At a growth stage company, time and resources will always be constraints. Rarely are new ideas in short supply, but the ability to prioritize the right ones is a skill that strategy and operations leaders must learn to do effectively early on in their careers.
However, it’s much easier said than done.
The ability to evaluate, implement, and bring those ideas to life is what can separate good strategy and operations leaders from great ones. Further, knowing when not to pursue an opportunity can be just as important.
For Lu Li, VP of Global Sales and Strategy at Indiegogo, the ability to prioritize what matters most is crucial to bringing a company’s vision to life for any strategy and operations leader.
On this episode of Aspiring Ops, Lu shares her journey into strategy and operations, and how her go-to-market experience helped shape how she connects a company’s vision with execution. Lu also provides a glimpse into how prioritization is key to success at a growth stage company, when opportunities seem to be everywhere.
So how does prioritization take shape at a growth stage company? It comes down to defining a structure for how the company thinks about what needs to be done and when.
“At a growth stage company, there are always too many things that we can work on. Opportunity seems to be everywhere, and it all needs to be done yesterday,” says Lu. “With limited resources and bandwidth, fierce prioritization is so important. This is something I’ve had to go through and learn throughout the years. Making those difficult decisions on what to take on, what to work on first, when to let go, and what to let go, having a system and thought process for that is absolutely essential.”
Without the ability to prioritize, strategy and operations leaders will struggle to shift from vision to execution. Prioritization skills, which are often more difficult than building the project plan, are critical when defining a scope of work and rallying team members to take on new initiatives. The seemingly simple, yet incredibly challenging, ability to know when to say ‘no’ or pushback on ideas will help your team focus on what matters most.
As Lu shares, ‘fierce prioritization’ is a skill set that is a requirement to thrive in strategy and operations.
Interested in learning more about Indiegogo? Check out their site here.
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