The do-it-all tech lead

You can’t efficiently build a tech team, set foundations, develop software architecture and tech strategy, work on the code, and create the infrastructure simultaneously.

Something’s gonna give depending on where you focus the most of your energy.

Spend too much on building the product, and you’ll have a weak team.

For context, if you want to build a tech team of 6 from scratch*:

CVs to screen: 500 - 1000 Interviews to conduct: 50-80 Offers to extend: 7-9

You can expect to spend 100 - 245 hours just on the hiring process alone.

Plus, you need to onboard them and give them the support they need to become productive team members.

Sure, you’ll probably have other people helping, but each responsibility you take takes a chunk of your brainpower.

Yet, many companies who want to start from scratch are looking for the unicorn who can do it all.

The thing is…

You don’t start with code.

You start top-down with the business requirements.

That drives your high-level strategy → tactics → daily actions.

Focus is important.

And focus is about deliberately saying no to things you want to do.

Perhaps, like me, you enjoy writing deployment scripts but decide not to do it yourself because a solid hiring process will give you a better impact.

Get someone better than you, faster, and let them write deployment scripts.

Business is not a sprint; it’s a marathon.

Don’t throw away long-term impact for short-term gains (unless you have a damn good reason).

P.S. I’m not saying one man can’t design, architect, code, and deploy a product. Those exist. I’m saying it’s damn near impossible to do that AND build a performant team in parallel.

Best regards,

Taj

*based on industry average conversion rates