This is not a chicken and egg problem. At least not for large organizations. If you read this line: The department that built the product had recently come into

This is not a chicken and egg problem. At least not for large organizations. If you read this line: The department that built the product had recently come into existence, and they hired a team of developers without having a technical person on staff to vet them. This is clearly a management failure. If you start a new department you should at least try to seed it with experienced employees from other parts of your company, even if they're on a loan.