Are two heads better than one?

Architect level engineers are hard to find. These are the engineers that stand above the rest and are go to person for the others.? If your project is going to succeed you need one of these on your team.

So having two would double the efficiency of your engineering team right?

Sadly not always as I discovered.? This was something that led me to be even more strict about the interviewing and hiring process. More of that in a future post.

We need to hire strong engineers

As a newly appointed engineering leader for a relatively small start up I reached out to some software architects I had worked with in the past encouraging them to come join me.? These engineers are like unicorns.? Even after 40 years in the business I can easily count all the ones I know on two hands.

Pleased with myself about getting the first onboard and settling in, I set about selling the other on a position.?

Both were engineers I had worked with in the past at multiple different companies. I knew they had very different approaches to building software. What I didn’t expect was the extent of the? fireworks that ensued everytime they were in the same room together.

Ahead of time I had concerns that the two characters would gel well. Instincts I should have listened to. During the interview process I asked my first hire to reject if there was any concern on their part about the chemistry between the two of them.? Personally I reached out to the candidate to check too.

This was a small company and we needed to move fast.? Two strong engineers I knew personally. Two separate projects. What could go wrong?

Oil and water

It was a disaster. The two of them could not be in the same room together. Their very different styles and approaches just didn’t gel. They would actually call me to ask if the other was in the office that day.? If so, the other would work at home.

This nightmare management situation was entirely of my own doing. Undoing it was going to be challenging. Small start ups don’t have a lot of room to move people around if they can’t work together. We all row in the same direction or sink.?

Lessons learned

Lessons learned for me on hiring and following instincts. This led to an even more strict interview process where everyone had to be a yes, with no concerns, doubts.

If there are concerns it’s a no, if there are any doubts it’s a no.

A small team just cannot afford a bad hire.

This is also true for larger organizations. These companies include a culture fit as part of the process. Large companies can have a little more flexibility to move people around of course. A bad fit still makes a huge dent in engineering efficiency not to mention management time.

We don’t do anyone any favors bringing them into a role where they can’t be successful.