4 Tips on Building Your Software Development Team

Back in 2016, I had the opportunity to build a software development team. I joined a startup as their first Software Engineer and eventually got promoted to Head of Engineering. It was my first leadership role. Fast-forward to 2020, I reflected on this journey and the lessons I learned. Here are the 4 tips that are worth sharing:

1. Be Pragmatic on Your Technical Stack

Don’t always pick the shiny new things of tech. If you’re a highly technical person that is always updated on the latest and greatest, it’s quite easy to fall into this trap when deciding on the technical stack of your company. Instead of being the technical warrior, be pragmatic instead. This is not a pet project.

Ask yourself the following questions: What does your company need now? Do you need a crazy fast application or the ability to ship fast? Can this stack be easily changed or extended in the future? Can I find people who already know or can learn this stack quickly? These are some of the questions that should influence your decision-making process.

2. Hire for Quality Over Quantity

Find quality people with a quality experience. One awesome engineer might be more productive than 5 mediocre ones. It’s the same for the other roles you’re looking for. Don’t compromise the quality of people because you will find yourself handholding the mediocre ones most of the time. It’s counterproductive.

Don’t be fooled by the years of experience. It’s not a guarantee of quality. Someone might have 10 years of experience in a slow-paced environment and can’t get things done. While someone might only have 5 years of experience but in a fast-paced environment with a track record of shipping things. Choose the latter. Always.

3. Pick the Passionate Fast Learners

Knowledge is a commodity but most people can’t store all this information in their heads. In the tech industry where things are changing rapidly, the ability to learn fast is a valuable skill.

Pick the candidates that are passionate about learning and can learn things fast. These are two different things. Someone might be passionate about learning but can’t learn fast and vice-versa. Look for passionate fast learners.

4. Create an Adaptive Engineering Culture

There are a lot of popular software development processes you can adopt, like Scrum for example. Don’t be too religious about it. Create an engineering culture and processes that will adapt to your current team dynamics and setup. Tracking your team velocity does not make sense? Drop it. Daily standup is boosting your team alignment? Adopt it. Cherry-pick the practices that are working and drop those that are not.

Building your software development team does not end at picking your technical stack and recruiting your team. You need to create a culture and processes where these people can thrive. Do regular retrospective, gather feedback, and continuously improve your engineering culture.