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I'm a former Googler/Software Engineer who has stepped into a CTO role at a small startup. I'm learning how to deal with people which is a significantly harder

I'm a former Googler/Software Engineer who has stepped into a CTO role at a small startup. I'm learning how to deal with people which is a significantly harder problem than dealing with computers :). Specifically, I'm responsible for prioritizing features vs. infrastructure work and conveying the importance of things like testing and code quality to non-technical leadership. I would love to chat with someone in an engineering leadership role that has managed to convince leadership that non-user-facing work is very vital to the company. advait.shinde at gmail _ com

sunir 12y ago
Non-user-facing work isn't vital. Market velocity is vital. You need to demonstrate you can increase market velocity by investing in non-user-facing work. If your investment in that work slows market velocity then your investment return is negative. Are you tracking engineering velocity? If so petition to do some internal investment and see if velocity improves afterwards. Also you should refactor as you go. That isn't even something you break out into a separate task. Clean up messes as you work. Don't leave messes if you can. Code review always and often, and on small changes. Note: Market velocity is slightly different than user-facing changes. If you have reliability or security failures you are reacting to, fixing them is user facing but not improving your market velocity.