It’s not as simple as it sounds. Nuclear FOAKs are great examples of everything that could go wrong with a FOAK. One glaring issue in nuclear FOAKs was the complexity of project management. In many cases, contracts with equipment suppliers were overly complex, and decision-making was fragmented across multiple bodies. In any project, FOAKs included, the decision-making process is the Achilles heel. So, how do you simplify it?
Set your FOAK goals
There are a few things to consider. First and foremost, write out the goals that you want to achieve with your FOAK. These should be very specific, like a particular date of the launch, zero accidents during construction, etc. Don’t limit yourself only to the construction part of the project. You are not in the real estate business, so encompass the end goals like less than 5% scrap rate or specific productivity in the first year. These goals will set a framework for your team's cooperation and will enable them to track their progress.
Map your FOAK
Second, sit down with your team and a piece of paper, write “FOAK” in the middle, and then write every concept that you can think of that a FOAK is comprised of. For example, a lithium-ion battery FOAK would consist, among others, of factory building, foundation, equipment, safety procedures, safety equipment, workers, training for workers, overseas instructors, visas for overseas instructors, translation for equipment manuals, cash in sufficient amounts, permits, etc. This brainstorm will give you a cloud of concepts, that constitute a FOAK.
This is an important exercise to do, as it lets you form a checklist of critical obstacles on your FOAK path. Northvolt for example, simply forgot about the need for visas for Chinese workers and about the need for proper translation of equipment manuals to English.
FOAK management structure
Third, after forming this checklist, draw up a FOAK project management structure, that can take care of all of the items on the checklist. Each FOAK project management structure will be different, so I won’t give any specific recommendations here. However, there are a few principles you need to follow.
If you have completed your demo project, then your team knows a lot of details about what would it take to build 10x. Ask it to step back, and look at the project from a troubleshooting point of view. When something went wrong during the demo project, who spotted it? What did you do to quickly solve the issue? How many people did you need to consult? Who made the final decision? Use your own experience, analyze it, and codify it. Formulate it in a project management structure.
Try to avoid functional silos. These have a nasty tendency of becoming trenches, from which one part of your team throws shit at another. Instead, organize cross-functional teams focused on achieving specific goals. Make sure that the team has all the necessary skills. Oftentimes, one person would work across several teams, like an IT specialist or a lawyer. That’s ok, as long as you monitor their workload, so it doesn’t become excessive and one of your team's efforts would suffer.
The team lead should have all the authority he or she needs to execute and achieve the team’s goals. They should not be coming to your door to ask for permission. They should not be organizing a meeting to get something done. They should be able to do it straight away. Now, you will design your own reporting, communication, and conflict resolution systems.
Eliminate gatekeepers
The biggest mistake a founder can make at this point is to become a gatekeeper and a go-to problem solver. This will result in you becoming the sole decision maker, with a line of visitors outside of your office, eager to hear your judgment. In the end, the project will stall, as your decision-making ability will be the chokepoint.
Avoiding this trap is hard, after all, you are the top authority and decision-maker. To avoid this, whenever someone came to me and tried to make me solve a problem, I’ve always referred my teammates to the goals of the project and then asked them, in return, how would they solve this particular problem and achieve the goals? In 90% of the cases, people came up with a good enough answer and went back to working on the project.
Streamline reporting
Fourth, establish clear and regular reporting mechanisms and a conflict resolution system. In our wind turbine project, we had over twelve teams, working on everything from construction, to procurement, to staff training to cybersecurity. Each team had a standardized reporting template, consisting of three PowerPoint slides. The first one would list tasks, set to the team two weeks ago, and would display its progress in their achievement. It would also show how the team fares against the plan. The second would suggest the tasks for the next two-week interval.
The third slide would flag important issues where the team needed help. This slide’s purpose was to keep teams from hushing up problems. It was made clear that there would be no punishment for bringing up issues on the third slide. Oftentimes, this leads to several teams coming together to hash out a solution.
We kept a special project management task force of four people, whose job was to complete these slides for each team, thus on one hand taking off the burden of reporting from them, and on the other hand, making sure that reporting was on time. This team also moderated all of the conflict resolution meetings and formulated the final decisions. It did not have authority apart from information collection and reporting but was instrumental in getting everyone on the same page.
Finally, remember that as a founder, your main function during the FOAK will be… reporting to your investors. You will be spending an enormous amount of time preparing reports, delivering them in the board rooms, and negotiating with investors one-on-one. Investors have a nasty habit of dropping on you with a report request right when you are in the middle of putting out a fire. So you’ll need to have that presentation deck at the ready, with all the latest figures and progress reports. To do that, you will need rock-solid data and a firm grasp of what is going on in your project at the moment. This is where your reporting system will come to your rescue.