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I don't know if this would work in your specific business sector but when I read your description I thought: Take a page from the Pivotal Labs playbook. They di
by trcollinson 12y ago
I don't know if this would work in your specific business sector but when I read your description I thought: Take a page from the Pivotal Labs playbook. They did, and do, exceptionally nerdy things. But they steer their clients with a very deep Extreme Programming, Agile methodology. All of their engineers are also project people. All of their engineers can also talk to clients. But they do so in a very specific way. They plan projects the same way. They write documentation the same way. They interact with clients the same way. They have the "Pivotal Way" and they stick to it.
When they came into a project that I was working on they took two hours to look at what we were doing. They took another two hours to map our a plan to get us where we were going using an XP style story map. They spent an hour getting it into Tracker and having a planning meeting with us. Then they started working. Using Agile Principles they were able to keep up with the scoping, the docs, and the communication in about half an hour a day every day. This was no small project. I can't say how much we paid them for those few months, but imagine a number with seven digits. So, this was not a small project.
I have used this same methodology myself and it has been extremely beneficial and lucrative. We get a lot of work done, we make clients very happy, and we live according to principles we really believe in. It's amazing for business.
At any rate, hopefully this will help you a bit. To answer your question more directly, hire another engineer. Change the parts of your business that aren't effective for your style of work to something that is effective. Good luck!
- chrisrickard 12y agoI think your right, we should probably focus on refining project & dev methodologies, which would free up some "space" (logistically and mentally!)