Director of Engineering

Defining Roles as a Company Transitions out of the Startup Environment

Huli started as a flat organization without roles or competencies, but as it grew, it became necessary to create structure and responsibilities. To do this, Huli adopted a strategy from Spotify to define steps, disciplines, roles, and competencies. They also used a 360 review exercise to get feedback from the team and create a career path for each position. This process taught them the importance of having roles and competencies for clarity and to help people grow in their roles.

Simultaneously Transitioning Two Offices from Waterfall to Agile

A consultant was brought in to roll out Agile to a 50 person engineering team across two offices. The consultant worked with the VP of Engineering and Product to develop pods aligned to business objectives, and then brought in a consultant to each office for 2 days of Scrum Master training. The consultant then provided coaching and guidance for each team for two months, and worked with the executive leadership team to set expectations around adoption and velocity. The lessons learned were that it is important to start with one team/pod that has practiced Agile before, and to roll out Agile to teams one at a time, allowing each team to adopt to Agile at their own pace. It is also important for all team members to have training and it's best if the team can do the training together.

Stumbling into chaos

The new director of engineering at a startup had to jump in on day one when the team had just done a re-org and re-oriented the product roadmap. He met with the CTO and engineering leads to understand why the new structure had been put in place, then worked with the product managers to focus on pieces they had high certainty of needing. He also added weekly planning meetings for each product team and daily standups to create structure and accountability. Through retros and feedback, he tailored these initial short-term fixes to their needs. He learned that plans often go awry and we have to adapt, look for short-term engineering work when long-term plans change, and creating a predictable process cadence can help create stability.

Changing Companies to Reconnect with Tech

After switching from engineering to project management in 2011, the author felt disconnected from the technical side of their work and began to lose confidence in their job. To reconnect with technology and regain confidence, the author changed companies and became CEO of Topscore, a small company where they could spend most of their time coding. After two and a half years, the author returned to a director of engineering role with renewed confidence. The author's experience shows that it is possible to regain lost confidence and that technical skills are not easily lost.

Hiring for a Director of Engineering

Hiring a Director of Engineering is a difficult task for any tech leader. Before beginning the process, they should have a thorough understanding of how the candidate would fit into the larger picture. During the interview, technical and soft skills should be assessed. Technical skills should include expertise in the development process, technical competency, and the ability to conform to industry best practices. Soft skills should include a bias for action, drive and ambition, and the ability to collaborate with product management. A 90-day plan should be written for each director hire to ensure success.

Understanding What Drives People Can Help You Seduce Senior Engineers to Join Your Company

Companies need to be aware that senior engineers are more likely to choose purpose and passion over a high salary. To attract them, companies should look for experienced professionals at career fairs and networking events, have honest conversations outside the office, and tailor benefits to their specific needs. Two main motives that drive senior engineers are personal growth and mentoring possibilities, so companies should offer trainings and the chance to mentor junior colleagues.