Last week I caught myself writing a 12-page feature spec.
For a small feature I could prototype in an hour.
After years leading 25-to-40 person R&D teams, I’d grown dependent on hyper-granular scoping. Every edge case mapped. Every stakeholder aligned. Every requirement bulletproof before the elusive dev handoff.
But as a founder with a small, part-time team, I became the stakeholder - the one who had to not only hold the complete vision, but execute on it, often.
I was optimizing for consensus when what I really needed was speed.
align everyone, then move Speed
move, then align
The leadership behaviors that made me effective with a larger team suddenly looked a lot like obstacles. Exhaustive documentation when I needed fast prototyping. Consensus-building when I needed quick design decisions and customer-in-the-loop iteration. Delegation planning when I needed hands-on execution. Risk mitigation when I needed rapid testing.
The shift forced me deeper into hands-on product work than I’d been in for years. Now the micro-decisions were mine. Few - to zero - layers between me and the end user.
Surprisingly, my product skills sharpened. When you can’t delegate the details, there’s no choice but to master them.
But I do miss a lot of the collaborative energy. The real-time problem-solving. The moment when someone else’s perspective unlocks a solution you couldn’t see. With a sparse team I still get inspired by glimpses of that, in smaller doses.
The founding teammates I do have - small in number, enormous in contribution - are the reason those glimpses exist at all.
The hidden gap between senior operator and founder isn’t just about wearing more hats. It’s unlearning the very habits that got you promoted in the first place.
So far, I’m finding that more of a blessing than a hardship.