Large organisations thrive on process. Repeatable workflows, documented procedures, clear handoffs. It's how they scale. It's also how startups grind to a halt.
I've seen teams try to import the processes they used at bigger companies into early-stage startups. Quarterly planning cycles, elaborate roadmap ceremonies, rigid sprint structures. It feels productive. It looks professional. But it kills the one advantage a startup actually has: the ability to move fast and change direction.
Before you've found product-market fit, a regimented process is a trap. You're optimising for consistency when you should be optimising for learning. Every hour spent maintaining a process is an hour not spent talking to customers, testing assumptions, or pivoting when something isn't working.
What works instead is principles. Not "we do two-week sprints" but "we ship something every week." Not "we have a quarterly planning process" but "we revisit priorities when the data changes." Principles give you a compass without locking you into a path.
The principles that matter most at this stage are simple. Learn quickly. Stay flexible. Make decisions fast. These aren't revolutionary ideas, but they're easy to forget when someone suggests implementing the framework that worked at their last company.
Process has its place. Once you've found something that works and you're trying to scale it, consistency becomes valuable. But until then, being nimble and responsive will do more for your chances of success than any religiously followed process ever could.