When I launched my startup, I was in the driving seat every minute of every day. Early on, when it was just me, my co-founders, and a stack of pizza boxes, I had ownership of every decision that got made.

It was hard to imagine taking a less hands-on approach, or delegating important decisions to others — but as the company grew I learned, as every boss must, that sharing power was the only way to succeed.

It’s the same, in many ways, when it comes to innovation. Early on, it’s tempting to do everything internally: if your product needs a new widget, you set your R&D team loose on widget development.

That can be a smart approach, allowing you to build tools that meet your exact needs. Instead of changing your product to align with pre-existing widgets, you can design the exact widget you need for a given purpose.

Building your own widgets also ensures you know everything there is to know about your product. You’ll never run into widget-related problems that nobody on your team understands, the theory goes, and if your needs change you’ll have in-house experts who can crank out a new generation of widgets calibrated to work perfectly with your evolving product.

The problem with building

In practice, however, a company that insists on building its own widgets is like a boss who insists on making every single decision themselves. As your company grows, your DIY ethos can hold you back by clogging your innovation pipeline and making it harder to focus on improving your core product.

That’s something I learned the hard way. My company specializes in data storytelling, and early on our users told us they wanted data entry tools as part of the package. Makes sense, right? You can’t do data storytelling without data.

We’d assembled a crack team of data analysts and design mavens, and while we understood data we didn’t have the specialized skill-set needed to create killer data-entry tools.

We tried anyway, and burnt months of development building tools that ultimately didn’t meet our own high standards. The stuff we developed wound up getting shelved, delivering not a jot of value for our customers. All the time and engineer-hours we’d wasted along the way could have been far better spent focusing on our core value proposition.

Now, when we identify key features that complement our core product, we make a point of looking first at the available off-the-shelf solutions. If one exists, we just buy it — and invest the time and energy we’ve saved in other, more fruitful areas of research and development.

The innovation trap

The problem is that R&D projects only ever get more complicated over time. In fact, just 2.5% of companies claim that all their development projects succeed, and one in six internal “build” projects have 200% or greater cost overruns.

As my company’s “data entry” misfire shows, building is difficult , and building something that doesn’t fall squarely within your areas of expertise is doubly so.

After all, our society only functions because we’ve learned to specialize. Building something without external help might let us reconnect with our primitive past , but it’s a lousy way to get things done.

Let’s face it: if I had to make my own shoes from scratch, I’d be wearing, at best, a single pair of ill-fitting flip-flops. Instead, because I outsource the process, I’ve got a closet full of sneakers, hiking shoes, and rain boots far better than anything I could cobble together myself.

In the same way, companies that build everything themselves wind up reinventing the wheel, and missing out on other companies’ hard-won discoveries. That slows down innovation and growth. In fact, companies innovate almost a fifth faster when they license supporting technologies rather than developing them in-house.

The case for buying software

The “Build v. Buy” debate is especially pertinent in the enterprise software space. Tech companies already have engineers and developers on staff, so when you need to expand your software’s capabilities, why wouldn’t you simply set your existing team on the problem?

Look closer, though, and you’ll see that software, too, is built on the successes of others. When my company uses AI tools, for instance, we assemble components from software libraries; the magic lies not in coding every line from scratch, but rather in assembling tools in the right order to create something new and powerful.

To find that sweet spot, you need to figure out what your engineers can do better than anyone else, and then maximize the time they spend doing it. But if there are areas where some other vendor can do a better job than your internal team, lean into that, and hire that vendor to improve your product.

Instead of seeing outsourcing as a failure, view it as a smart allocation of resources. You aren’t getting ripped off — you’re buying back time your engineers would otherwise have wasted building substandard features, and empowering them to use their talent where it’ll do the most good.

Move faster, stay ahead

As a founder, I’ve learned that being a jack of all trades is a shortcut to mediocrity.

Companies that build for themselves start out thinking they’ll be able to dictate product specs and ensure their solutions perfectly meet their needs — but soon find they’re constrained by design or technological decisions they made early on, and lack the resources to change direction.

By contrast, companies that buy tech can pivot simply by changing their vendor. In the SaaS era, it’s never been easier to change direction — and because vendors know that, they’ll bend over backwards to keep innovating, and give you the features that you need as your company evolves.

