The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth

by Eric Ries

To act as the single clearinghouse for information about the startup for the rest of the corporation. This responsibility requires some real work by the executives who sit on the board, and many executives and teams take months or even years to get comfortable with this role. The key is for every team that has a growth board to feel comfortable deflecting the infinite asks for status updates they get from middle managers. It’s not that team members are refusing to answer; it’s that they’ve been told that any requests should be routed to Senior Executive X, who sits on their growth board. Middle managers rarely ask for status updates idly; such requests are almost always a prelude to requests for a change in plan. Making these requests of low-level, low-status managers in the company is relatively cost-free. But making the same requests of a high-level executive is much more expensive, politically speaking. The existence of a growth board forces middle managers to think carefully about whether they really, truly have a problem that needs solving, while giving them a clear and direct path to getting it solved if they do.