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Michael Sippey, former VP of Product at Twitter, has been building tech products for over 20 years. His most valuable ideas, though? They came from speaking with customers. Here's how. (First Round CEO Summit 2015)

"Get in the Van" and Other Tips for Getting Meaningful Customer Feedback

1to1+Template_MarkMunro.pdf

1:1 Meeting Template

https://firstround.com/review/power-up-your-team-with-nonviolent-communication-principles/

To help clients work through confrontations mindfully, executive coach Ann Mehl recommends the 

. It’s distinguished from other strategies by assuming that both sides of any argument mean well — basically, that there are positive reasons behind each person’s actions.

 Assume the other person in the argument means well. Try to understanding his or her rationale and state it out loud directly to them. Announce that you know that they are trying to do something good, and that you do have a grasp on why they are doing what they’re doing.

Affirm the positive intention you’ve identified and express your own specific concern. Use statements that make it clear that your words are your own: “I think/I feel.” If you’re mediating a conflict, invite each side to take a few minutes to clarify their precise worries or issues.

 Clearly define your objectives and recommendations. What’s the outcome you want to achieve? Non-defensively propose changes you’d like to see occur using the phrasing, “I would like…” as opposed to “I want…” You should try to build consensus by demonstrating how your solution will resolve everyone’s concerns, not just your own.

 What’s in it for your opposition if they agree to accommodate you? People respond much more positively when they can buy into the reason for changing their actions or behavior. What are the advantages of your proposal? Don’t forget one of the most powerful motivators is simple recognition (i.e. “Thanks, I appreciate your flexibility on this issue,” or “I owe you one”). This can go a long way toward establishing harmony.

 Either nail down agreement on a next action or step, or work together to develop alternatives. Asking something like, “Can we agree to try this for a little while to see if it works for both of us?” gives the other person the option to accept your proposal without admitting defeat.

A-E-I-O-U Model of Managing Conflict

AirBnB's Mike Curtis: Minimizing Bureaucracy Within Engineering

Several years ago, Airbnb’s VP of Engineering Mike Curtis joined us at First Round’s CTO Summit to discuss the do’s and don’ts for minimizing bureaucracy within your orgs, whether you’re an early-stage startup or a company in hypergrowth mode. 

Alex Rainert, Head of Product, on Foursquare's Product Evolution

Alex Rainert, Head of Product at Foursquare, sits down with Phin Barnes, Partner at First Round Capital, on the Foursquare product evolution. (First Round & IDEO’s Design+Startup 2012)

https://firstround.com/review/transform-employee-equity-compensation-in-two-steps-heres-how/

Spenser Skates, Co-founder and CEO of Amplitude, uses this template when allocating equity compensation to employees.

Allocating Equity Compensation Template

appnexusoverviewoct23071-150728162351-lva1-app6891.pdf

AppNexus opens the vault and shares its very first seed funding pitch deck with First Round.

AppNexus' First Pitch Deck

https://firstround.com/review/The-Arc-of-Company-Life-and-How-to-Prolong-It/

Mark Leslie, longtime Chairman dna CEO of VERITAS Software, advisor and investor explains the corporate ‘Arc of Life’ and how companies can avoid plateau and decay for long-term success.

Successful enterprises have a cycle of life. Startups build a product or service, enter the market and attract customers. Once they're over these initial hurdles, they enter a growth phase, rapidly increasing their revenue and market share with big gains year-over-year. They continue to work on their product, fine-tuning it as revenue starts to flatten and margins stabilize at lower but still attractive levels.

As these companies mature, growth slows even more, eventually flattening out — yet operational expenses continue to climb as they strive to compete with new players in the market. Finally, unable to keep up, burdened with bloated budgets, companies spiral into negative growth, marked by layoffs, high burn rates and eventual bankruptcy or liquidation.

There's a moment along the corporate Arc of Life between growth and maturity that allows for 

 — that's the sweet spot for change and renewal. How can you see this moment coming? Here's what it usually looks like:

As a startup approaches the crest of its growth curve, its leader has a choice to make: Will the company take advantage of its momentum and initiative to steer into uncharted waters (a new line of products, a new business category, a new industry)? Or will it continue along the well-marked path squeezing as much as it can out of its existing business?

