16 Signals That Your Tech Team Is In Trouble

Getting The Most Out Of Your Technology Budget When Building MVPs, Outsourcing & Scaling Software Teams (Part 5/6)

6 part mini-series for non-technical leaders and CTOs. Page [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next ]

Hint: You may have a CTO and still have a problem

A young entrepreneur recently asked me a great question after a panel that initially caught me off guard:

“When do I need a CTO? What signals tell me something is wrong?”

It wasn’t so much that he didn’t yet have a CTO as it was that he didn’t know how to tell the difference between great performance and poor performance.

Take a fresh look at your company… every business has flaws, but a storm is brewing when you notice:

Part I – Executive Incompetence

Your team doesn’t communicate, manage expectations or make themselves available to speak as often as you need

1. Your technical staff are unable to meet deadlines
2. Your non-tech staff are increasingly frustrated with tech staff
3. Your IT department is gripped with low moral & political struggles
4. You are struggling to recruit quality engineers
5. Your tech staff have never been surveyed for engagement, or lack it

Part II – Technical Mistakes

The code architecture is preventing progress

1. You don’t know if you have bad developers and poor architecture
2. Your engineers struggle to balance cost, speed and quality trade-offs
3. More (or less) than 20% of your budget is consistently allocated to resolving tech debt
4. You have old and dated infrastructure

Part III – Product Mistakes

Your team isn’t building features that users care and investors care about

1. Your consumers fail to engage with your products after signing up
2. Your costs for user acquisition and technology prevent growth

Part IV – Organizational Mistakes

Your processes are wonky or you aren’t able to deploy features quickly

1. You core systems are missing: product roadmap, project management system and product management system
2. Your core processes are not captured with documentation
3. Your technical staff fail to provide estimates or irregularly measure velocity (week-over-week productivity for small, medium and large features)
4. Your technical team, product and codebase haven’t received an external audit in two years or longer

Think About It In Another Sense — Would You Open A Restaurant Without Knowing If The Food Tastes Good?

Of course not.

Get Senior Help Onboard Before Shit Hits the Fan

In the end, the issues that create the most cause for concern are those you won’t see until it’s too late:

Lack of confidence in what’s under the hood

– and –

Time to market is a major concern and progress is not being made

CURIOUS HOW I CAN HELP YOU?

I can keep your software developers in check and help you build the right products the first time, for as little as $75/mo.

I also have an army of product managers, project managers, and architects available to help – none of whom will code for you

…which allows us to be the independent party that keeps your software developers on track.

Learn more about my services

Next Up

Part 6/6 – 5 Ways To Build A Tech Team When You Don’t Have Cash

Get The Most Out Of Your Technology Budget When Building MVPS, Outsourcing & Scaling Software Teams (Part 5/6)

6 part mini-series for non-technical leaders and CTOs. Page [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next ]