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The Pyramid of Software Developer Job Satisfaction

53 points by colinbartlett 8y ago

sonnyblarney 8y ago
"The hierarchy of satisfying jobs for me, and I suspect for legions of creative, entrepreneurial software developer everywhere looks something like this:" Is this Scientific? When you take into consideration, risk, stress, anxiety, loss of direct revenues, loss of freebies, loss of nice brand on your resume etc? I think we all want to work on something we find passionate, but there's also something about working on a team of people that other people, i.e. customers find valuable. Would be nice to see some data points because this is incredibly interesting.
Scalanchilis 8y ago
Although this may very well explain the author's major motivations and source of job satisfaction, can two categories really explain software developer job satisfaction for everyone? It makes sense that someone would be more satisfied working on their own ideas than someone else's. The problems being solved are more personally relevant, and they have more control over the execution, for better or worse. The business end of things may be why proportionally few developers go this route. In this article, an idea or project's success seems to be equated with its profitability and applies to business ventures in general. What about other measures of success: meeting performance and reliability requirements, being widely used, fixing some societal ill, or scratching the itch of curiosity? How the idea is executed too may greatly affect job satisfaction. Many developers prefer working on greenfield projects over maintaining legacy systems. What is the pace of work like? The quality of the coworkers? There are numerous variables at play.
- iforgotpassword 8y ago
  Yeah that's black and white. I'm currently working on a product that's 100% someone else's idea, but I'm pretty much in charge of everything, so design decisions, architecture, roadmap etc. are pretty much all my ideas, which I feel should definitely be higher up in that pyramid.
  - Buttons840 8y ago
    As a though experiment, consider the ratio of ideas you can or cannot pursue? You're thinking of lots of ideas, in order to implement someone else higher level idea. It sounds like you get to pursue all your ideas. Sounds satisfying. Now consider a developer who is constantly told "sounds good, but that's not our priority right now", "no", "we'll maybe get to that later", etc. They don't get to pursue any of their own ideas. Sounds very dissatisfying.
jhiesey 8y ago
Is the site down? I get an infinite redirect loop.
- genericid 8y ago
  archive.org has a copy. http://web.archive.org/web/20180718181856/https://nimbleindustries.io/2018/05/26/pyramid-of-software-developer-job-satisfaction/ http://web.archive.org/web/20180718181856/https://nimbleindu...
  - alibby45 8y ago
    Sorry about this. I'm a nimble teammate and I'm seeing the same thing. It's due to our CDN. Please hang in there we're working on it!.
    - alibby45 8y ago
      I think we've got it sorted, thanks for the patience and feedback.
      - Aaargh20318 8y ago
        Still doesn’t work here.
kabes 8y ago
I would put 'my own idea, miserable failure' under 'someone else's idea, huge success'. And it's not all black and white. You can build a product for someone else and still have a lot of say in the product. Maybe a feeling of ownership is good enough.
- wernsey 8y ago
  Agreed. I'm currently working on someone else's idea but all the technical decisions are up to me. There is a nice trade-off in that I don't have to worry about negotiating with customers and other aspects of a project that don't interest me.
0x262d 8y ago
this is pretty close to understanding a marxist criticism of the alienation of people from the fruits of their labor under capitalism - which most people can’t opt out of
adrien79 8y ago
I thought that was really funny & kinda true. I'd call that "The Pyramid of Job Satisfaction" - it's not "just" for Software Devs imo
jkoudys 8y ago
This is a good concept for anyone who has to manage people. I don't think it only applies to a binary split between 100% ownership and none. Letting developers guide the project to some degree, instead of slogging through sprint after sprint based purely on sales team goals, will get you a happier team and hopefully higher quality product.

53 points by colinbartlett 8y ago

"The hierarchy of satisfying jobs for me, and I suspect for legions of creative, entrepreneurial software developer everywhere looks something like this:" Is this Scientific? When you take into consideration, risk, stress, anxiety, loss of direct revenues, loss of freebies, loss of nice brand on your resume etc? I think we all want to work on something we find passionate, but there's also something about working on a team of people that other people, i.e. customers find valuable. Would be nice to see some data points because this is incredibly interesting.

Scalanchilis 8y ago

Although this may very well explain the author's major motivations and source of job satisfaction, can two categories really explain software developer job satisfaction for everyone? It makes sense that someone would be more satisfied working on their own ideas than someone else's. The problems being solved are more personally relevant, and they have more control over the execution, for better or worse. The business end of things may be why proportionally few developers go this route. In this article, an idea or project's success seems to be equated with its profitability and applies to business ventures in general. What about other measures of success: meeting performance and reliability requirements, being widely used, fixing some societal ill, or scratching the itch of curiosity? How the idea is executed too may greatly affect job satisfaction. Many developers prefer working on greenfield projects over maintaining legacy systems. What is the pace of work like? The quality of the coworkers? There are numerous variables at play.

iforgotpassword 8y ago
Yeah that's black and white. I'm currently working on a product that's 100% someone else's idea, but I'm pretty much in charge of everything, so design decisions, architecture, roadmap etc. are pretty much all my ideas, which I feel should definitely be higher up in that pyramid.
- Buttons840 8y ago
  As a though experiment, consider the ratio of ideas you can or cannot pursue? You're thinking of lots of ideas, in order to implement someone else higher level idea. It sounds like you get to pursue all your ideas. Sounds satisfying. Now consider a developer who is constantly told "sounds good, but that's not our priority right now", "no", "we'll maybe get to that later", etc. They don't get to pursue any of their own ideas. Sounds very dissatisfying.

jhiesey 8y ago

Is the site down? I get an infinite redirect loop.

genericid 8y ago
archive.org has a copy. http://web.archive.org/web/20180718181856/https://nimbleindustries.io/2018/05/26/pyramid-of-software-developer-job-satisfaction/ http://web.archive.org/web/20180718181856/https://nimbleindu...
- alibby45 8y ago
  Sorry about this. I'm a nimble teammate and I'm seeing the same thing. It's due to our CDN. Please hang in there we're working on it!.
  - alibby45 8y ago
    I think we've got it sorted, thanks for the patience and feedback.
    - Aaargh20318 8y ago
      Still doesn’t work here.

kabes 8y ago

I would put 'my own idea, miserable failure' under 'someone else's idea, huge success'. And it's not all black and white. You can build a product for someone else and still have a lot of say in the product. Maybe a feeling of ownership is good enough.

wernsey 8y ago
Agreed. I'm currently working on someone else's idea but all the technical decisions are up to me. There is a nice trade-off in that I don't have to worry about negotiating with customers and other aspects of a project that don't interest me.

0x262d 8y ago

this is pretty close to understanding a marxist criticism of the alienation of people from the fruits of their labor under capitalism - which most people can’t opt out of

adrien79 8y ago

I thought that was really funny & kinda true. I'd call that "The Pyramid of Job Satisfaction" - it's not "just" for Software Devs imo

jkoudys 8y ago

This is a good concept for anyone who has to manage people. I don't think it only applies to a binary split between 100% ownership and none. Letting developers guide the project to some degree, instead of slogging through sprint after sprint based purely on sales team goals, will get you a happier team and hopefully higher quality product.