How to protect your startup from being killed by developers. Part 1 – Roles.

(Originally posted on LinkedIn)

I have worked with startups as a tech consultant for over a decade. A tech startup is not just a technical solution. Many important things like investments and marketing make a business successful.

However, it’s hard to sell just an idea. You need to implement it. Right?

Looking back to all these years and all of my clients, I want to give advice to those who are starting their tech business today to help them save their money and go to the market faster, hire the right developers or software development company.

Part 1 – Roles

Sometimes, it may look like a Project Manager, Product Owner, Lead Developer, or even Quality Assurance Specialist is redundant in your business. However, you are wrong if you think you can hire a genius senior developer with a hundred years of experience and he will build you a product. Developers, especially senior developers, see the World through a technology prism. It is especially dangerous when they are in love with their technology. They will find a reason to stay with their “love” in any situation. Even worse, they will convince you that this technology is the best, even if you have a technical background. As a result, your product will always be almost finished, built with leading technology and the clearest code, but never released. You need a Lead Developer role, one who is not “in love” with technology but can answer the question of how to use modern technology to achieve your business goal. In a few words, it’s possible to build a product with a Lead Developer and a team of Junior Developers, but it’s very hard to do it with just a team of Senior Developers.

However, he will probably be unable to organize the team if you have more than three developers. You will need a Project Manager who will take care of schedules, tasks, and partially a scope. It’s not required to work strictly by SCRUM, but the process should be clear, maintainable, and maintained by someone.

You need somebody who understands in detail what you are going to build. Don’t fool yourself. An idea is not a requirement. Any idea should be detailed, and somebody should fix the idea when it hits the limitations of technology or is discovered to be a little bit inconsistent.

QA is not something we should discuss at all. If you want some quality, you should care about it and be able to measure it somehow. Developers are not testers. It’s hard for anybody to search for mistakes in their own work. Avoid mixing QA with other roles and always give requirements to QA first. If you want to succeed and save money, never ask QA to ask a developer for requirements.

It doesn’t mean that you need to hire an employee for every role. A single person can handle several roles. But this person should be aware and implicitly accept these roles and play them responsibly, even or especially if this person is you as a founder. By the way, the founder is a role, too. Be realistic – don’t take too many roles. If you are interested, let me know in the comments, and I will describe the importance of every role in more detail in general or, in your case, based on my experience.

Everyone who tried to save the budget by skipping some role paid more in the end. Some didn’t survive at all.