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Instead of doubling down on marketing and sales, never neglect your existing customer base.

A happy customer is your best investment to date. After successfully closing a deal, the best you can do is discovering ongoing opportunities to grow their business.

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[embed]https://youtu.be/RYIFZmStnpU[/embed] Try to attend a geek conference and check the heartbeat of developers in the breaks. You'll inevitably hear at least a few battle stories from projects gone wrong due to mismanagement or interpersonal conflicts within a project. 👊 At least the engineering's perspective. [Tweet "Then again, what does it take to manage a team of engineers?"] As engineers are in demand, opportunities are available at all times. The work itself is mostly "behind the scenes", paying "technical debt" is hard to understand, and scaling is supposed to work out-of-the-box with a product that "already works." Makes you question why top tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Facebook have been founded by engineers. 🤔 Here's my take on the common disconnect and how to prevent it. If you've been there, what worked for your organization? Check out the video above for useful insights.

Highlights

00:00:07 - Are software engineers, spoiled? 00:01:07 - When managers aren't technical people 00:03:11 - It's pretty poor symbiosis 00:06:17 - A "Steve Wozniak" exists 00:07:53 - The need for mediation

TRANSCRIPT

[Tweet "So is there really a disconnect between project and project managers and software engineers?"] Now, I know hundreds of software engineers, probably even in the thousands, because we've met at different conferences. We've worked on projects. I've studied with some of them in high school and universities and you know, there are common complaints by software engineers that they feel underappreciated at work or they have boring projects, their managers suck and stuff like that.

Are Software Engineers Spoiled?

Now there's another contradictory opinion that states that software engineers are spoiled because they have lots of different opportunities from tons of different companies. They're in demand, meaning that they have lots of stuff that they can do, lots of companies they can go to and so on which also leads to low retention rate for most companies when it comes to software engineers simply because again, demand is high. Lots of different opportunities, tons of different perks, companies like Google and the like having their headquarters and lots of goodies basically being offered for those engineers, which isn't something that you're going to see normally for other types of businesses. Like, you just imagine, I don’t know a store clerk or someone like this one, an accountant in a general company, just receiving that kind of benefits and those opportunities and perks and I know business travels or whatever it is for their business. But again, that's another story.

When Managers Are Not Technical People

And everyone who is a software engineer, they know how complicated it actually may maybe, how many challenges there are, how continuous learning takes place and things like that. But indeed, there is sometimes a disconnect between managers and technical people, especially the managers aren't real technical people. Now, the thing is that the kind of the main reason is happening, for the most part, is the lack of background for most of those managers. And as I said, almost every single industry that's not software engineering or something that's in the high tech like Data Scientist, dev ops, system administrators - almost everything else happens in a more outdated conservative corporate environment which is a lot more hostile to people as compared to software engineers especially when it comes to startups and you know, fast-growing companies or some of those tech giants looking for the top engineers out there. So it's, it's just a different game, it's a different type of perception for different types of people.

Software Engineers, by Default, Are Passionate About Their Job

Another thing that's worth noting is that software engineers by default – at least the vast majority of them, are actually passionate about their craft which isn't something that you can normally say for most jobs because according to different stats over 70 percent of the people aren't really satisfied with their jobs or they are just working a regular day job because they need to, to live somehow. But it's not like they love their job. And if you look around yourself you probably have coffee shops or restaurants or you order food from delivery places, you go to the store – all sorts of activities run by people who are not necessarily passionate about what they do. There is not that much of a career growth or career opportunities, shifts are weird, managers are weird as well. So it's, it's a pretty poor symbiosis of what's going on. For some people, they do have their kind of creative perks which are not that well paid such as sicking painters, actors, some singers, kind of enjoying what they do, but it's really a poorly paid job so they're not fully satisfied by themselves either. So, looking at this as a general problem means that most managers coming from different backgrounds, they come with a different perception of their teams and that different perception of the game means that those people are mostly ready to fight fights at work as compared to actually pushing people forward to deliver a greater good.

