1. Lack of product leadership

Without strong product leadership, sales, marketing, engineering, and even the CEO can’t do their job.

2. Lack of prioritization and slicing

If everything’s a priority, then nothing’s a priority. The question is how to make disciplined choices and thinly slice releases so that the right things get done in the right order.

3. Lack of bottom-up adoption

If the only way to use your product is to talk to the sales team, you’ve already lost. Companies are made up of many individual consumers. Do you know how to empower them to adopt and advocate for your product?

4. Helping instead of disrupting your customers

Are you selling to the wrong customer? Often young startups sell to the companies they should, in fact, be killing. How can you avoid propping up incumbents and win the market?

5. Lack of conviction and urgency

Is indecision, lack of focus, and/or poor accountability costing you speed and efficiency? Who’s job is it to fix it? Have you factored in opportunity cost?

6. Understanding the proper role of sales

Is the sales team selling what you’ve built - or just selling whatever they can sell? Do they understand how to expand self-adopt accounts? Do they know how to minimize thrash in the R&D team?