4 ms·

Disagree. Not everyone is a SaaS company needs to have technical skills. Would you expect everyone to have sales skills? Or marketing skills?

lowercased 7y ago
Yes, I would. At least basic skills. Depending on the size of the course referenced above... I'd say sure - take it. Be familiar with it, and the potential problem space it addresses - have a rough idea of what's possible, what the state of the art is, etc. Likewise, I would also expect people to have basic knowledge of sales and marketing. If you're in a meeting and people are talking about ROI and CPM and specific strategy, I would expect the other people in the meeting to have a basic understanding of what those terms mean, how they impact the business and peoples' ability to meet their goals, etc. People don't need to be experts, or even journeymen, but ... the opposite, where people think they shouldn't have to have even a basic grasp of the fundamentals of the technology their tech company is built on... that's a bit odd. Where that line is drawn may be up for debate, but some understanding can't hurt. In a car company, if a marketing person started making wild technologically impossible things about what the car could actually do... alarm bells would be ringing. I don't think there should be that large a divide in any company, really.
- bdcravens 7y ago
  I would definitely recommend understanding fundamentals, but I've found a lot of "us" want the see the C-suite taking an actual coding class, which I feel is only marginally more beneficial.
  - lowercased 7y ago
    oh agreed - there are still some limits to this - a CEO doesn't need to understand the differences between an interface and an abstract class, know hex color codes off the top of their head, etc.
    - bdcravens 7y ago
      I will say one of my favorite memories is when our founder who (not an engineer, but intelligent as he has a law degree) corrected some of my SQL early on when we were working up some ad hoc reports.
- geoffroberts 7y ago
  I'm definitely in agreement that having some fundamental understanding of other areas of the business is a good thing, for everyone. The point I'm making is you need to be congnizant of where you spend your time and what new skills you invest time developing. I understand HTML and CSS at a fundamental level—I know what they're for and what's possible. But would taking a class in these skills have been the best used of my time as opposed to say, sharpening my skills around positioning or conversion optimization? Probably not. Knowing when to say no and rely on the expertise of others is an important skill to develop.
pjmlp 7y ago
Actually at least superficial level yes. Most developers end up having to give an opinion on answers for RFPs, show to customers that they actually understand their business domain, and support the marketing teams with their market research results.

lowercased 7y ago

Yes, I would. At least basic skills. Depending on the size of the course referenced above... I'd say sure - take it. Be familiar with it, and the potential problem space it addresses - have a rough idea of what's possible, what the state of the art is, etc. Likewise, I would also expect people to have basic knowledge of sales and marketing. If you're in a meeting and people are talking about ROI and CPM and specific strategy, I would expect the other people in the meeting to have a basic understanding of what those terms mean, how they impact the business and peoples' ability to meet their goals, etc. People don't need to be experts, or even journeymen, but ... the opposite, where people think they shouldn't have to have even a basic grasp of the fundamentals of the technology their tech company is built on... that's a bit odd. Where that line is drawn may be up for debate, but some understanding can't hurt. In a car company, if a marketing person started making wild technologically impossible things about what the car could actually do... alarm bells would be ringing. I don't think there should be that large a divide in any company, really.

bdcravens 7y ago
I would definitely recommend understanding fundamentals, but I've found a lot of "us" want the see the C-suite taking an actual coding class, which I feel is only marginally more beneficial.
- lowercased 7y ago
  oh agreed - there are still some limits to this - a CEO doesn't need to understand the differences between an interface and an abstract class, know hex color codes off the top of their head, etc.
  - bdcravens 7y ago
    I will say one of my favorite memories is when our founder who (not an engineer, but intelligent as he has a law degree) corrected some of my SQL early on when we were working up some ad hoc reports.
geoffroberts 7y ago
I'm definitely in agreement that having some fundamental understanding of other areas of the business is a good thing, for everyone. The point I'm making is you need to be congnizant of where you spend your time and what new skills you invest time developing. I understand HTML and CSS at a fundamental level—I know what they're for and what's possible. But would taking a class in these skills have been the best used of my time as opposed to say, sharpening my skills around positioning or conversion optimization? Probably not. Knowing when to say no and rely on the expertise of others is an important skill to develop.

pjmlp 7y ago

Actually at least superficial level yes. Most developers end up having to give an opinion on answers for RFPs, show to customers that they actually understand their business domain, and support the marketing teams with their market research results.