Creating a great business is about figuring out what makes your business great, then executing that as well as you possibly can. When you buy instead of build, you can keep your team focused on the areas where they really shine.

This ultimately helps you grow your company, build a loyal customer base, and cement a well-earned reputation for consistent excellence. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Want to improve your e-commerce metrics? Focus on your QA score

I think most of us are aware of the fact that customers are important. Throughout the shift from traditional commerce business to the current focus on e-commerce enterprises, concepts like “the customer experience” and “ the customer journey ,” continue to ring true. In fact, in many cases, they’re more important than ever.

That is to say, even in the online retail space, there’s no doubt that the customer remains a focal point in all things business. When customers are able to Google everything, customer experience can be a way to differentiate your business and stand out.

Businesses are continually morphing and evolving the various elements of how they operate. Things like managing remote workers, orchestrating complex e-commerce customer service , and scaling along with the steady increase in online shopping are rewriting what the customer experience is in the first place.

And yet, I still firmly believe that quality assurance remains one of the biggest factors impacting every startup ‘s or company’s CX. In fact, with so much competition in the e-commerce space, the quality of the experience that you can offer to your clients is one of the biggest differentiating factors any organization can cultivate.

While the customer is key, though, catering to an e-commerce customer can be challenging. If you don’t have solid, customer-related metrics to guide you, creating a winning strategy can be impossible.

That’s where your QA score comes into play.

What is your QA score?

While quality assurance has always been a mainstay in business, tracking traditional QA in a spreadsheet-focused, 21st-century enterprise can be challenging.

The question is, how can you track, analyze, and improve your customer experience?

Traditionally, businesses gauge CX with things like customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores . The problem is, these can be skewed by external factors. They also tend to be simplistic, more often than not merely requesting a general opinion about a customer’s overall experience. This generates data that is non-specific and does not suggest specific areas of improvement…

Enter the QA score.

A quality assurance score is a metric that you can customize to the specific customer experience that your brand is attempting to offer. In addition to using basic CSAT information, a QA score can take into consideration critical elements like:

How your customer service rep is doing in their interactions with customers

If a rep is following your customer service protocols

If a rep is reflecting the tone, voice, and posture outlined in your brand guidelines

Any other company-specific standards or values worth tracking

These additional factors make a QA score much more effective at capturing detailed, relevant interaction data.

By tailoring your QA scorecard to your brand, you can judge the quality of your agent’s interactions with your customers. This can provide specific areas of improvement and growth rather than generic feedback that does little more than reflect initial customer emotions.

The measured difference between CSAT and QA scores

Traditional customer service surveys have been the go-to option for CSAT as they are used as a proxy for quality. However, I’ve found that they can be a bit misleading. In fact, at times, they can even contradict the more accurate data offered by a QA score.

Quality assurance software platform MaestroQA recently conducted an analysis of 265,000 customer support tickets . In the review, the company compared classic CSAT scores with more robust QA scores and discovered that even when only considering interactions with a 90% QA score or higher, nearly a third (31.8%) of the support tickets had negative CSAT scores.

In other words, even when customer service was stellar, more than three out of every 10 tickets looked like a failure from a CSAT perspective.

The critical nature of a QA score

Examples like the one I provided above help to highlight the weakness and overall shallow nature of a customer survey. On their own, these simplistic questionnaires tend to fall flat.

Rather than provide meaningful data , they cloud the problem with emotional responses. If a customer is upset after an interaction, it doesn’t matter how professional an agent was, or whether they followed their training and instructions from their team. The feedback will likely be negative. A case can be made for the opposite to be true, as well.

When you use a QA score, however, it can pinpoint precise areas of both strength and weakness. To reiterate, this is due to the fact that a QA scorecard can be:

Customized to gather specific data

Used to define detailed success and failure points

Used to read into feedback and data and then come up with meaningful changes

Compared to a CSAT score, a QA score provides a robust, well-rounded set of data for understanding whether or not agents are performing to set company standards. It can be tailored to meet each company’s needs, and can provide critical feedback.