Arc of Company Life Frameworks

Twilio CEO and Co-founder Jeff Lawson brings precision, power and process to company values. (First Round CEO Summit 2015)

Articulating Company Values & Living Them Authentically: Jeff Lawson

Atlassian's Aubrey Blanche: Making D&I Your New Competitive Advantage

Aubrey Blanche, Atlassian’s Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion, outlined tactics for making data-informed D&I intiatives your new competitive advantage — including her recommendations for powerful, tested tools. From First Round’s 2018 Founder Summit. 

Available Candidate Lists

https://firstround.com/review/the-most-surefire-way-ive-found-to-win-enterprise-deals/

To make sure GA is investing its time wisely with the right customers, Anand Chopra-McGowan and his team at General Assembly apply the relatively common BANT system, which stands for Budget, Authority, Needs and Timing. New founders may not be familiar. If you’ve been selling at IBM for 30 years, it’s old news. “Like many frameworks, it has its supporters and its detractors, but honestly if all four of those factors are a fit, the deal probably has a great chance,” he says. “What’s new is that we’ve focused less on the framework itself and more on developing an objective way to determine if a new opportunity actually meets what the framework is trying to prove.” The following is an insights-driven way to frame qualification questions that the GA team routinely uses in sales meetings:

BANT Framework

https://firstround.com/review/indispensable-growth-frameworks-from-my-years-at-facebook-twitter-and-wealthfront/

There are countless and complex growth models out there, but Wealthfront VP of Growth Andy Johns recommends internalizing one specific equation. Here it is:

Here’s Johns’ breakdown of the three components:

Basic Growth Equation

Beau Smith, UX Designer and Developer at Square, on the design tools he recommends for your startup’s design team. (First Round & IDEO’s Design+Startup 2012)

Beau Smith of Square on Design Tools

Step-by-step template for building your best sales deck: 

https://firstround.com/review/building-your-best-sales-deck-starts-here/

Building a Sales Deck Template

https://firstround.com/review/Looking-for-Love-in-All-The-Wrong-Places-How-to-Find-a-Co-Founder/

But let’s back up. Created by entrepreneur 

 (and an ever-increasing number of Fortune 500s looking to stimulate fresh ideas). By distilling the elements of a business model into nine building blocks — arranged to represent how they influence each other — this surprisingly simple grid challenges leaders to identify everything they need to make their business operate successfully. If there are resource gaps or flaws in logic, they are quickly revealed all on one sheet of paper.

For a more in-depth description for how to use it, 

Business Model Canvas

COVID-19 Scenario Response Planner & Matrix

https://firstround.com/review/the-founders-field-guide-for-navigating-this-crisis-advice-from-recession-era-leaders-investors-and-ceos-currently-at-the-helm/

References Template.pdf

Candidate References Template

https://firstround.com/review/six-steps-to-superior-product-prototyping-lessons-from-an-apple-and-oculus-engineer/

According to Caitlin Kalinowski, Head of Product Design Engineering at Oculus, you should map out your approach to prototyping by determining your point on a speed-caution slider. On one end is caution, and on the other end is speed. Which way you tilt depends on your company, what you’re trying to accomplish, and where you are in your development cycle. There's a speed-caution slider and you have to understand where you are in order to master your trade-offs. If I'm making a medical product, my caution slider's generally all the way to the left, because they typically take much longer to develop and achieve compliance. It boils down to the risks associated with what you're making and how much development time you’re willing to trade to be faster to market.

Caution-Speed Slider

Choosing Between Multiple Job Offers Matrix

https://firstround.com/review/a-primer-for-startups-and-job-seekers-to-both-win-the-talent-war/

When job seekers are faced with multiple offers, Tammy Han, formerly on First Round’s talent team, encourages them to use a decision matrix (see image below). To start, list all of the attributes that are important to you in a new job across eight columns and follow these steps:

Ciara Trinidad: Driving Diversity Initiatives and Programs at Your Startup

In this talk at our 2017 NYC Founder Summit, Ciara Trinidad, Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Blend, outlines the data, tools and frameworks to drive diversity initiatives and programs at your startup.

https://firstround.com/review/the-secret-to-a-great-planning-process-lessons-from-airbnb-and-eventbrite/

Template_ Company Strategy.pdf

Company Strategic Planning Template

https://firstround.com/review/opening-up-about-comp-isnt-easy-heres-how-to-get-more-transparent/

Once a startup has decided to put more of their compensation cards on the table, the conversation quickly turns to what exactly should be revealed — and how much is too much. And from black box to Buffer, there’s a wide range of points along the comp transparency spectrum, according to Bethayne McKinney Blount.

