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An early stage startup probably doesn’t have enough money to hire specialists, and doesn’t have the workflow down to make optimal use of them even they could af

An early stage startup probably doesn’t have enough money to hire specialists, and doesn’t have the workflow down to make optimal use of them even they could afford someone in every position. At that scale you need one or two people who can do everything - probably they won’t do the best job of everything, but they’ll get your company off the ground. Once a company starts scaling up they’ll find that they need someone with a deep knowledge of one particular specialism, such as mobile development, or backend, or maybe infrastructure. They’ll pick someone like that up who likely ends up taking ownership of it. Over time they’ll end up with specialists for everything, but that comes with its own set of problems. At this point probably everyone can do a really good job in isolation, but there’s someone needed to coordinate the work to make sure people aren’t being blocked. That’s when the first dedicated project managers start arriving and getting the team moving in one direction. Probably at this point you’ll also start seeing product managers, because there’s no one around with a unified high level view of what customers need anymore - everyone else is down in the weeds. At least in my experience scaling a technical team is at least, if not more, complex than scaling the actual product that team is working on. It shouldn’t be underestimated, and you should aim to have someone around who’s done it before and understands when it’s time to stop saying “we should just hire people who can do everything”.

marcus_holmes 7y ago
Totally this. The difference is not "full-stack" vs "specialist" so much as "early/small company employee" and "corporate employee". In small/early companies, there's just a few people. The same tasks need to be done (someone has to design the database, ensure the SSL certs work, and get that checkbox looking good in Firefox). But there's less people to do it. "full-stack" in this sense means someone who is prepared to roll up their sleeves and solve whatever problem presents itself. It might not be the best solution, and a specialist can almost certainly do a better job, quicker. But it works for now, and moves the product on to the next step. Corporate employees can be true specialists, because there's enough work and enough team to allow them to be. But this comes with an additional required skillset: corporate communication. To be an effective member of a large team requires a communication mindset that is completely different from the "roll up your sleeves and get it done" mindset of the small/early organisation. I'm a small/early organisation guy - I can't stand corporate communication, and love rolling my sleeves up and getting it done, whatever "it" is. I know people who are totally the other way; they just want to focus on crafting amazing UI's, or designing perfect databases, and shudder with horror at having to deal with the "full stack" in all its nightmarish complexity. They're comfortable dealing with lots of meetings and reports in return for being allowed to do their one thing.
layoric 7y ago
I agree with the small vs large. Would be interested in at what head count you’ve seen this transition happen? Especially the need for project/product managers.

marcus_holmes 7y ago

Totally this. The difference is not "full-stack" vs "specialist" so much as "early/small company employee" and "corporate employee". In small/early companies, there's just a few people. The same tasks need to be done (someone has to design the database, ensure the SSL certs work, and get that checkbox looking good in Firefox). But there's less people to do it. "full-stack" in this sense means someone who is prepared to roll up their sleeves and solve whatever problem presents itself. It might not be the best solution, and a specialist can almost certainly do a better job, quicker. But it works for now, and moves the product on to the next step. Corporate employees can be true specialists, because there's enough work and enough team to allow them to be. But this comes with an additional required skillset: corporate communication. To be an effective member of a large team requires a communication mindset that is completely different from the "roll up your sleeves and get it done" mindset of the small/early organisation. I'm a small/early organisation guy - I can't stand corporate communication, and love rolling my sleeves up and getting it done, whatever "it" is. I know people who are totally the other way; they just want to focus on crafting amazing UI's, or designing perfect databases, and shudder with horror at having to deal with the "full stack" in all its nightmarish complexity. They're comfortable dealing with lots of meetings and reports in return for being allowed to do their one thing.

layoric 7y ago

I agree with the small vs large. Would be interested in at what head count you’ve seen this transition happen? Especially the need for project/product managers.