Why the Disconnect Happens

And that's why the disconnect happens at some places. Of course, that's not a rule of thumb. It's just statistically speaking if there is a manager who is working again, in a store or a supermarket in a bar or some someplace that for eight years or even ten years joining the I.T. industry, they will have a different background. They would be used to different types of problems and world, different types of dynamics, different types of communication which aren't necessarily present in a kind of software engineering company or a tech company that relies heavily on software engineering as a business. So, a disconnect may happen and it's something that should definitely be handled prior to the interview itself. So, those people may actually not be hired even or there should be a decent conversation that states the importance of kind of the I.T. department and the people and staff and career and everything else as a whole so that managers can actually take place and step up as leaders, as someone who's helping out and not someone who's kind of just yelling at people and trying to micromanage them and do, you know, other stuff.

How a Technical Person Is Expected to Manage

Another theory that I have is actually in the fact that like some of the companies who have problems and also hire software engineers, they don't have that sort of mentality simply because the owners and the founders aren't used to working with software engineers. If you think about some of the best companies out there to work for, those are companies like Google, like Facebook, like Microsoft and others that are actually founded by technical people. Now, that's not to say that, “oh great companies are found by technical people or anything like that.” But it means that a technical person is best suited to know what does it going to work with other technical people. What are the challenges? What are the common misconceptions and problems? So it's... it almost comes naturally to just hire other technical people and also ensure that management is in place for those technical people, meaning that if you're an accountant, you need to hire accountants who know exactly what they're dealing with, what are the common problems, what are the common tools to use with them and so on. And if you are managing those people, you know how to do it in the most efficient manner. And if you're hiring managers for those people you can again, kind of transfer your knowledge to those folks so that they are most efficiently taken care of.

Most Popular Technical Co-Founders

Now there are other companies with technical co-founders like even Apple. You know you may have Steve Jobs, but then you have Steve Wozniak who's also someone who's been kind of one of the founding members and someone who's capable enough to lead the technical people. So, with that in mind, managers can definitely be suited. Technical managers are usually better suited to work with technical people but not always. Great managers can take care of other aspects of the management work that is not necessarily related to working day to day with the team. Because as you know, there is resource management, team management, customer management, project management as just handling the product specifics and other areas of management itself. So just working with those people is not necessarily what needs to be done. And also, if you're a great manager on your own, then it means that dealing with software engineers shouldn't be a problem by itself.

Is There Any Guarantee of Ease When the Manager Has MBA?

And then there's another last problem that I can point out. This is a fight at universities that occasionally tend to teach business administration, MBA and other programs which are designed for managers to people who don't have a career background though. So, there are lots of people who enter into management without actually having worked as a regular employee. So, they have to be tricky because first off, they don't really have any management experience in practice, they don't have a team management experience, they don't have any work experience, just working on a project. They don't have industry experience because they haven't worked in a specific organization. So, it gets a lot trickier when you kind of start a job as a manager without actually knowing what you manage, who you manage, how to manage work specifics of the business, business cases, how you sell, how you market and everything else which is related to actually managing your team. Again, that's not to say that some people are better suited than others or whatnot or some people simply don't have the opportunity to kind of start working on management job with software engineers but it's a different dynamics and it requires being adjusted to that specific environment.

The Bottom Line

So, if software engineers sometimes work in companies where they aren't well understood or things like that, it could be the mismatch between the responsibilities of a manager and the responsibilities of a software engineer and how the symbiosis works. With that in mind, of course, there should be mediation, there should be work with upper management, senior management, and even the C-suites and those managers and kind of deciding how to take it further. But otherwise, if you are a developer who is wondering or if you're a manager who's kind of starting a new job or whatnot, feel free to again, watch the video once again see what may work for you, what are kind of the pros and cons, what are the benefits what are some of the required traits to do that and take it from there. If you have any other tips, let me know in the comments. I’m happy to share some recap in the coming videos.Read More

[embed]https://youtu.be/VDhuyvNJ5_U[/embed] Growing rapidly sounds exciting - but is it really? I was recently asked, "What happens when your business doubles?" 💯 We've managed to pull a 2x growth a couple of years in a row, and aiming to grow by about 60% or so this year alone. And I've always viewed recruitment as a strategic endeavor aimed to accomplish specific goals over time. This means several things: 1. Hiring people for short-term jobs is often a failing decision, excluding freelancers or consultants. 2. Recruiting without a long-term vision will drop retention rates. Career growth matters. 3. Hiring only when demand is high is poor planning. Not enough time to shortlist, interview, hire, onboard people. 4. Keeping plenty of staff members slacking is poor management and an expensive venture. 🎥 Here's what else matters when your team is scaling, troubles that companies face while hiring at large, and creative techniques to keep growing predictably over time.

