapping. Coding, design, business, marketing, etc. all by myself. My web startup is not launched yet.

I have recently started using Asana to track my project, writing technical documentation, all for the my own reference and most importantly, for my future team (if I have one, of course I would love to have one).

Am I being over organized, not knowing the fact if my startup is gonna be on track?

Thanks.

Project Management

asked Feb 16 '13 at 14:15
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Victor
593 points

4 Answers


9

NO!

I would say that you can never be too organized. In my case for example I have a 2 person gamer server hosting company, but I use Confluence to write docs and wikis not only for my future team, but to ensure that we are consistent across everything that we do. Trust me, if you don't write it somewhere it will change or you will forget, potentially a critical aspect of your software/service. It also helps to ensure that we keep ourselves from saying/thinking one idea and executing another.

answered Feb 16 '13 at 16:11
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Jacob
206 points
  • Absolutely document everything you can. In six months when someone (else or you) looks at something, knowing the *why* could be vital and save a lot of effort. – Casey Software 12 years ago
  • @Jacob is on point. What you don't document now you will lose in the future. Also, the faster you grow the faster you lose your details...More documentation (more information) never hurts! – Chris 12 years ago

3

Organizing is a must but in my opinion online tool is overdo for a one-man team.

I myself prefer plain text - vim+git over any online and gui tools. For specific project, just create a separate repo for the documentation, stories, tasks etc.

By this way you will work faster - simple workplace, no http wait, no mouse. And you have version control of your documents where changes are expected everyday.

For team, this method also works. Just push the repo to cloud. You can also do something fancier then, say using git hooks to send email for important updates etc.

answered Feb 16 '13 at 17:11
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Billy Chan
1,179 points
  • You're actually saying "Asana is the wrong tool" - not that he's over-organized. Edit: +1 for the version control over documents tho. – Nilzor 12 years ago
  • @Nilzor, yes my point is organizing is must but fancy tool is overdo, not specific to Asana though. Revised the answer. Thanks. – Billy Chan 12 years ago

3

Victor, my first thought is, don't confuse this with real, productive work.

I used to read technical and business books when I should have been writing code, or talking to users, all the while convincing myself that I was making progress. One night, while avoiding real work, I was reading Start Small, Stay Small, when the author, Rob Walling, called me out.

answered Feb 20 '13 at 06:03
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Mike Nereson
411 points

2

YES!

Just be honest with yourself.
It only feels like you're doing productive and useful work. But you're not!

Before you get market validation in a form of a paying customer or a daily growth of your user-base - you're just playing in a sandbox and avoiding the real tough job of getting users. Not to mention releasing your project!

answered Feb 23 '13 at 04:36
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Z Boss
132 points
  • So you are saying I am just soothing myself? – Victor 11 years ago
  • @Victor Exactly. Your livelihood is not depended on how soon you can get the next user, and so you're enjoying the process and trying to do everything *the right way*. – Z Boss 11 years ago

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