Compensation Transparency Spectrum 

https://firstround.com/review/content-is-eating-the-world-contentlys-ceo-on-winning-at-marketings-fastest-growing-trend/

A/B tests are the biggest needle movers for content success

,” says Joe Coleman, Contently CEO. “Once you have the traffic, you want to start testing headlines immediately. You want to figure out the type of language your readers respond to every time. Then test story types, which will take longer. Do they like in-depth pieces? Quizzes? Listicles? Create a conscious mix of their favorites.”

Content Experiment Opportunities

Creating an Engineering Design Document that Actually Works

https://firstround.com/review/making-engineering-team-communication-clearer-faster-better/

Most engineering teams rely on design documents to describe, scope, and approve projects or features. At Google, Derek Parham (then Technical Lead for G Suite),  

 for a detailed design doc that can help your team get started. Your document should not just be a collection of ideas explained in writing, but actually have distinct sections (consider it a checklist)

Design Doc Template.docx

https://firstround.com/review/how-the-u-s-forest-service-can-save-your-company-from-a-crisis/

 to diagnosis the severity of an issue and the resources it should supply to fix it. It supplements the four questions by helping to measure the potential damage after an incident occurs. “Any incident can be translated into five tiers of severity. It's all about a company knowing and understanding their priorities and what matters in times of urgency,” says Krista Berlincourt, Head of Communications. “For Simple, we consider how many internal teams are impacted and customer impact, above all else. We also consider internal impacts and if our external partners need to be kept in the loop.”

Crisis Comms Framework

Customer Advisory Board Discussion Framework

https://firstround.com/review/start-up-on-the-right-foot-build-a-customer-advisory-board/

Customer development interviews come first. Execute them well and at sufficient volume, says Peter Kazanjy, co-founder of TalentBin. For a detailed guide to running these interviews well, he recommends reading '

Get in the Van' and Other Tips for Getting Meaningful Customer Feedback

' — advice from Michael Sippey, Twitter's former VP of Product. But here are the CliffsNotes for what to do:

First, set up meetings with as many prospective customers — people who you feel have the problem you’re solving — as you possibly can. Make sure that you cover the various personas you think your product will engage. Are you building something for the enterprise that will touch executives, first-line managers, or individual contributors? Make sure to do interviews with an assortment of each persona. Same with size of organization. Have a coverage matrix that you’re seeking to fill out with interviews so you know you’re not missing something. Making sure all personas are represented ensures you have solid research and will help with putting together your CAB.

Schedule at least 30 conversations, or else you won't get to a good product. Offer them a small incentive for helping you — a $100 Amazon or OpenTable gift card does the trick. Then go meet them in person if possible. Once there, use time wisely.

 Here’s how we’re thinking of solving the problem.

Get customers on the phone and line up 30 meetings with the point people you will be selling to at each company. Talk to them about their problem and describe what you’re potentially building to solve it. Do this before you write a single line of code. Use this simple formula for leading customer feedback sessions:

Customer Feedback Sessions Formula

https://firstround.com/review/to-grow-faster-hit-pause-and-ask-these-questions-from-stripes-coo/

 has developed a decision-making framework that has become a sort of shared decision-making compass for all members of the team, new and old. According to Johnson, 

you need to document concrete core tenets describing the way you work

. Two of Stripe’s operating principles, as Johnson describes them, are:

DECISION-MAKING PRINCIPLES

First-Round-Diversity-Boolean-Searches.pdf

Diversity Boolean Searches

Dropbox's Tido Carriero: Sourcing Product Ideas

Dropbox Head of Product Engineering Tido Carriero explains in this CTO Summit 2015 presentation how his team narrows in on the right product ideas to invest in. From sourcing ideas in unlikely places to frameworks for funding those product ideas for longevity. 

https://firstround.com/review/from-burning-millions-to-turning-profitable-in-seven-months-how-hoteltonight-did-it/

 is your compass. In short, that’s net income minus your non-cash expenses and your cash burn. With this as the goal, decision-making becomes exceptionally straightforward: 

every decision you make must be based on EBITDA impact.

 metric and tactic was evaluated and prioritized by its impact on EBITDA. Here were the formulas that guided Sam Shank, CEO and co-founder of HotelTonight:

EBITDA Framework for Profitability

https://firstround.com/review/credit-karmas-ceo-built-a-sexy-brand-in-an-unsexy-category-with-no-pr-firm-and-a-tiny-budget-heres-how/

1. Survey your founding team to find out who you are, not who you want to be.

Get there by asking your employees these questions:

Aggregate responses and find commonalities. Then push back. Are the most frequent answers accurate? Do the words people write down describe the company at large? A brand is not something you can craft out of thin air. It has to reflect reality.

