Left-Brain vs. Right-Brain Developers

I see a lot of development job descriptions with requirements that generously mix right-brain and left-brain activities. I believe that by stepping back and evaluating the way our team's developers are wired to think and how that fits with the team and our product is important for building and growing a optimal-balanced, high-performance team.

There are a number of characteristics that brain-science has paired with each hemisphere of the brain, but to simplify, the left-brain is more logical and right-brain is more creative. In developer world, the left-brain is more about the algorithm, the organization and efficiency of the code and how the solution is implemented. For the right brain-developer there's more of a focus on user experience and finding interesting ways to a problem's solutions. Some will say code is poetry and some will call it zeros and ones. Neither are wrong. This right-brain, left-brain brain order is a spectrum that people, including all types of developers, land within at all different places. While there are certainly some people who will perfectly balances in the middle, most will lean towards one side or the other.

Web and app development have a generally stronger, yet under-looked demand for a high degree of right-brain thinkers deep in the team mix. Steve Jobs started out as a coder. He worked for Atari and undoubtedly did some impressive work. Jobs also thought about things like typography, design and ultimately and above all, user experience. He had a unique ability to understand his users and software product's potential to deliver a satisfying experience, not just functionally but the same sort of lift we humans get from a beautiful sculpture. I think he was somewhere close to the middle of the right-brain, left-brain equation and could see very clearly in both directions.  Ultimately, however, code was something he turned over to his much further left-brained friend, Steve Wozniak. It goes without saying that each of them had their place on the team and they each possessed some attributes of the other. Jobs’ passion was for user experience, and that is what forms the foundation of Apple’s greatness.

A good example of this is the often misunderstood, front-end developer. These are the awesome people that build the stuff that is rendered by the web browser and consists primarily of three co-mingled technologies, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. To muddle things a bit more there's also the graphic design function that goes into the mix. All four of these technologies culminate in a bunch of pixels on the screen that hopefully look good and make sense to the end user.  The problem is that CSS and HTML — being the foundation of the presentation layer — can have a multitude of varying degrees of creativity necessary to deliver the perfect experience for your website or app. The more complex tool, JavaScript, is increasingly mixed into the presentation layer; as well as the business logic. JavaScript is far to the left-brain while HTML and CSS fall towards the middle and are slippery in either direction and the graphic design function is further out to the right. This front-end team can be a tricky mix to get right because there is much to consider. However, root question will be, “how important is user-experience for your website, software or app?” This question should give rise to 1000 more.

The Jack of all Trades

Yes, it happens that there are people who can do it all. I can say, after 20 years of practice, I am one of those people. Sometimes when I'm coding, however, it feels like drudgery. My mind drifts, I pull it back and at some point, my energy gets completely exhausted. However, when I'm more in the design phase... or coding up the user experience bits, it is quite the opposite - I could go all night. Here is where a developer has to be true to themselves and a manager has to be true to the developer. I'm not saying that a developer shouldn't always be expanding her horizons, but the core of their coding should align with where the energy feels right.

As a hiring manager, it can be very tricky to get a read on where on the creative-analytical mind spectrum your candidates fall. Perhaps even more challenging is to try and figure out where you need them to fall.

In David Rendall's excellent  book, Freak Factor, he says: "Effective managers create teams with complimentary strengths and weaknesses." While Rendall is speaking generally here, I think this applies equally to a software development team.

Not another sports analogy

When it comes to team sports, it doesn’t matter which sport we’re talking about, you need a team of players with a mixed bag of attributes. Talented players, who are smart, gravitate to those functions where their talents are put to the best use and further cultivate those talents and hone them with experience and the help of a coach.

When I use the word ‘talent’ here, I’m referring to the stuff we’re born with, the undeniable attributes embedded in our genes. In web developer world, right-brain, left-brain attributes manifest as talents. For a general example, talented designers are mostly left-brained people and talented computer-scientists are probably right-brained but there’s a place for anyone and everyone anywhere on the spectrum in between. (When I use the words, mostly and probably, it is always smart to recognize the deviants from the norm and thus will admonish you to look deep into these people’s hearts and minds because sometimes these are the mixed up geniuses who will change the world and sometimes they are the lost and confused.)

Find your quarterback. She will be the anchor and lead for your team. This person should fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum and be at peace with it. The lead is a person who has a passion for the finished product and everything that goes into getting it finished. This person will also be able to pull through the thick and the thin as a project plugs along, as projects do. However, they probably won’t be able to do it alone so compliment your lead with people who are a little more creative on one side and a little more analytical on the other.

One Free Coaching Tip. One of the best executive coaches of all time, Marshall Goldsmith in his book; What Got You Here Won't Get You There, suggests that leaders  write a "how to deal with me," memo for their people. This isn't about apologizing in advance for whatever imperfections you may have, it's part of a formula to achieve better team alignment. Your team is there to give you direct support, this concept gives each of its members a new understanding of how they can better help you be a better leader. Rather than taking months to get to know you and months figuring out how to work with you — it's all simply laid out in front. Think of all the time and heartburn that could save everyone!

What’s your game? You do have to respect the game, and be true to the way you need to play it. Maybe the sports analogy is running out of steam here, but basically if you’re in the finance industry and you need mad computer scientists to build complex number crunching algorithms, lean right… and if you’re in the fashion industry… you get the picture.

Next time you have to submit a job requirement to HR or interview a new batch of candidates, take time and step back to evaluate, not only the hard skills and technology sets on the team, but also the personalities, talents and the passions of the individuals. To get there faster you can even ask each teammate to submit a "how to deal with me" letter to you. Hopefully this can lead to a new level of alignment on your existing team and that will guide the growth of the team for the future.

If you manage a team, please join my group, Web Managers Connect on LinkedIn.

READING LIST:

• Read this article and more at, Superheroic HQ
• The Freak Factor, David Rendall, mentioned above.
• What Got You Here Won't Get You There, Marshall Goldsmith.

Here to Help

This year I’ll be able to say that I’ve spent two decades building websites, applications and leading teams on and off-shore. I’ve worked in startups, associations, consumer software products, financial services and freelance. I am shifting my focus to use my experience to help other developers and also to help organizations build better teams. I’ve just launched a venture called Superhero. My mission is to help other developers find their full potential by focusing on their Superhero traits and talents and matching in optimal positions with the right organizations so they might more fully realize their potential. I am also consulting with organizations on team hiring and other development best practices.