Most technology powered companies understand the value of a strong engineering team. It is the backbone of such an organization. After all, these are the people who come up with faster and more performant ways of disrupting age old industries or creating new markets with a delta.

Background

While engineering comprises of various verticals like Server Architecture, Database Engineering and Quality Analysis, one of the most commonly downplayed engineering positions in a company I've seen is the Front End Engineering department. We will discuss this discipline of engineering in the remainder of this post.

Most entrepreneurs and team managers accept the fact that they need frontend developers. These are the coders who are expected to churn design into functional pages along with integrations to the server APIs.

But here is what needs to be understood about a GOOD frontend engineer, apart from being able to write HTML, CSS and Javascript. Great frontend engineers go beyond these requirements, and are able to write performant code which plays an important part in final conversion rates of any business.

A Frontend Engineer understands design.

You, as a founder, might have a basic idea about mockups, layouts and design patterns. But a great frontend engineer understands the technicalities of user experience. They don't just code up a button, they code it at the right place with the lowest code complexity.

Another very important business factor to consider is the cost of acquiring a new visitor to your web-platform (if applicable).

A Frontend Engineer understands SEO.

While it may be a no brainer that you get ranked depending upon the content you write, there are a variety of other factors which Search Engines like Google take into consideration while deciding on your rank.

Over the past few years, Google has been releasing updates to its algorithms that rank websites with low loading times and optimized bandwidth consumption patterns higher. It makes sense when you think about it, since Google wants it's users to see the best of the web.

And it is a no-brainer that every new user who comes in organically is a highly-targeted consumer.

A Frontend Engineer is empathetic to the end-user.

As a business grows into a bigger entity, the focus occasionally shifts towards profitability. Usually these business needs take the focus away from user-experience. A frontend engineer would ensure that any product that s/he builds keeps the user at the center of the though process. User centric design and products tend to have a higher retention and satisfaction levels.

So the next time you are looking for a Frontend/Web Engineer, understand the value they bring in.

About Me

I am a performance focussed Frontend Engineer. I am currently building the largest academic network for Doctors at DailyRounds.

I write about software development, business and the startup culture on my blog ICodeStartups.com and on Twitter @sunnykgupta.

Related Reads:



