Agile development
There are many techniques to boost productivity in a startup. One of the most complete and used methods is scrum. Scrum is a type of agile development that focuses on completing a new feature in the product in a short period. It enables to manage very efficiently development teams, it copes with uncertainty in the planning and it allows a high degree of flexibility.
The main goal of scrum is to deliver a potentially shippable product increment in a fixed period. The process begins with a Product Backlog. The product backlog is a TODO list of all the tasks that have to be completed. Some of these tasks are included in the Sprint, which consists of a period between 2 and 4 weeks in which a new feature in the product is completed. Also, every day the team have a Daily Scrum Meeting, to see how the process is going.
Scrum roles
In scrum, there are different roles some members of the team must set, the product owner, the scrum master and the development team.
The Product Owner is a team member that has a complete vision of the business. This person is responsible for directing the team effort to get the largest business value and has to decide which feature is more important to develop.
The Product Owner is also responsible for deciding the tasks that appear in the product backlog and what is the priority of each of them.
The Scrum Master leads the development team. This person is responsible for removing any distraction from the team and help them to achieve the goal. The scrum master must make sure that each scrum iteration, called sprint, is successfully completed.
The Development Team is responsible for developing each new feature in the product. Every day usually in the morning all team meet to do the daily meeting, where every member answer three questions: What did I do yesterday? What am I going to do today? Do I have any problem/issue?
Maybe one of the most important features of this method is the daily meeting. It is a perfect way to plan the tasks of the team and a good way to know what everybody else is doing.