Building a Software Development Team - MaRS Best Practices
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The document discusses strategies for building an effective software development team, emphasizing the importance of hiring both generalists and specialists. It underscores the value of technical interviews, remote work, and culture in attracting talent while addressing equity considerations for teams. Notably, it stresses the high demand for developers and the competitive landscape between Toronto and Silicon Valley.
Building a Software Development Team - MaRS Best Practices
- 1. BUILDING A Software Development Team KHURRAM VIRANI JAKE HIRSCH-ALLEN
- 3. KHURRAM VIRANI @viranik PARTNER Functional Imperative @func_i www.functionalimperative.com INSTRUCTOR Bitmaker Labs @bitmakerlabs www.bitmakerlabs.com
- 4. JAKE HIRSCH- ALLEN @jakehirschallen PARTNER Functional Imperative @func_i www.functionalimperative.com DIRECTOR, BD OODA Technologies @oodatech www.ooda.ca SPM Incentives for Global Health @HealthImpact www.healthimpactfund.org
- 5. DEMAND
- 8. "Software Is Eating The World” Marc Andreessen, Aug 2011 Buy A 10x Software Developer: Its The Best Investment You Can Make… Venkatesh Rao, April 2016
- 9. TORONTO
- 10. TORONTO IS #8 Top 20 Startup Ecosystems Startup Genome Report 2012
- 11. TORONTO: SALARIES JR. DEVELOPER SR. DEVELOPER (NEW CS GRAD) 50K 80K 60K 100K
- 12. Big Challenge
- 13. YYZ SFO
- 14. HIRING AND DETERMINING FIT
- 15. THE THE GENERALIST SPECIALIST
- 16. FRAMEWORK Developer VS APPLICATION Developer
- 17. Q: "Should I hire a Rails developer for my Django project?" Depends...
- 19. Great developers already have jobs Go where they hang out
- 21. INTERVIEWING JUNIORS / NEW GRADS Real World Example: ① Transcript ② Online Portfolio (apps, twitter, blog, github) ③ 30m technical phone screen ④ Code challenge (1-2hr homework) ⑤ 3h on-site technical interview ⑥ Pair programming with Sr. Dev (on-site half-day session)
- 22. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS Jr. Ruby on Rails Developer:
- 24. WHITEBOARD: FIZZ BUZZ Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to 100. But for multiples of three print “fizz” instead of the number and for the multiples of five print “buzz”. For numbers which are multiples of both three and five print “fizzbuzz”. WHY CAN'T PROGRAMMERS.. PROGRAM? http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/02/why-cant-programmers program.html FIZZ BUZZ TEST http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FizzBuzzTest
- 26. INTERVIEWING SENIOR DEVELOPERS More emphasis on Portfolio Conversational approach Solve Architecture problems Soft skills more important
- 27. WHITEBOARD: PARKING LOT Model the software system that would be used to operate and manage a parking lot that is used for both public and private parking. Tickets can be purchased and rates can change… Remember, Conversation: “Why are you doing it this way?” “Have you considered this?” “What if X happens?”
- 28. WHITEBOARD: CHAT Model the architecture to build out facebook chat. What open source technologies would you leverage? Remember, Conversation: “Why are you doing it this way?” “Have you considered this?” “What if X happens?”
- 29. Q: ”What if we don’t have anyone technical on the team to conduct tech interviews?" Find some...
- 31. CULTURE MORE THAN JUST A FOOSBALL TABLE
- 32. DEVELOPERS ARE CREATIVE Artists don't work 9 to 5
- 33. DEVELOPERS AS PRODUCT DRIVERS esp. when the company IS the product
- 34. LUNCH lunch TOGETHER together
- 36. "Why We (Still) "Stop whining Believe in Working and start hiring Remotely" remote workers"
- 37. WHY? ① Don't want to relocate ② Need to relocate: "My spouse is going to med school" ③ Productivity: "most of our remote developers work longer hours than our in-office devs." ④ Collaborative workspaces ⑤ Forces better communication ⑥ Not widely adopted (yet)
- 38. REMOTE TALE The Technology Is There …
- 39. EQUITY FOR WHEN $$ IS JUST NOT ENOUGH
- 40. EQUITY Very heavily debated topic. ① Fairness > % ② Vesting ③ Slices ④ Shotgun clause ⑤ Equity ! = Currency ⑥ Dilution / Valuation !%#&
- 41. CONCLUSION ① High Demand: YYZ losing talent to SFO ② Remote talent & distributed teams => Future! ③ Startups: seek generalist, application developers ④ Established companies: seek both generalists & specialists ⑤ Technical interviews are very important ⑥ Go where the talent is ⑦ Culture is important to attract and retain talent ⑧ Give vesting equity to your founding team
- 42. REFERENCES Further Reading http://alittlebitofjake.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/buy-a-10x-software-developer-its-the-best-investment- you-can-make/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/20/startup-genome-ranks-the-worlds-top-startup-ecosystems-silicon- valley-tel-aviv-l-a-lead-the-way/ http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2013/02/why-we-still-believe-in-working-remotely/ http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FindingGreatDevelopers.html http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3064-stop-whining-and-start-hiring-remote-workers http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460.html http://justinjackson.ca/why-distributed-teams-are-more-effective/ http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/6949/forming-a-new-software-startup-how-do-i-allocate- ownership-fairly/23326#23326
- 44. FIN. QUESTIONS? Presentation Designed by