Two weeks ago, zipRealty.com said goodbye to one of its early team members. This was tough because we pride ourselves on retaining and developing the people who join us. However from this sad occasion, we have learned a lesson.
J.J. (not his real name) was the first technical person to join zipRealty.com. I still clearly remember the final conversation he and I had before he decided to join. He was about to accept an offer from another company but wanted to talk to me one more time. He told me he really would rather come work at zipRealty, but another startup was making him a better offer.
After determining that compensation was the only issue keeping him in limbo, I matched the other offer and he came on board. I later learned that during that final recruiting conversation, J.J. was talking to me from the other company's parking lot.
GOLD STANDARD. After less than two weeks on the job, J.J. was distinguishing himself as a real star. He worked tirelessly and was always upbeat. With him in place, we were able to end a costly consulting agreement with an outside development firm, beat aggressive product-development deadlines, and modify our Web site at will. J.J. also set the standard for commitment to the company. He would do whatever it took to meet deadlines and twice pulled not just all-nighters but 48-hour shifts to hit launch deadlines. In less than three months, J.J. established himself as one of the company's anchors.
Recognizing how valuable he was to our team, we sat down with J.J. three times to review his performance and share our thoughts. In each case we asked what we could do to help him develop professionally and how we could improve the Web site. We also increased his compensation. Everything was going well, except we knew that J.J. could not continue to work at the same pace much longer.
We brought in a professional recruiter to help us build more staff to support J.J. and his efforts. We were facing the same problem as everyone else in the Bay Area -- it's very difficult to find great technical people. It took some time, but after two months, we started to have some success. Over a six-week period, we hired three strong technical people to work with J.J. Everything looked good as we rolled into April and prepared for the launch of a new version of our site.
Little did we know that J.J.'s clock was winding down. In late May, as the new product was nearing completion, the vice-president of J.J.'s department dropped a bombshell -- J.J. was leaving as soon as the site launch was completed. In desperation, the manager had sat with J.J. for several hours, trying unsuccessfully to get him to reconsider.
BACK TO SCHOOL. I immediately canceled all of my appointments and met with J.J. I really hoped I could find out what we could do to keep him on the team. It wasn't as simple as burnout. J.J. had become interested in changing careers and was thinking about pursuing an MBA. The success of zipRealty.com -- success he had been such a large part of -- convinced him that now was the time to act. I asked him to think about ways he and the company could work together to meet his goals, and he said he would give it another night of reflection.
The next day nothing had changed. J.J. was too far along in his decision. He was now refocusing his drive and dedication from the company to his new objective. J.J.'s mind was made up, and I now had to make sure the news of his resignation was properly communicated to the rest of the company. I first met with all the vice-presidents. After the initial shock, they went out and talked with their departments. All went surprisingly well, thanks to these managers, who did a superb job talking one-on-one with people who had questions or concerns about J.J.'s departure.
The only thing left was to make sure he got a proper send-off. He has done so much for zipRealty.com that we wanted to make sure he understood how much we appreciated his efforts. On J.J.'s final day, a group led by his manager took him to lunch. While they were out, the entire company gathered for a surprise farewell celebration. When J.J. and the group returned, everyone yelled "surprise!" and rolled out a cake.
HARD LESSON. J.J. was pleasantly surprised. He gave a brief farewell speech, and we presented him with a large card signed by all team members. I also told him he was always welcome at zip and was considered a lifetime member of the team.
The tragedy for the company was that this was a case of good intentions being dashed by poor timing. During crunch time, we overworked J.J. so we could meet critical deadlines. Yet we also dedicated extensive resources to remedy that problem and to hire support for him. Although J.J. never complained, we realize help came a little too late. The only good thing to come out of this is that top management now has an ingrained commitment to be more attuned to such situations and to act more quickly.
Mistakes are a daily part of any startup. Good companies learn from them and improve their processes. Trust me -- we've learned. See you in two weeks.
Copyright 2000 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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