Just last week,‘The Rodinhood’ himself spent 3 hours traveling both ways in Mumbai only to be told the boss had left for NY.
Here’s what I experienced on Saturday. A case of how one start-up burnt their bridges.
I was cajoled by a connection to advice their portfolio start-ups with UX advice.
To kick-off we agreed to schedule a ‘UXBoot’ for one of their portfolio start-ups for Saturday 11:00am to 1:00pm at my Pune office. One founding team member was traveling from Mumbai & the other from Pune.
I got into my office on a weekend (we follow 5-day work week) at 9:00am to ensure my facilities man cleans up the office. I wrapped up important emails & was expecting the founders by 11:00am. I’d invited Prakash Thombre, co-founder at NotchUX and Creative Director with 22 years work-ex to join me in meeting the fine start-up team working, who’re currently at well-know institutions.
It was 11:30am, and still no word from the other team. At 11:45am the founder from Mumbai called in to confirm he’d just reached the connections Pune office & asked me for directions. He said he’ll join me in 15 minutes.
No news. I receive his text at 12:02pm: “We will come in 15 mins”.
No news. He calls in at 12:48am, asking if I have anything scheduled for the day. This galled me. What business has anyone to ask me of my plans. We had a scheduled meet at 11am-1pm, and we only had 2 minutes left of that. Then he took the liberty of ‘calling off the meet’ at the time it was scheduled to end.
And all this while, there’s no news from the founder based in Pune.
Although it’s a known fact that majority of us Indians don’t value other people’s time, this is no way of treating anyone who’s out to help you with their experience & time. The start-up fraternity must take an oath to shut out start-up founders who believe they can get away with disrespecting other peoples time.
Disrespecting time is a major reason why the Indian start-up eco-system remains isolated from the world.
I love how Clarity.fm does it. I’ve been called for start-up advice via Clarity.fm, and the app does everything in its power to rate Callers & Advisors based on multiple parameters. ‘Starting on time’ for the scheduled call is the most important parameter. If you’re in the negative, they shut you out. Period.
A quick background on our What & Why for the Indian Start-up fraternity:
I founded a successful UX consultancy – NotchUX. Our core practice areas are Information Design & Visual Design. Through the last decade, we’ve been neck deep helping our customer’s from North America & Europe notch up user experiences for applications across form-factors (touchpad, AIO, Smartphones, Tablets, and desktops). Innovation is a big reason why our customers love us.
As a start-up guy, I’ve paid through my nose for UX services right here in Pune. The ‘reputed’ pros I engaged showcased me the earth & delivered 1/100th on expectations. 3 months into the contract, and no closure in sight I donned the UX hat because I was pushed to the wall. I didn’t want start-up fellows to run around like headless chicken experimenting with UXers, while losing precious time & money.
I’ve been following ‘The Rodinhoods’ since inception, and it’s heartening to watch this community snowball into one mega congregation of like-minded start-up fellows. So motivated was I, that 3 months ago I decided to bring my hard-earned UX experience to Indian shores, and lend my expertise to Indian Start-ups.
My primary motivations to organize ‘UXBoot’:
- Tune founders to think ‘User First’ & ‘Mobile First’.
- Give founders the opportunity to don the UX thinking hat.
- Help them understand the importance of UX & consider engaging a pro before deep diving into product design.
- A FREE 2-hour ‘UXBoot’ workshop at our office in Pune. Agenda:
- Sketch out the user flow of one core task for each of the core user types, and
- Walk out of ‘UXBoot’ with a wireframe of the home screen & one other screen.
Objective of ‘UXBoot’ – to create a destination for start-ups to seek UX advice from hands-on pros.
Having organized 4 such workshops (not linked in any way to the connection I mentioned earlier), it’s heartening to watch founders post the UXBoot workshop. They ready to head back with a sense of purpose & urgency – well knowing there’s much left to be done on crafting an immaculate user experience. It’s what keeps me going.
This was my sickest experience of a scheduled ‘UXBoot’. And a fucked up start-up weekend!
Perzen Darukhanawalla
Dinesh – a great post on the importance of startups and people in general in India valuing someone else’s time. I feel that if the founders themselves cannot be bothered to be on time, it sets the tone for the organisation as a whole and you will often then find their employees also coming late and/or not responding to clients promptly etc. As a community we should really brainstorm ways on how this attitude can be fixed.
