If you’ve been reading our blog or downloaded our free Guide to Tech Projects for Non-technical Founders, you’ve learned how important a team is for completing technical projects successfully.
The most important person on the team is the technology lead. This goes without saying, but must be said given how often this rule is ignored.
You’ve got to have someone on the team that is experienced. I’m not talking about someone who has built a couple sites, this is your general contractor! I’m talking about a solid 10 year, 10,000 hour person.
And what they’ve been doing for those hours is important as well. If they’ve been pigeonholed in the back office server room only tinkering with networks and IT infrastructure for 10 years (although some of that might be helpful), they’re not a good fit. They need to have worked in all aspects of web development, from design through devops and back again. They also need to have a couple big wins: big projects that went from start to finish successfully.
The more experience the better, but the problem is that experience is expensive. These people are pricey because they’re in a high growth, high demand industry where wages have not been stagnant. They’re going for anywhere from 150k – 300k per year right now according to salary estimates online.
If you can’t afford someone like that full-time (most startups can’t), you’ll want to look for someone who could join you part-time. Do a search on LinkedIn for a fractional CTO or fractional developer, or lead developer contractor, etc.
One thing you’ll definitely want to avoid is the “Amazing Technicolor Dream coder”. If you’d like to read more about that and other tips for successful technical projects, we have a free gift for you.
Download our free Guide to Tech Projects for Non-technical Founders.
If you need hands on help with your project, Buink has years of experience managing and completing technical projects on time, under budget, and with a high level of quality. Contact Buink today.
