“Young aspiring graduates are not turned into great professionals overnight". It takes careful nurturing of the “think first-code next” culture. This helps them seek purpose in the software they build. Any software that cannot be understood by or explained to an average person is not worth building. This approach helps engineers build simple yet powerful software solutions for their customers in their growth partnerships.
Turning coders into great software professionals
Building software must be centered on human users and its very own first users are its developers. Coders often brag about the tech stack they are deploying for the product but this doesn’t guarantee the success of the product they are building. The mental toiling of why you are building a particular product before what and how one should be building to comply with growing market needs is worth it much more than what technologies you are incorporating in your product. The trend of more than 100 unicorns and yet the majority of them struggling to find the right market fit is the result of herd mentality. For the success of your product, simplicity is the way to go forward in today’s startup rush. A software product that is based upon your intuition rather than just market research. Code modules that are easy to understand, features that are easy to upgrade, and then finally a product that is easy to comprehend for use optimizes every stakeholder’s interest in your product.
An “employee first and everything else next” company
The global attrition rate skyrocketed three times, post-pandemic. Data clearly shows that the current workforce pool in the market believes no money can compensate for toxic work culture and business from toxic high-value clients that did not treat their employees respectfully. This is driving a big-time change in policy-making from talent acquisition teams around the organizations. The aim is clearly “inclusion for all” and then retaining employees in these bad times of tech winter by fostering “employees first and everything else next”.
To fix the “what” part of your software development company, you need a fixation on “how” your employees develop software.
Flat hierarchy eliminating redundant management layers
Filling timesheets and periodic project meetings would only delay software development. Companies are already reconsidering the role of project managers in product development. Do we need project managers who themselves have trouble prioritizing project needs? Therefore, a flat hierarchy in your development organization will help engineers take direct ownership of customer problems and their deliverables. This further increases the exposure to developers and acts as a form of micro-learning for them. Start considering your developers as micro-entrepreneurs within your organization eliminating friction from project development and ensuring faster deliverables.
However, external project facilitation is still needed to ensure project deliverability. What about a non-techie who steps in only when a problem arises either for the employee or the client and takes care of human issues only?
Cultural and financial perking your employees
In these times of growing tech uncertainty, companies must work to insulate their employees from the cultural and financial environment at the client's end. Gone are those days when you can ask a person to do 9-5 with you. That is the reason employee perks are the main component of employee retention processes. Post-pandemic era, flexible work settings and upskilling are two of the employee perks investments you can make to invite greater productivity among the organization’s workforce.
Tech collaboration inviting upskilling
If you happen to visit any IT office, you would find cubicles and disintegrated sittings only. The problem here is not the furnishings, it is the intent of these organizations which is not focused on learning and discussing. Open floor seating layouts to enable collaborative learning that is not easily found even in some leading IT giants can be your first step to imbibe the ever-learning ecosystem tuned for market readiness. Upskilling in the flow of work is a fuzzy challenge, which can be only resolved by subconsciously indulging yourself in micro-learning and just-in-time learning. Whenever a young engineer is assigned a project, the project outcome must upskill them to 2-3X their market worth. The mindset to achieve something greater than monetary benefits is not a cakewalk to inculcate but it is only through cause-oriented learning.
