Leaders and Developers
July 13, 09 by CraigFor some time I’ve planned to found my own company some day. It’s one thing to work your way up through other companies and potentially lead a company, but my strong suspicion is it’s an entirely different and rewarding experience to build something from the ground up. Two key things I’ve decided (as it will likely be a somewhat technical company i’ll found):
I want leadership that understands the technology
I want developers that understand the business
Let me explain each of these further…
Leadership
Leadership often has a solid understanding of the high level value. They understand where the business should be headed, they know at a minimum what customers must pay, and how large the market should be. Once they know these things their next step is to ensure the company can build a product that meets the needs of customers. While all steps are worthwhile, the one I often see bad steps taken are in this execution. It’s not because these people don’t know how to execute, it’s because they don’t understand even at a middle-level how the technology actually works.
I suspect there are many people that can build companies that do grow to be big and successful without having a hands on knowledge, however having the hands on knowledge seems to increase the odds of succeeding quite greatly.
Developers
In contrast developers at a lot of places are highly technical, they know the details and they’re happy to talk about them. There’s really two issues with this, neither are reasons development would go badly, but more of underutilized opportunities. If a developer understands the business then they don’t have to really hash over the details of requirements to the T, they have more of a critical mindset of how things relate to a user. This means you may have a more solid product, or can even spend less on a product manager as you have all your developers thinking in that mindset of how your product relates to the users.
The even bigger difference is sales/marketing. When young and a small company you have very limited resources, people are expected to do lots of tasks. Most people at startups know this, but I seldom see people expect engineers at startups to be able to market/sell the product. However when they are you will typically increase your sales force somewhere around 3-4 fold and reach many audiences you left untouched before. Often times these come in the form of developer conferences, where developers from your target market may be, but a marketer would not feel comfortable trying to sell into a developer environment.
While I would never expect any executive, vp, or manager to get incredibly hands on and code, I without a doubt want them to if truly needed be able to.
As for the developers, they definitely be able to succinctly explain the product and its value to a variety of audiences.
Ain Says: 13.07.09 at 11:31 pm
Most right. A company is a team game and it’s not won by very good individual players but with a teamwork. Synergy matters.
Dan Douglas Says: 14.07.09 at 12:38 am
Great article! The only thing that struck a curve with me is about the execute, vp, or manager, expected to have the ability to code or develop (not that they are required to). I found the point about the executives to do the coding to be interesting, as I come from a non-startup background (worked for government, manufacturing, and small non IT focused companies).
Based on my background (larger corporations), I would strongly feel that people in those positions need to understand the business and relay that understanding to their people, but I wouldn’t want them to ever write any code – even if they used to be developers. A big difference I suppose between a small startup and a larger organization.
Certainly if they are not coding, an understanding of software development, architecture, and process is still required (especially for an IT startup).
I’ve never been involved with a startup, but I’m sure it fosters a creative working environment.
Dan
Craig Says: 14.07.09 at 2:51 am
Dan,
Thanks for the thoughts, seldom if ever would I want people in management positions to actually do the development. It’s more a gauge I would use, if they’re capable of doing the same thing as developers or engineers, even if it were twice, three times, or even 5 to 10 times as long, I would feel comfortable with their technical knowledge. I’ve worked in the large organizations as well, many fortune 100 companies and large consulting shops, and in my experience the best members of management were the ones that you could tell once held their own quite well doing a technical implementation.
One of the best partners at a very large consulting company I had the pleasure of working with had likely not touched a piece of code in 10 years, but when talking in depth about technical topics never batted an eye and often engaged in the details of the discussion. While this may seem irrelevant, it proved extremely useful for him to be able to take a particular project or technology and apply it extremely well to an entirely new vertical because he knew how what’s under the hood could translate to other areas.
I would feel the same holds true for startups as it does for larger companies, though individuals are expected to fill a few more roles, but nothing outside their area of larger expertise. I would just personally using something similar to IF a member of management was capable of implementing or once implemented something similar I would feel more comfortable with them.
~ Craig
Anil Says: 14.07.09 at 4:18 am
Another phenomenon that intrigues me about great startups is how they allow relatively “inexperienced” developers to sell, market or otherwise strategize its business. Case in point are the 20-something product managers at Google or Facebook.
How to succeed in the workplace? Go to lunch! | My thoughts and predictions on technology and business, and sometimes strong ones at that | My predictions Says: 06.09.09 at 6:10 pm
[...] area’s of the business they had little exposure to. This come’s back to my post about leaders and developers, if the people in your business only understand what they do and nothing outside you’re as a [...]