2. Don’t copy the brands you love — use them to position your company more precisely.

Create three columns on a piece of paper.

 In the first, put the name of a brand you admire. In the second, write the adjectives that you want to borrow from them. In the third, place the attributes you don’t want to embody. By running this exercise, you can use your favorite brands to more precisely position your own company without mistakenly following in anyone else’s footsteps.

3. Put your branding “don’ts” upstream of your other priorities.

Run exercises 1 and 2 listed above as early as you possibly can before you make other critical decisions. At the same time, make a concrete list of the choices you will never make at risk of compromising, changing or betraying what it is you stand for. These convictions will become your guardrails. 

Early Exercises for Building a Brand

https://firstround.com/review/Responsiveness-New-Efficiency/

The shift from the efficiency model to the responsiveness model is a cultural one — it means unlearning over a century of inherited instincts. To help leaders get started, Adam Pisoni, CTO and co-founder of Yammer, shares a simple way to think about this new framework. Imagine three spectrums, each “tuned” with a slider (like on a music mixing board). Your company falls somewhere on each of these spectrums:

Efficiency-Responsiveness Slider

Email Templates for Deepening Your Network

https://firstround.com/review/how-to-make-connections-that-count-advice-from-a-silicon-valley-veteran-and-introvert/

Email is a cornerstone for making direct connections with others. But as Karen Wickre, author of “

Taking the Work Out of Networking: An Introvert's Guide to Making Connections That Count,”

 observes, there’s an art — and a bit of a formula — to crafting notes that make connecting meaningful. Here, she delves into her own sent folder, fishing out her go-to templates for intros, asking for favors and maintaining loose touch through quick FYIs.

Set up the connection with effective introductions.

Hi ________ (to the askee only), It was great to see you last month, though too quickly, at XYZ conference. I wish we had more time to visit. (OR: It’s been too long since we’ve caught up. I’d love to hear your latest news.)

Aside from saying hello, I’m sending this note to ask if you would be open to speaking with my friend _______. She is a _______________ (profession or role) who would like to _____ (meet, write to, call, hear from) you because she is exploring ___________ (a new position, new companies, a new city, school) and of course you came to mind immediately(because of your knowledge/connections/specific ties). She is _____ (funny, unique, smart, clever, passionate, suited to your company . . . ) and I think you’d enjoy talking with her.

If you tell me it’s okay to make introductions, I’ll follow up. But if you’re not able to, or it comes at a bad time, I understand. If that’s the case, can you suggest someone else for her to speak with?

Thanks in advance —I really appreciate it.

Once you’ve gotten the green light, here’s an example of a note connecting the askee and asker.

Thank you kindly for agreeing to connect with [Asker], cc:d here. As I mentioned, he’s interested in pursuing an opening at BigCorp, and I told him you’d be the best resource. Also, he shares your interest in stand-up comedy, which should make your conversation even more enjoyable.

Once you’ve decided to pull the trigger, here’s how a note for a favor might go. 

I sent this one to a professional contact I see every few years; she was going to speak at a workshop that a friend of mine was planning to attend.

Favor when you’re in Washington on March 23 (The subject line indicates a time-specific request from you.)

Helen, I hope you are traveling only as much as you want these days — though I’m certain that’s still a lot! As for me, I am now consulting, too. I love keeping my own schedule and love the variety of projects. I bet you can relate.

I’m writing because a good friend and former colleague, Rebecca Jepson, would like to meet you when you speak at the Press Club in Washington on March 23. After finishing an MA in analytics, she is now creating a new measurements program across her team, about 250 people globally.

