The Hero and the Incumbent

Many years ago, I was asked to lead a project that was facing quality issues. We were scraping electronics products from a large number of websites, and building recommendation engines for customers to help them make informed decisions. The scrapers were configured using regular expressions that were heavily dependent on the scraped website's DOM which would, more often than not, get updated causing our scraping logic to fail. I was being brought in as a hero, who would parachute in, take stock of the situation and work wonders. Except that didn't happen, at least not in the beginning. A bulk of the incumbent engineering team was assigned to other projects, a new team of heroes was assembled, and much of the product re-written.

18 months into the project, the sponsor decided to bring on board a rockstar CTO: a new hero. My team and I were the new incumbents. The tables had turned. The new hero decided that performance was the biggest issue (it wasn't). He had a strong AdTech background, a domain where performance does matter, and decided he needed to use his hammer on our screw. New marching orders were given, and off we went, implementing a new framework. Within a couple of years, the framework of choice for the product went from RoR to Spring framework to Play framework. Soon, the project sponsor pivoted to another product. I did not stick around for long.

Similar scenarios have played out a few times in my career and the following are my lessons learned from being on both sides of the equation.

As the Hero

Observe

If you are being brought in as an outsider, you have an advantage. You have time to observe. The incumbents are often too far into the weeds to take a step back and see where and how improvements can be made. Take note of those opportunities but before you act, ensure that you are not picking low hanging fruit only to make a point. New heroes are often eager to make their mark: almost to justify the sponsor's decision to bring them onboard. Resist the urge to have your team work on some fancy new idea that does nothing for the immediate problems at hand.

Align

All hires are not need based. Many are opportunistic. For example, when a hotshot hero from big tech shows interest in a young startup, positions are created. In other words, heroes are often hired not because they were needed, but because they became available. Opportunistic onboarding of heroes often causes misalignment of priorities between the incumbents, the sponsor and the hero.

If you are the hero in this scenario, do not rely on the sponsor's description of what you are being brought in for, rather talk to the incumbents, preferably before landing with your parachute. If the incumbents view of the world is not aligned with the sponsor's, work towards aligning all the stakeholders.

Learn

Humility is key for you as the hero if you want to avoid creating resentment among the incumbents. Spend time with the incumbents. Ask for data. Understand design decision. Identify constraints. Discuss lessons learnt. Read Code. Have 1:1s. Prepare yourself to make decisions based on the situation at hand and not what you did in your past life. Incumbents will trust your decisions and judgement if they see effort being made to make informed decisions. Listen to them.

Contribute

As a hero, you are in a position to contribute in a meaningful way only after having observed the situation at hand, aligned goals with all the stakeholders, and spent considerable time learning the product, the domain and the code base. Collaborate with the incumbents and start with small contributions. Earn your trust. Time to be a hero will come later. In this day and age, nobody likes decisions being forced down their throat.

As the Incumbent

Observe

As the incumbent, observe the situation. Does your team need help? Is your team meeting goals? Are targets being met? Is quality being improved? If you need help, what sort of a hero, with what super powers is required?

Observe the mood of the sponsor. Is panic setting in?

Align

The sponsor's desire to bring in a new hero does not necessarily mean that the incumbents are doing a poor job. Align with your sponsor to find out. As the incumbent, if you feel that the arrival of a new hero is imminent, work with the sponsor to determine if the hero's super power is what is required for the team. If a particular hero has already been selected, talk to them and work towards building a relationship as soon as possible. Share data. Understand what they understand of the situation. Be welcoming but do not be a pushover. Be vocal where required.

Learn

Learn how the hero works. Identify his super powers and use them to the advantage of your team. Learn from the hero. As incumbents, it is very easy to be protective of our creation and a new hero threatens that. Try to objectively assess recommendations or decisions made by the hero. Tone down your ego for a while.

Contribute

If the hero makes a decision, that in your view, is wrong. Be vocal. Back your arguments with facts and data. If an executive decision is made, then disagree and commit. The show must go on and lingering resentments on past decisions will not help your cause. If the decision turns out to be flawed, do not rub it in. You will make enemies.