When things are bad, profit motivation does not work.
Before reading further, look at the project evaluation table by its participants.
Faced with the difficulties of some of our projects, I had a desire to focus on the motivation of developers. I thought that this was the key to solving the problem and for high motivation, minimum wages and a significant share of profits were needed. At the same time, the workers employed in difficult projects wanted exactly the opposite - a stable salary than any incomprehensible profit.
If the investor and the developer do not see value in future profits, the conclusion is the same - the project has a high chance of failing. It is worth thinking not about the motivation of workers, but first of all about whether we are moving in the right direction, business, or what the consumer will demand. My mistake was to try to solve my problem, although I actually did not solve it, but simply tried to pass it on to the workers.
')
The opposite is true when the project is guaranteed to be successful. The investor is ready to give good salaries and reluctantly share profits, and workers on the contrary are ready to take risks in order to get a share in the project. These are sure signs of a successful project.
You can argue with me and say: if an employee barely has enough money and needs to feed his family, then there can be no talk of any risks, only self-confident students sitting on the back of their parents are willing to take risks. All this is true, and there is a reasonable explanation for this:
However, all this does not contradict my assumptions. To verify them, I applied the method of extreme comparisons. I took over the successful and over the unsuccessful projects and analyzed the behavior of the employee.
90% of the profits is a lot? And 10%?
Imagine that the market price of your labor is 50,000 rubles per month.
Microsoft has contacted you:
- Alexander, we know that you are an exceptional specialist and without your help we cannot complete the project of Windows 11. Write an application for this specification.
You are watching the specification and, from the height of your experience, understand that you can confidently accomplish the task in a year.
Microsoft offer is:
Profit from Windows sales amounts to billions of dollars, but you have a mortgage and you have to feed your family, and 50 thousand rubles is barely enough for that. Before reading further, consider which option to choose.
If you choose clause 2 or 3, then it may, although not necessarily, speak of the following:
Perhaps there is another reason that I did not pay attention. If you just showed insufficient ingenuity, then the solution may be as follows: approach, for example, a familiar entrepreneur and tell - so they say so, I can share with you 1% of Microsoft profits, if the project burns out and you give me 50,000 per month for the next year or two. An entrepreneur will estimate the potential of the deal and say: "You know, Alexander, I will give you 70,000 a month, just make this project as it should."
A neighbor from the staircase approached you and offered to write a simplified version of a calculator for Windows. He believes that the buttons for working with memory and calculating percentages strongly interfere with people working on a calculator. He plans to sell this program at about 2,000 rubles per copy, focusing on sales of several million copies per year. He knows that you are a cool developer and is ready to offer 90% of the profits from sales.
The proposal of a neighbor is:
Before reading further, consider what to choose.
If you have no conscience and you need money, then you will probably get to work by choosing option 3, and you will do it as long as possible . It would be correct to refuse the proposal and explain to the neighbor why his project would not be profitable.
I did not discover anything new, but when the understanding of this firmly settled in my mind, I changed the way of thinking about projects. I realized that the success of a project lies in certain factors, and not in the so-called “right” motivation of an employee to profit.
Thus, the forecast of the success of the project can be determined by the desires of the participants. Here is a litmus test, look again at the table at the beginning of the article and ask your employees and investors to answer questions about salary and share in the project.
Faced with the difficulties of some of our projects, I had a desire to focus on the motivation of developers. I thought that this was the key to solving the problem and for high motivation, minimum wages and a significant share of profits were needed. At the same time, the workers employed in difficult projects wanted exactly the opposite - a stable salary than any incomprehensible profit.
If the investor and the developer do not see value in future profits, the conclusion is the same - the project has a high chance of failing. It is worth thinking not about the motivation of workers, but first of all about whether we are moving in the right direction, business, or what the consumer will demand. My mistake was to try to solve my problem, although I actually did not solve it, but simply tried to pass it on to the workers.
')
The opposite is true when the project is guaranteed to be successful. The investor is ready to give good salaries and reluctantly share profits, and workers on the contrary are ready to take risks in order to get a share in the project. These are sure signs of a successful project.
