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by paulhauggis 4665 days ago
"Every hire needs to be a generalist to some extent. In a startup everyone needs to be able to see the big picture, even while they're working on the small building blocks."

This is essentially saying that they need to have a business/owner mindset. A few hires like this aren't easy to find..let alone every hire.

"In addition to hiring those who are capable of that, try to foster it in your environment. At Sandglaz, our developers handle support because it helps them stay in touch with the customer's point of view on the product."

While this sounds great in theory, it leads to developers not being able to do their regular job because they are busy dealing with customer service requests. This really should be a separate position.

"Be wary of those who will simply google a solution."

Is this basically NIH syndrome? For many things, I use Google..even if I know I can creatively figure them out on my own. Why? It saves time, money, and headaches if someone ran into other issues).

1 comments

"While this sounds great in theory, it leads to developers not being able to do their regular job because they are busy dealing with customer service requests. This really should be a separate position."

It actually works well for us. It adds a little variety to the developers work and gets them in touch with the customer's point of view. I believe, in a startup, it's best if everyone on your team gets some customer contact.

"Is this basically NIH syndrome? For many things, I use Google..even if I know I can creatively figure them out on my own. Why? It saves time, money, and headaches if someone ran into other issues)."

Off course you should google solutions and use other people's gems and libraries and knowledge...etc. In this example, I wasn't referring to purely technical problems. You want innovation everywhere in your company. Marketing strategy, Product..etc. Not everything you do is going to be unique, but you do want people on your team to be able to come with unique creative ideas every now and then.