The last couple of weeks have illustrated how challenging it can be for fast-moving companies to fulfill the right SaaS execution priorities. We have a couple of growth-stage clients struggling with it as well as a couple of earlier stage ones. Pretty much everyone says all the right things about prioritization for the business and opportunity costs. But when it comes down to actually executing against their words, actions tell a different story.

Small Priorities Add Up

Just because this is understandable doesn’t make it okay. Small, poorly prioritized decisions roll up to create bigger problems pretty quickly. And it’s those relatively small ones that get made far too often and with little consideration. That’s because it’s easier to see the impact of big decisions than it is to see the sum impact of many small decisions. So we often end up with sub-par low-level priorities that undermine the bigger picture.

The question is, how do keep we our priorities aligned from low to high without micromanaging or losing ourselves in the weeds?

One of the things that struck me this week, in particular, was how easy it is to lose track of what’s really important. Take any low-level task. Assuming the priority was set correctly, you can’t get sidetracked on adjacent issues. You have to stay focused on executing against the priority. That doesn’t mean that adjacent needs aren’t valid. It simply means they get backlogged as potential future priorities until the current priority has been successfully completed. Often the adjacent distractions detract from the SaaS execution priority and undermine its outcome.

How Finding Nemo is Like a SaaS Company

My kids are 16 and 20 now, but back when Finding Nemo was high on our family’s agenda, Ellen DeGeneres’ famous, amnesia-inspired line of “Boat? I saw a boat.” became our inside joke for losing focus. There are so many things to attend to in a growing tech company that losing focus is incredibly easy. That’s also why things might not get done. One of my biggest pet peeves is initiatives that languish in an incomplete state. “In progress” too long translates into wasted investment. Until an initiative is launched, it’s worthless. So the minute people lose focus and chase the passing boat, their executional priority is neglected, momentum slows, and completion of the task at hand is postponed.

So what are the organizational symptoms that lead to the disease of poor SaaS execution?

1. Lack of Perceived and Clear Accountability

One of the best ways to stay on task is to be on task in the first place. Many people don’t really understand what their task is and how it relates to the betterment of the organization. In my experience, most employees crave this understanding and don’t feel like they have it. This is a common failing of fast-moving companies. And most of the time, the management team thinks everyone knows what they’re accountable for; why they come to work in the morning; how that translates into their success; a...