May I introduce you ahead of time, so you might chat for a few minutes after your talk? She’s delightful.

https://firstround.com/review/empathy-driven-development-how-engineers-can-tap-into-this-critical-skill/

“Empathy-Driven Development can be distilled into 

,” says Andrea Goulet, of Corgibytes. “First, consider your audience, the people who are going to be interacting with your content, which includes your code and the communication artifacts you leave behind. Then, take action. Think about how you can proactively anticipate their needs.”

Empathy-Driven Development Framework

Eoghan McCabe, Founder and CEO of Intercom: Exploring the Role of the Designer/Founder

Eoghan McCabe, Founder and CEO of Intercom, explores the role of the designer/founder and share a cautionary tale on the pitfalls that people in this role often succumb to. (First Round & IDEO’s Design+Startup 2013) 

https://firstround.com/review/answers-to-your-tough-questions-about-growth-learned-while-scaling-eventbrites-5b-growth-engine/

Marketplaces tend to have a North Star metric of Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) — the value of all goods and services transacted on the platform. This metric has several inputs and funnels:

Customer Lifetime Value: At scale, CLV should include almost everything

 headcount, direct marketing spend, branding spend, discounts and promotions, and more. Take into account company overhead (your lease, support functions, cost to service recurring revenue, etc in order to get to your true gross margin LTV. 

CLV = (Revenue per User * Gross Margin %) / Customer Churn Rate

Equations for Evaluating Marketplaces

Eric Fisher of TownSquared: The Fundamental Concepts of Social Design

Eric Fisher, Social Design Strategist and Product Architect at TownSquared, on the fundamental concepts of social design. (First Round & IDEO’s Design+Startup 2012)

Etsy's COO, Linda Findley Kozlowski: Demystifying Operations at Your Startup

Etsy’s COO, Linda Findley Kozlowski, joined First Round’s annual CEO Summit in 2016 to demystify operations at a startup, when you should consider creating the COO role at your company, and setting the function up for success. 

Eventbrite's Terra Carmichael: Common Comms Mistakes for Startups

Eventbrite’s VP of Global Communications Terra Carmichael presented at the 2018 First Round Founder Summit on some of the obvious and hidden comms mistakes that commonly trip up startups.

FAIR Framework for Internal Comms Strategies

https://firstround.com/review/facebooks-vp-of-tech-communications-on-building-a-bulletproof-comms-strategy/

If “RIBS” is the key to external communication, then, what’s the secret to successful internal communication? Here, too, Marooney has developed an acronym. The word? 

 In crafting it, Marooney selected four words that represent the mindset changes you’ll need to effect as you hone your internal communications:

https://firstround.com/review/after-15-years-as-a-product-leader-ceo-and-now-vc-heres-the-advice-i-always-share-with-future-founders/

To pressure test ideas like these (and the one that eventually one out), Todd Jackson and his Cover co-founders relied on the following framework — one that he still coaches future founders through to this day.

FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING STARTUP IDEAS

Facebook's Jocelyn Goldfein: The Software Delivery Methods That Work for Your Business

Jocelyn Goldfein, Engineering Director at Facebook, joined First Round’s 2015 CTO Summit to discuss how to recognize software delivery methods that will and will not work for your business. 

Todd Jackson, VP of Product at Dropbox, outlines his best tips for finding great product managers for your startup, evaluating them effectively with interview techniques, and how to convince them to sign on with your company. (First Round CEO Summit 2015)

Find, Vet and Close the Best Product Managers

First Round Board Deck Template - Consumer Web Version 1

Consumer-Web.pdf

First Round Board Deck Template - Consumer Web Version 2

Consumer-Web-Instructions.pdf

First Round Board Deck Template - SAAS & Enterprise Version 1

SaaS-Instructions.pdf

First Round Board Template: SAAS & Enterprise Version 2

SaaS.pdf

First_Round_Capital_Slide_Deck__1___2_.pdf

First Round Original Pitch Deck

First Round's E-Commerce Financial Model Template

eCommerce-Model.xlsx

First Round's SaSS Financial Model Template

SaaS-Model.xlsx

Formula for Setting Metrics and Goals for Sales Rep Performance

https://firstround.com/review/step-up-your-sales-coaching-game-dig-into-the-numbers-to-help-your-reps-level-up/

James Hamilton, VP and Distinguished Engineer at AWS, discusses finding the next great opportunity to work on, with a particular focus on infrastructure. (First Round CTO Summit 2012) 

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