You can argue with me and say: if an employee barely has enough money and needs to feed his family, then there can be no talk of any risks, only self-confident students sitting on the back of their parents are willing to take risks. All this is true, and there is a reasonable explanation for this:
- Having family and other obligations really reduces willingness to take risks;
- A student, and a newly-graduate graduate are rarely able to immediately offer a good salary, the rates for their work are much lower. Therefore, a young man can more easily risk his small salary. In addition, young people often have high self-esteem and risk appetite;
- A professional with a lot of experience and family, as a rule, the salary is much higher, so the risk for him is more substantial. Such people have established their self-esteem, and their risk appetite is moderate.
However, all this does not contradict my assumptions. To verify them, I applied the method of extreme comparisons. I took over the successful and over the unsuccessful projects and analyzed the behavior of the employee.
90% of the profits is a lot? And 10%?
Imagine that the market price of your labor is 50,000 rubles per month.
Extreme case 1
Microsoft has contacted you:
- Alexander, we know that you are an exceptional specialist and without your help we cannot complete the project of Windows 11. Write an application for this specification.
You are watching the specification and, from the height of your experience, understand that you can confidently accomplish the task in a year.
Microsoft offer is:
- 0 rub. salary and 10% of the profits from sales of Windows 11;
- 25 000 rubles salary and 5% of profit;
- 50 000 rub. salary and 0% of the profits.
Profit from Windows sales amounts to billions of dollars, but you have a mortgage and you have to feed your family, and 50 thousand rubles is barely enough for that. Before reading further, consider which option to choose.
If you choose clause 2 or 3, then it may, although not necessarily, speak of the following:
- excessive stubbornness to prove the theory’s infidelity at any cost;
- too low self-esteem;
- pathological fear of taking risks;
- you are willing to sacrifice yourself excessively for the success of others;
- you are not concerned about personal income;
- You have shown insufficient ingenuity in solving the problem, how to feed yourself and your family for the next year.
Perhaps there is another reason that I did not pay attention. If you just showed insufficient ingenuity, then the solution may be as follows: approach, for example, a familiar entrepreneur and tell - so they say so, I can share with you 1% of Microsoft profits, if the project burns out and you give me 50,000 per month for the next year or two. An entrepreneur will estimate the potential of the deal and say: "You know, Alexander, I will give you 70,000 a month, just make this project as it should."
Extreme 2
A neighbor from the staircase approached you and offered to write a simplified version of a calculator for Windows. He believes that the buttons for working with memory and calculating percentages strongly interfere with people working on a calculator. He plans to sell this program at about 2,000 rubles per copy, focusing on sales of several million copies per year. He knows that you are a cool developer and is ready to offer 90% of the profits from sales.
The proposal of a neighbor is:
- 0 rub. salary and 90% of profit;
- 25 000 rubles salary and 45% of profit;
- 50 000 rub. salary and 0% of the profits.
Before reading further, consider what to choose.
If you have no conscience and you need money, then you will probably get to work by choosing option 3, and you will do it as long as possible . It would be correct to refuse the proposal and explain to the neighbor why his project would not be profitable.
findings
- If the project is potentially successful, then the investor and the employee can easily agree on mutual settlements. An investor will be able to highlight a good salary that can satisfy the best of the best, and the employee will be happy to work for a share in the project. The project is highly likely to succeed, even if it has some inaccuracy in the distribution of profits.
- If the project is potentially not successful, no matter how clear and transparent the profit distribution system is, the project will slip. Participants will not be satisfied with the work, blaming each other for failures.
- If your project has professionals with extensive experience and the presence of requiring constant family support. And these professionals with a genuine desire want to take risks for a stake in the project, and the investor does not even encourage this desire. All this is a sure sign of the success of the project.
I did not discover anything new, but when the understanding of this firmly settled in my mind, I changed the way of thinking about projects. I realized that the success of a project lies in certain factors, and not in the so-called “right” motivation of an employee to profit.
Thus, the forecast of the success of the project can be determined by the desires of the participants. Here is a litmus test, look again at the table at the beginning of the article and ask your employees and investors to answer questions about salary and share in the project.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/297030/
All Articles