Bringing developers early on in the process is the key (not necessarily cutting out the design/product group). While product people come up with the ideas, dev

Bringing developers early on in the process is the key (not necessarily cutting out the design/product group). While product people come up with the ideas, developers can really challenge it, ask the "what if" questions, and think ahead. This extremely helpful type of feedback is hard to find in non-technical staff. The #1 person to hire after the founder is the developer. I hear this all the time. So why would you not give them a voice on the business side? Or perhaps they had it in the beginning, but as the company grew too many layers were added. Developers are the problem solvers of the business.