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Right now, I'm the CTO of a small startup in NYC. I'm probably 80% development, 30% other. When I've been on bigger teams, it's probably more like 10-15% codin

Right now, I'm the CTO of a small startup in NYC. I'm probably 80% development, 30% other. When I've been on bigger teams, it's probably more like 10-15% coding, 120% other. I find that it's beneficial for me to always be in the code even as the team grows - even just a little bit. But, I usually take on small "nice to haves" (or small bugs) that no one relies upon and isn't critical to the product. So when it takes me a month to write it, no one cares. In the least, it forces me to understand how to keep the system up and running on my machine and answer/demo general purpose stuff to other folks without looking like an idiot. If you're a technical manager, I think dropping to 0% coding is a bad thing. It's way too easy to get out of touch.

grantism 14y ago
I totally agree with this. There is no bigger disservice to your team or company than being the guy in charge whose knowledge is 10 years out of date. That doesn't just apply to technical things either. It's an easy example to talk about the project manager who cut his teeth writing procedural code in QBASIC and has an unrealistic grounding. It also applies to the store manager in a fast food restaurant who hasn't made a cheeseburger.
- freework 14y ago
  I think those are two different jobs. On one hand you have the Product Leader, whose job it is to stay on top of the technology that drives the product, and to be aware of the codebase. On the other hand, you have the Team Leader, whose job it is to facilitate communication between team members. To make sure team members are productive and happy.
bhntr3 14y ago
I've seen people do the side project thing and I think it's somewhat of a waste. I'd only advocate it for personal satisfaction reasons. If you think your technical skill is an asset and you want to stay fresh I'd say you should be participating in technical design discussions, doing code reviews and occasionally writing tests. If you're doing those things you should have a very comprehensive knowledge of the system despite actually writing very few lines of code.

grantism 14y ago

I totally agree with this. There is no bigger disservice to your team or company than being the guy in charge whose knowledge is 10 years out of date. That doesn't just apply to technical things either. It's an easy example to talk about the project manager who cut his teeth writing procedural code in QBASIC and has an unrealistic grounding. It also applies to the store manager in a fast food restaurant who hasn't made a cheeseburger.

freework 14y ago
I think those are two different jobs. On one hand you have the Product Leader, whose job it is to stay on top of the technology that drives the product, and to be aware of the codebase. On the other hand, you have the Team Leader, whose job it is to facilitate communication between team members. To make sure team members are productive and happy.

bhntr3 14y ago

I've seen people do the side project thing and I think it's somewhat of a waste. I'd only advocate it for personal satisfaction reasons. If you think your technical skill is an asset and you want to stay fresh I'd say you should be participating in technical design discussions, doing code reviews and occasionally writing tests. If you're doing those things you should have a very comprehensive knowledge of the system despite actually writing very few lines of code.