Highlights

00:00:31 - The challenge, headcount wise 00:02:20 - The slow way VS the other way 00:04:30 - Do you have an employer brand? 00:07:36 - Not everyone is a great manager 00:08:31 - Why most companies are not trying to be the fastest growing startup

Transcript

[Tweet "Growing rapidly sounds exciting - but is it really?"] So, what happens when your team doubles? Now, in terms of building a company, people pick different kinds of priorities and different types of choices.

What Type of Entrepreneur Do You Want to Be?

Some want to take it as "solopreneurs" or just entrepreneurs who work almost again by themselves, with probably some freelancers or consultants or some vendors or deal with something like drop shipping that doesn't really require you to have so many resources or use some marketplace instead of dealing with marketing and basically pick different choices to keep scaling and keep growing. Like just today I actually met someone, I've been knowing for a bunch of years. He has a super successful business. It's probably as high as seven figures or so and he's pretty much working a lot. He's a broker. He is an agent’s broker - has tons of experience in some very high transaction costs industries. He's a great professional and like, we just met today and he told me that he's working alone which is again pretty admirable. I really love it and he manages to deal with everything by himself which is pretty awesome. On the other hand, you have some other businesses like construction work or some warehouses where your budget or your revenue may be pretty low but you have a high staff, high headcount simply because the nature of the business requires lots of manual labor. And, often this labor means that those are people who are not necessarily super highly qualified but they need to move things around and package goods and a bunch of other things which again requires you to just hire the fast pace.

How It Was like to Start Doubling

Of course, you can imagine startups and we can imagine high growth tech companies or other types of agencies that land clients to a pretty high pace or land some partnerships and grow their customer base. And with that, of course, comes the challenge of growing the business in terms of headcount. Now, we used to have about a couple of years when we grow. When we grew about double, it was when we were fewer people - of course, it was easier. Now for about a calendar year, we were going to be up with about 65% or so headcount wise, which is still something about 50%. It's not nearly double but again, it’s just a major expansion that we're dealing with nowadays. So, a bunch of things happens when your headcount kind of grows exponentially.

What to Consider When Hiring Additional Staff

Now, first off you need to consider the experience of those people. Now, of course, if you're hiring juniors or interns for something like that, you need to have people assigned for them. For example, if you have a boutique agency of 10 people and you decide to create an internship campaign, you may have five people who actually start with little to no experience which isn't necessarily super productive. So, we need to decide how exactly to involve those people in the process.

The Internship Campaign: The "Slow" Way and the "Other" Way

There is the "slow way". You know, you can do a kind of internship campaign that takes six to nine months. You give them tasks. You give them some responsibility and some ownership and expect them to do most of the heavy lifting by only allocating a couple of hours a week or so with them. Now, this isn't super-efficient. It only works to people who are really self-driven people - people who are self-motivated who can do that by themselves. And by definition, not everyone is like this, regardless of their motivation and potential. It’s just temporary, it’s just psychology, it’s just mindset, mentality, working environment, their close circle of friends and a bunch of other things. So that's kind of ruling out one of the groups. You have the other way to just bond someone shadowing one person from your team. But this may get exhausting. Now, first off, not everyone from your team is necessarily a great trainer, leader, teacher or whatever you want to call it, right? Some people are just built for that. Some people or their mentality is all about education and leadership and training which is super awesome. But, that doesn't make the other people who don't enjoy doing that any bad right? They are just as awesome as well just in a different way, more or less. You can also do a kind of hiring a full-time person who's a coach, a mentor. You know, a business guru or of itself just training those people we have now. That's another way to deal with it. But if you're a 10 person agency or a company or whatever, it's probably an expensive resource because this means that someone who is both experienced in your specific industry like a senior person and also a great trainer, a great teacher, a great educator who's able to convey all that knowledge, is passionate enough, is patient enough to deal with people and passionate enough to do that as well. Right.