Jack John
I feel most of them like to start a start up but they are not actively dedicated or serious about their which leads to chalta hai attitude as its a start-up people tend to believe they do not have enough work other than meeting and discussing so they are always on low priory
Sudarsan Ravi
Hi Dinesh – I had a similar incident once when an acquaintance pinged me and said that “He needed advice” since he is starting up. In an attempt to give something back for all the gyaan, i have received, I took out an entire two hours from a very busy week to meet him at a place midway in Mumbai.
Within five minutes, I realize the conversation has gone from advice to a sales pitch for a chain marketing activity. After I conveyed my displeasure in no uncertain terms, he went on to appear to seek gyaan on starting up.
I learnt a lot that day that not everybody is honest in their communications. Tough lesson at a price but I dont think I will change offering help to others because of a few black sheep. UXBoot is a wonderful initiative. Please keep that going.
Dinesh Brid
Perzen, this reminds me of Alok ‘Rodinhood’.
My Day-1 at c2w, I checked with man friday & was told it’s 9:30am.
Everytime I tried hard to walk in early, I could never beat Alok. He always checked-in before me.
Dinesh Brid
You said it. “Sab chalta hai.”
Jack, I’m witnessing a new start-up trend.
Work on the side. Start-up on the side.
If we can’t commit time, or get investors to commit money, we at-least have a secure job.
With most working founders, the commitment is absent. That’s unless, Founder #2 is a dedicated full-time start-up resource.
Dinesh Brid
Nice to know I have company.
I’m sure it made you sick, carving out 2 hours from your schedule – for a sales pitch.
Recently, a friend requested my UX advice with his start-up. Before I knew it, he was expecting me to shoulder the mantle for UX & tech development. I put my foot down & explained my UX services model in no uncertain terms.
Wrt UXBoot: Just wrapped up our 5th UXBoot today. Can’t be happier. It’s heartening to watch the founders faces glow as they watch their vision coming alive on whiteboard & post-its. Imagine a messed up whiteboard, packed with sketches, scribbles & post-its becomes the star of the day 🙂
Sudarsan, UXBoot is On. Spread the word…
Ashwin C Parulkar
Typical Indian a attitude
-no regard for others time…11 am is arrive time 11.45 ,7.30 is 8.15
-no traffic sense…
1 min lost adds up every where..multiply by others time..
We r buch of people..and a nation of accumulated pile of waste of time
Abey John
Ashaaaa…. grab Dinesh!!!! :))
Sorry Dinesh this is like serendipity knockin on the door. Asha just asked me over email the good n bad of rodinhood being an early member. The bad I told her was a screwed up home page and navigation. Which is me being polite. 🙂
Since you are an UXer I can cuss n wail and sob on your shoulders without you thinkin am crazy. :))
Abey John
I once fixed an appointment for 4:30 pm reconfirmed it a week before, the previous day, the same day morning and walked in at 4:15. The guy walks in at 4:25 and makes me wait one hour. Thats the day I finally abandonded chasing deadbeats.
Whats your site url? Yes I know I can google it but if you reply it will get starred in my inbox to check out later. 🙂
Dinesh Brid
Abey, I’m hearing more such experiences from my network.
I’ve had 7 calls talking at length of their experiences. They just don’t want to expose themselves in a public forum at the risk of losing potential business. And that’s sad.
Makes me kick myself for making time for the inconsiderate nuts. I walk away from a meet if I’m kept waiting 20mins+. Genuine cases are an exception.
My own case, where I blundered – I was late for a scheduled investor meet for my start-up. I stepped out in formals & it started to pour. I had a car but hadn’t been at the wheel ever. Dripping wet I managed a rick and made it to the meet a good 25 minutes late. That’s the one time I remember I had a fear-of-loss of losing a potential investor. I just didn’t bother to inform the investor of my delay. I kept praying the man still has time from his schedule. Meet we did & I got a listen for 45 minutes. The meet sailed through although I was partially drenched. Says a lot of the man who understood without me saying that my delay was genuine.
Abey, we’re at http://www.notchUX.com. Simple & uncluttered 4 screens defines us 🙂
Feel free to shout out at +91 99230 35888