Startups are all about execution and hiring the right team is one of the most important aspects of getting execution right. I get a lot of questions from CXO’s with non-technical backgrounds who are looking to set up their tech team. Most of these questions revolve around:

How do you judge someone when you have zero technical knowledge?

What are the skill sets, languages, frameworks, and scale required to build a product?

What is the time it takes to launch an MVP?

What is the number of people and experience required to launch it within a time frame?

There are no simple answers to the above questions. Most of them depend on the nature of your product and the funds at your disposal. In this article, we will focus on the first question and look at how the hiring patterns are correlated to the various stages of the product lifecycle. This article will also serve as a guide for the candidates who are looking to join startups.

Stages of Product & Development

There are 5 major stages of a product lifecycle:

Research Stage

Introduction Stage

Growth Stage

Maturity Stage

Decline Stage

Research Stage: Jack of all Trades

As the name suggests, this stage mostly involves research about the product, the market, and the requirements. From the product perspective, this is the trickiest stage in the product lifecycle. The founders have a lot of tough choices to make. These are even tougher if none of the founders have a tech background. Some of the choices are:

Whether to build the product in-house or outsource

Whether to use an existing open source framework, SAAS product or build from scratch

The choice is mostly influenced by time and financial constraints. The developers in this stage spend a lot of time researching, planning and developing POC’s (Proof of Concept). So look for candidates who are:

Smart and have varied experience in different domains, different tech stacks etc.

If you have a tight budget then pick freshers who are quick learners and want to make a mark.

Introduction Stage: The Core Team

In this period, the product is developed and introduced in the market. Developers spend endless hours implementing the basic functionalities or the heart of the product. Almost everyone that you hire in this stage becomes a part of the core tech team.

The core team is responsible for laying out the foundations of the entire stack and infrastructure. The core team decides the architecture, frameworks, languages, and guidelines. The core team not only drives the success of the company but also defines the culture. The qualities that you should look for when looking for someone in the core team are:

Passion for technology and their work

Hunger to try out new things and take risks

Problem identification and solving abilities

A high level of commitment

Ability to adapt to the fast-changing requirements and processes

Growth Stage: Extended Core Team

At this stage, there is a rapid expansion in team, product features, sales etc. This is the stage where you have the most clarity in terms of the features you want to build, based on consumer feedback, and the resources you want to hire, to be able to ship these features. The developers who are a part of this stage not only implement a lot of features, but are also aware of the reason or rationale behind them. Hence, they become a part of the extended core team.

However, developers are prone to adding a lot of technical debts in order to build rapidly. So, look for candidates with:

Specific skill sets based on the technologies chosen

Experience in a similar domain so that they can bring new ideas

Quick to grasp and understand things as they need to work on the existing code while shipping new features rapidly

Strong inclination towards implementing correct design rather than a hack-like solution

Have a mindset for building stable and robust applications and focus on creating things around the core product which help bringing in the robustness like logging, monitoring, deployment automations, etc.

Awareness regarding best development practices

Maturity Stage:

At this stage, the product is at a stage where it is most complex and feature-rich. This, by far, is the easiest of all stages, in terms of hiring. You know exactly the skill set and the number of resources required. In this stage, you should look for candidates who:

Know the basics and have in-depth knowledge

Already have experience in handling the expected scale

Keep themselves updated with the latest technologies and advancements

Decline Stage:

As the name suggests, this is a stage where there is a decrease in the demand for your products. This is not a good stage to be in. You have to make some very tough choices regarding which ones to let go. Don’t play politics and do what’s best for the company. Keep people who are most loyal to, and useful for, the company. If you don’t, soon enough, there won’t be much left.

Conclusion

Hiring the right candidate (Credit: https://www.timetap.com)

Every candidate that you hire must not only bring something unique to the table, but also fit into the team culture. Skills do matter, but what is equally important is the attitude. Keep in mind that the attitude slightly differs on the stage since roles/expectations are slightly different. For e.g., in-early stages when team size is small since you are the only one taking decisions/flying alone kind of attitude is good but when team size gets much larger in later stages — ability to work together, solving issues/contradictions openly and amicably is much more important.

Startups: It is very hard for startups to find the right people and, as a result, they often have to compromise on certain things. Think about the stage you are in and the most important qualities for that stage and it will be easier for you to decide. To some extent these stages also represent the amount of passion/interest of the candidate in the domain itself and love with the problem the product is trying to solve.

Candidates: A lot of candidates want to join startups, but don’t get a chance because of various reasons. So if you’re someone who fits into that category -looking to join a startup but not sure where to start. Start with thinking about your strengths and the stage of startups that are most suited to you and I think you’ll be in a good position!

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