Using your QA score to perfect your business

The e-commerce industry comes with many metrics — data in the CX area, in particular, can feel overwhelming at times. If you’re looking for a way to cut through the clutter and pinpoint where you really need to grow, look no further than your QA score.

From personalization to specificity, a QA score provides a quality metric that can redefine both your e-commerce data analytics and, by extension, your customer experience as a whole.

9 tips to perfect your ‘working from home’ morning routine

If you work from home , getting your morning routine down to a tee will have a huge impact on how you work — and feel — for the rest of the day.

Ultimately, it’s about doing what works for you, but here are a few pointers that will hopefully help you start your day right.

Wake up at the same time

When you work from home, it can be tempting to stay in bed until the very last minute possible.

While it’s OK to treat yourself and do this on the odd occasion, I would advise you to be more disciplined and wake up at the same time every day.

You don’t have to wake up ridiculously early, just set your alarm for whatever time is realistic and works for you.

It sounds preachy but routine really is your best friend.

Avoid going online first-thing

You need to set boundaries between your life and your work.

Avoid logging on as soon as you wake up — unless it’s urgent, your inbox and Slack messages can wait until you’re ready to start working.

If you can, try not to waste too much time mindlessly scrolling on social media.

Cut your screen time as much as you can and remember you’ll get plenty of it while you’re working.

Exercise

Nothing new here. We all know how important it is to exercise on a daily basis. So, get moving and get those endorphins going!

Go for a walk, do some light yoga, go to the gym, or sign up for an online class.

It’s really down to individual choice, but if you can, mix things up so that you don’t become easily bored or complacent.

Shower and get dressed

Once you’ve exercised, it’s time to actually get ready for the day.

Showering and getting dressed before you start working is key. You’ll feel more confident and focused.

It’s tempting to roll out of bed and sit at your desk, but before you know it, it’ll be 2pm and you’ll have to dash off to get ready for your video call. Don’t do this, save yourself the stress!

Have breakfast

Once you’ve exercised and showered, it’s time to have breakfast.

Have your coffee, tea, or whatever but make sure you hydrate yourself both at breakfast and during the rest of your day.

Consider getting organized and preparing your breakfast the night before. Overnight oats are a deliciously healthy option.

It’s easy to stuff yourself with chocolate biscuits and crisps when you’re working from home but try and keep a balanced diet. Your mind and body will thank you.

House chores

Set some time aside every morning to do some household chores.

This will help you feel more productive before you start working and you’ll be less distracted by the possibility of tidying or cleaning while you’re sitting at your desk.

Be time-efficient and set an alarm on your phone to avoid getting carried away. Do whatever you have time for and then stop. Good time keeping is important.

Listen to music or a podcast

Start your day with something that makes you happy.

You could, for example, listen to music while you’re doing some housework.

Catch up with your favorite podcast and get yourself into the zone.

Enjoying some time to yourself before the madness begins will make you feel more at ease.

Set your goals for the day

Once you’ve finished your house-related tasks, start thinking about what you want to achieve at work.

Go through your to-do list and set realistic goals for the day.

Think about what needs to happen for you to achieve your goals and set yourself a clear strategy.

Try and keep the list short, though, otherwise, you’ll likely feel overwhelmed. Try and stick to a maximum of five goals.

If you have a whiteboard , make sure your list is on there so you can keep tabs on it throughout the day.

Limit your screentime and distractions

In order to meet those realistic goals you set for the day, make sure distractions like social media and push notifications don’t get a hold of you.

Block incoming messages and notifications during your productive time, or use an app like Opal to completely block your phone’s access to apps.

When it comes to limiting screentime, you can follow the ‘SMART’ method . That means your screen goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

So, for example, don’t set a vague goal like “I will drastically cut my screen time.”

Instead, focus on things like “I will watch one episode of Succession per day,” or ‘I will scroll through Instagram for 15 minutes before I start my work.”

Golden tidbit

Last but not least, limit the number of decisions you have to make in the morning.

Prepare as much as you can the night before: set out your clothes, think about what you want to have for breakfast, or lunch. Batch cook if you can.

The less time you spend on making trivial decisions, the more time you’ll have to spend on things that matter to you and make you happy.