Founder's advice. Bayram Annakov, creator of App In The Air

On the "Megamind" one more "Founder Councils" .
We managed to talk with Bayram Annakov - the creator of App In The Air . For several years, Bayram has been developing an application that continues to improve the lives of travelers around the world.

We develop mobile products for the global market. Our main product is App In The Air. Today it is more than a million users and a place on the banner in the Travel section of the AppStore. AppInTheAir is a flight manager that helps you learn not only changes in flight schedules, but also navigate the world's largest airports (from cafes to free Wi-Fi networks). In April, we released including navigation to the 7 largest airports in the United States, such as, for example, New York.

The most important thing is for everyone in the team to understand their own contribution to the overall project and the direction of movement of the company as a whole.

It often happens that people do not fully understand the goals of the organization as a whole, which is why the company looks more like a Swan, Cancer and Pike design, rather than a locomotive that moves in one direction.

When a person does not understand what he is doing and does not see his own contribution to the common cause, the motivation is lost. It is necessary not only to find people who are motivated for something, but also constantly push people to greater awareness and inner motivation for good work, through feedback and transparency of actions. Feedback also allows you to quickly understand who does not invest in the company and “oust” such a person as a team. So that a person does not adversely affect the overall development and the overall result.

Usually there are two ways:

• Man turns on
• The man does not turn on

In the second case, the employee can be parted.

Not so long ago, we specifically asked employees to write one sentence about which colleagues they could not work with. This was done specifically to search for a single person. You can independently evaluate how people evaluate their working qualities and traits that are useful in their work.

We spend a lot of time analyzing user behavior inside the application. This allows not only to determine further features, but also to build the development of the product as a whole. What do users do, why do they do it, what problems prevent us from using and being involved in the product, and, of course, why the user pays or does not pay money.
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We pay a lot of attention to these moments and they help us in our work.
Of course, we ourselves have enough ideas about what to do with the product itself, what to improve or change. We test all these hypotheses mainly with the help of hackathons - this format turned out to be very useful for us. Over the past 2 years, our team won 4 or 5 hackathons around the world, with prizes ranging from $ 10,000 to $ 100,000.

• User behavior analysis
• Hypothesis Testing through Hackathon

Hackatons allow and help hyper-focused work in a team and test the idea that will be implemented in our product. This is very useful and we encourage all development teams to take part in such events. In addition, it is fun and interesting - in a short time to do something, which usually requires coordination and effort.

For example, we conduct internal training on React Native and we have written two components, now presented on the main portal of this technology.

New technologies help us implement new functions in the application. For example, using iBeacon, we created a system of orientation and navigation at airports.

It is not only fun and interesting, but also highly motivating.

At one time, under my command, there was a team of 40 people supporting the old system. One of the key points in explaining the work was the answer to the question: “Why are we doing this?”, For example, to a person who imposes on XSLT forms, without which the platform does not work, since the requirements should support the Netscape browser ...

In my team, we are constantly trying new things in order to actually feel moving forward. Instead of using old and “dead” technologies, it simply erodes the desire to program in a person. And this was one of my main requirements for my own company.

Better than the prototype, nothing can give the sensations associated with the new technology, so we make prototypes and then try to evaluate their applicability in existing working and loaded systems and applications.

The main objective of our product is the users involved, but even despite the lack of attempts to hold it (the user) in some kind of framework, we successfully earn money that we have enough for life.

Hyper responsibility is important

The manager in no case should not kick anyone in order for the employee to work. And I do not like such a message in many books related to management and the premise that "the manager motivates employees." It is not scalable and self-organizing teams do not work that way.

Each individual team member must be motivated by his own accomplishments and work results. Hyper responsibility is also associated with the desire to take on more complex tasks and take responsibility for them, and not to shift it to colleagues who “did not do” or “did not pass on.”

The ability to roll up the sleeves yourself is equally important

Becoming a "manager" you will not be able to sit or lie down, telling everyone else what they should do. For me, this is unacceptable, because the connection with reality is important - when it is broken, problems arise.

The lesson I went through myself was first voiced by Steve Jobs in a conversation with Larry Page: "Do not try to be forgiving." Sometimes, perhaps under the impression of the same books on management, people try to be super-democratic. Kind, sympathetic and forgiving. I'm not saying that this is bad, but these are human qualities important in interpersonal communication. The work needs the ability to make quick and responsible decisions: to lay off people, to save time, to spend effectively manpower and money.

If a manager is embarrassed to tell an employee that he does a poor job or waits for 3 months before he dismisses a person, then such stories usually end badly for companies that employ such employees.

Do not be shy if your truth is on the side of the company and the product

We have to win and the result is important.

Editorial note: if you have a desire to participate in the “Founder’s Tips” section, write to us at editor (at) megamozg.ru