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Great engineering teams have great engineers. Nothing else matters.

onion2k 5y ago
This is the "build it, they will come" argument. It doesn't work. The idea is that if you put a bunch of great engineers in a room they'll make a brilliant product. Except they never do. They make something very clever, that does something brilliantly, but it's almost always the wrong thing. Engineers don't like talki g to customers, or discovering requirements, or running user focus groups. They want to build what they believe people need, which is very often not what people actually need. And they take far too long to do it because they're focused on perfecting the tech things instead of shipping. Engineering teams need product managers, a QA team, technical writers, customer success people etc. Some engineering teams also need project managers too if they're no good at self-organising.
vanusa 5y ago
The history of the industry is littered with the carcasses of counterexamples. A great team is defined by what it actually, in fact, creates (which is determined by many factors). Not by the sum of the potentials of its contributors.
- tomwojcik 5y ago
  That's an interesting point, but I'd say you cant really compare the greatness of a project if its a different industry for example Saas, social media, Indie game but you can compare teams that created these products.
- _y5hn 5y ago
  Even for FOSS, teams actually have to market, sell and maintain their product too. Doesn't matter if you built the greatest thing ever if nobody knows about it or recommends it. Often, organic growth just can't beat the competition, especially if you want to make money.
daguava 5y ago
Hundo-P false. You can build the best space-age cat-shit box, have an intern set a price of $29.99 and tank a company.
toomanybeersies 5y ago
In my experience, there's no architecture or methodology that can make bad engineers build good software. But there's definitely ways to ensure that good engineers end up making shit software.
icedchai 5y ago
This still won't make a great company. I've seen companies work on great tech, but had no marketing or sales in place, so very few resulting customers. You build it and nobody shows up. Or companies that had no support/customer service, so engineers are constantly getting interrupted. We get cranky real quick when this happens too many times. Or companies with poor product management, so engineers waste time building the wrong thing. This goes on despite our objections, only to have it thrown all away in a month or two. Great engineers are necessary, but not sufficient, for a great tech company.
qudat 5y ago
Great engineering teams have engaging products they work on as well.

This is the "build it, they will come" argument. It doesn't work. The idea is that if you put a bunch of great engineers in a room they'll make a brilliant product. Except they never do. They make something very clever, that does something brilliantly, but it's almost always the wrong thing. Engineers don't like talki g to customers, or discovering requirements, or running user focus groups. They want to build what they believe people need, which is very often not what people actually need. And they take far too long to do it because they're focused on perfecting the tech things instead of shipping. Engineering teams need product managers, a QA team, technical writers, customer success people etc. Some engineering teams also need project managers too if they're no good at self-organising.

vanusa 5y ago

The history of the industry is littered with the carcasses of counterexamples. A great team is defined by what it actually, in fact, creates (which is determined by many factors). Not by the sum of the potentials of its contributors.

tomwojcik 5y ago
That's an interesting point, but I'd say you cant really compare the greatness of a project if its a different industry for example Saas, social media, Indie game but you can compare teams that created these products.
_y5hn 5y ago
Even for FOSS, teams actually have to market, sell and maintain their product too. Doesn't matter if you built the greatest thing ever if nobody knows about it or recommends it. Often, organic growth just can't beat the competition, especially if you want to make money.

daguava 5y ago

Hundo-P false. You can build the best space-age cat-shit box, have an intern set a price of $29.99 and tank a company.

toomanybeersies 5y ago

In my experience, there's no architecture or methodology that can make bad engineers build good software. But there's definitely ways to ensure that good engineers end up making shit software.

icedchai 5y ago

This still won't make a great company. I've seen companies work on great tech, but had no marketing or sales in place, so very few resulting customers. You build it and nobody shows up. Or companies that had no support/customer service, so engineers are constantly getting interrupted. We get cranky real quick when this happens too many times. Or companies with poor product management, so engineers waste time building the wrong thing. This goes on despite our objections, only to have it thrown all away in a month or two. Great engineers are necessary, but not sufficient, for a great tech company.

qudat 5y ago

Great engineering teams have engaging products they work on as well.