The Importance of Employer Branding

So again, that's fair for interns. Hiring more senior people - it's a little bit more challenging. It's doable if you really have a very strong brand. Because I already kind of explained in a previous video that it's really hard to keep growing unless you have an employer brand, so I'm going to link the video (Why Is Employer Branding So Crucial For Startups and Business Owners?) in the comments, in case you've missed it. But, bottom line, like if you're for example a 50 person team. Right. If you're a 50-person team and you need to grow double driven by 50 percent, this means adding 25 people to your team or even 50 people, right? And adding those people like, unless you really want to be an army of entry-level force which is rarely a smart thing to do, then adding so many people means you need to find talent. And almost all of that talent is already working somewhere or they are consultants, they're freelancers, they have their own agencies and basically do the business on their own. And convincing them to join you means that you must have a pretty solid track star product that's able to revolutionize the industry as some guys from Apple would normally say. And again this takes time. It's really hard. You need a brand, you need a perception, you need to be everywhere, you need to be a lot of things in order to be able to convince that many great people to join you. And then with great people, you face different challenges. Now, great people, they're used to their own process of work, right? So unless you're are like a major leadership guru in the industry and they use guru on purpose because you know, it's funny. Like not everyone is a guru out there for obvious reasons. So unless you're like the leadership expert in the universe, then it's really hard for experienced people to trust you and follow you and just believe that your process is better than what they used to do for the past 5 or 10 years which is again more or less expected. Moreover, when you ask more people it gets pretty interesting as to how exactly to scale business.

Internal Promotion vs External Hiring

Now again you have a kind of small team like a team of 20, 50, 100 people. You already have some hierarchy. But if you suddenly rapidly grow the company it becomes a little bit harder to manage within the same old company because you either need to bring in external management, or you need to promote some of your own troops or some of the new hires you bring in have to step up as you know some tech leaders, project managers and things like that. And now all these cases may bring different conflicts. Now if you bring someone external as a project manager or a product major situate or a director of something they rarely know exactly what you're up to. They rarely understand your process better. Almost no company is as transparent as possible so that everyone from the outside can join the company effectively in a short amount of time. Also, it's really hard for people who have been around for years to just trust someone external. I had that experience myself in a company. The previous CEO appointed someone else as a CEO. A great guy but like me, we really couldn't work together because he was used to a different industry, different processes, different mentality. It just didn't work out for me and a bunch of other people so all of us quit and the CEO was no longer working for the company a few months later. So sometimes it's not really a great decision that I'm trying to say. Promoting people on your team is often a smart thing to do. But again, not everyone is a great manager. So you could just expect the top 5 people on the team are just suddenly going to become a manager, that's not necessarily the right thing to do. Some of them may not be suitable for this. Some of them may not want to do this. Also, it becomes tricky like if you have a 5 person team and you just want to appoint someone to be the team leader like, why did you choose them, like why didn't you pick someone else on the team? This may create interpersonal conflicts also. Again if you bring new talent who does know the company and who hasn't been as loyal yet because he just joined. How can you promote them to be on top of the food chain? Because again this is counterintuitive and doesn't really make a lot of sense if you think about it. So again those are some of the challenges for a growing high team. [Tweet "Not everyone is a great manager."]

Additional Challenges

Let alone the fact that you know payroll, with onboarding, with just making sure that culture fit is the right, with making sure that people can onboard the pretty much same pace so they can join different projects. You're going to face some troubles there for sure. Some things that you really need to keep in mind that's why most companies aren't trying to be the fastest growing startups because fastest growing disrupting startups through causing other problems or like you have an office space may actually face a challenge of finding enough room in your own office to accommodate everyone else joining on the team. So that's yet another thing you need to think of and moving to a new office space is hard. And trust me I know that because we just moved last weekend. So yeah that's pretty much it, companies dealing with fast headhunting. It's really tricky to find the right people. Sometimes, you're in a rush and you're trying to find people and just trust them blindly which is not necessarily the great thing. We are very cautious about culture but you know I know lots of people who are just hiring whoever comes in because they need to build teams rapidly. Just finding the right mentors, building the right infrastructure, the right processes building the right culture with lots of new people joining in who are going to build the culture and there they may have to change the culture more or less. Those are plenty of challenges that most companies doubling their headcount deal with. So if you think to do that thing twice, this may or may not be the thing for you.Read More