What does scaling SaaS mean? Part 2

Let's move fast. This part includes controversial aspects such as c-word, p-word and even r-word (yes, r means risk). But I will make sure that they are put to the right context. 

7 - Unreasonable negotiations, cranky customers, unresponsive users, legacy feature requests, messy customisations, support challenges, romantic legal chats, missed invoices, shit hitting the ceiling, etc. are common. 

On the other side, there are excited goal-driven buyers, fast moving contracts, 60 plus people in sales and delivery calls, buyers referring to their friends, buying more products, cooperating and soft-spoken teams and more. 

Trust me, during scaling SaaS part or all of both sides are inevitable. Our perception and reaction towards them can only make them better or worse. But, can you guess what is the glue that is holding these sides together? Focus and do the best; this has to work. Here is a quote from Zero to One. Did you guess it right? The answer is distrixxxxx … 🏆 

“Like acting, sales works best when hidden. This explains why almost everyone whose job involves distribution - whether they are in sales, marketing or advertising- has a job title that has nothing to do with those things”.

8 - Next one - sports have always been an inspiration for me as it involves team building and winning. Speaking of NBA greats, I would narrate MJ for relentlessness, Kobe for mamba mindset, Steve Nash for being empathetic, and D-wade for selflessness. However, I seldom gave a deeper thought about the impact their coaches had on them until I read about Gregg Popovich. His approach of solving hard problems together is analogous to scaling and Daniel Coyle explains it the best. I promised I will use the c-word … 🤐 

“One misconception about highly successful cultures is that they are happy, lighthearted places. This is mostly not the case. They are energised and engaged, but at their core their members are oriented less around achieving happiness than around solving hard problems together. This task involves many moments of high candor feedback and uncomfortable truth telling”. 

9 - I believe you are warmed up now. When I met Colin (the author) I mentioned to him that I liked the quote which says ‘we have new people hiring new people hiring new people’. This is very true. It is imperative that the teams hire with caution because who’s on the bus makes a lot of difference in the long run. And then build an environment of which fosters ownership. 

This is one the best learning about scaling SaaS I had from the two-pizza teams approach and Working Backwards. Ownership, ownership, ownership (seriously, not from any movie); thank you Colin and Bill … 👏 

“Be the business owner. The team will own and be responsible for all aspects of it’s area of focus, including design, technology and business results. This paradigm shift eliminates the all-too-often heard excuses such as, “we built what the business folks asked us to, they just asked for the wrong product” or “If the tech team had actually delivered what we asked for and did it on time, we would have hit our numbers.”

10 - Now, imagine a sub-urban area of a large, busy metro city growing rapidly. What happens to traffic, roads, sanitation, schools, water and more in that area? Think about it - what should the Government do? I know, it's hard to forget about U-turns in traffic; I get it. 

This is one of the examples where the velocity of scale takes over the ecosystem with little to no resources or time to fix. Let’s refer to them as fires. During scale, it is very hard to predict how many fires there are, which fire exactly is the fire, what is the cause of each fire, which fire among them is growing, which may cause more damage, will not reoccur and in what time. Tough job for the Government? 

Most importantly, it is not just the fire that is burning; it is the focus, time, resources, future and maybe ecosystem health that is also burning. As a solution, take risk and scale, pray or take no risk. Which is empowering? Here goes the quote from Blitzscaling. Unknown and non-systemic are keys here. Risk and scale; it is a match made in heaven … 😍 

“When you are facing an unknown/ non-systemic risk, it may not be even worth expending the effort to analyze it - it’s probably a small fire that you should let burn”. 

11 - C-word, fires, Government; should we talk about religion? We all know that it is one of the greatest inspirations for scale which span across the globe for centuries. Have you ever thought why some of the religions scaled to a Billion people and while others did not? What is the equation behind that scale? I am sure all religions have similar philosophies followed by frameworks and rituals. Religion is in the mind and behavior of the individual and they should use the religion frameworks and rituals towards the betterment of himself/ herself and the society. 

Similarly in a scaling a SaaS company, whatever are the rules, guidelines, frameworks, and rituals, everyone has to be responsible and align to it for the betterment of the ecosystem. And these rules and guidelines are bound to evolve. Legacy rules which got us here may not be valid for the future. Change during evolution is inevitable and accepting the change is the sign of being responsible. That is what the ultimate analogy is. Watch out for noobs; it may not be a skill-issue but rather scale-issue. Help them. Enjoy the scale, till it lasts. Here is the quote; applied to all. 

“The man himself, and he alone, is responsible for all that good or bad in his life. He cannot absolve himself from the responsibility of experiencing the fruits of his actions”. 

12 - If the ecosystem scales 10x plus as defined, this is bound to happen. I warned you will get into controversial territory. The challenge is how much is good and what rate it is growing. Relationships and incentives definitely help in meeting business goals. In scaling, would you build your influence or learning? I believe you will make a sound judgement between the two. Because both take time, both are hard and both compound over the years; without anyone noticing it. Safi Bahcall even quantifies this well. I mentioned I will use controversial words. Hope you got the context … 🙅 

“The return-on-politics can be in a similar way. If an employee spends an extra 10 percent of their time on lobbying and networking, by how much on average, will he or she improve their likelihood of being promoted? By 1 percent, 10 percent, or 100 percent? The greater the like-lihood, the higher the return-on-politics”. 

Part 3 is coming soon. Another SIXER today. Thought nugget for today - while scaling, what you think will never happen will happen at least a couple of times in 5-6 quarters; like life (maybe?) … 👍

Picture - Sun; the greatest inspiration for scale in the universe. 

P.S. Hmm, can Ai tools help me do this faster? I am sure they will scale soon and catch up in reasoning, content partnerships, etc. Or maybe I should pay for the tool to get a better outcome. 

Keep growing … 

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Swagat Irsale is a Growth and Scale Advocate. He works with start ups and scale ups and helps them grow revenue and build enterprise products which users use.

You can connect with him on Linked in.

https://www.groadv.com/post/grow-revenue-the-journey-zero-to-one-billion-swagat-irsale

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