This is the first article in the series "CTO Tips From the Trenches". The article is based on my personal experience as CTO, Manager, and Team Lead and focused on selected practical aspects of team leadership. I included tips I used most (prioritization poker anyone?).
Most of the tips here are pretty obvious and common sense-based, do not expect anything you would not come up with yourself. And yet formalizing and following a few simple rules included here can make things… more efficient.
Let's dive in.
Tip #1: Before you start hiring - take a pause... and plan
Here's a lesson I learned. Before putting together a new job profile - pause, ask yourself the following questions, write down the answers:
- what is the team's goals? (what do you want the team to achieve within a year)
- what positions and skills are necessary to achieve the goals?
- what position shall I fill first? (fill Senior positions first!)
Once you formulated the answers you can start writing job profiles - you now have a vision you understand and can explain to your peers and management.
Tip #2: Be super-selective during interviews.
After screening hundreds of candidates and interviewing tens of them it is easy to settle on under-performing candidates hoping he or she will pick up. Don't (unless it is your intention to hire lesser experienced resource).
As painful and time consuming as it is - keep interviewing until you and your team feel right about the person. The extra time and effort you spent will pay off with dividends.
Tip #3: Fill Senior positions first.
Tip #4: Trust your team with decisions
Tip #5: Put structure around team decision making
Have a standing weekly (or whatever frequency makes sense) "technical decisions meeting" with your team. Go through a backlog of problems, prioritize them, identify constraints, start discussing and documenting solutions.
Tip #6: Keep the Final Say
In such case be ready to take over, providing arguments to the team regarding your choice. Ensure it is known ahead of time that you have final say (and are not afraid to use it !).
Word of caution: exercise this prerogative only when there is no other choice, otherwise you are risking undercutting the team self-confidence.
Tip #7. Work on team culture
Tip #8. Use common sense!!!
It is easy to follow well known methodologies and processes, however at the end of the day none of them will cover 100% of situations. If you not sure what choice to make between several options - common sense is your best friend!
Next: Ideas Prioritization with your Team: Agile Approach
About Author:
Alex Apollonsky has over 20 years of technical leadership experience in software industry. Throughout his career Alex served as CTO, Architect, Technical Lead, and Technical Manager across multiple companies and projects, was awarded several US patents, certified Project Manager and Scrum Master.Attributions:
photo used courtesy of Rilee Yandt under Creative Commons License
photo used courtesy of Paul Inkles under Creative Commons License
photo used courtesy of Joel Telling under Creative Commons License
photo used courtesy of richevenhouse under Creative Commons License
photo used courtesy of Daryl I under Creative Commons License
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