Build experience in a product team
04 Mar 2024
Eiffel Tower, November 2022. @babafemio
From time to time, I interview talent for engineering or technology positions. No matter how many years they lay claim to on their resume, if they have not spent time working in a structured environment, it shows. Yes, the raw talent would shine through clearly, but something about them screams, ‘Not worked within an organized team.’ It signals the presence of some potential gaps in the engineer’s ability to fit in the team or signals a gap in the actual work experience.
My first software gig fresh from school (immediately after I submitted and presented my final year project) was to build an e-commerce website for a company that sold workstations and servers. My friend and I got the deal through his uncle, who owned the company. This was in 2001/2002, so calling it an e-commerce website would be reaching a little. Perhaps an online catalog would be more appropriate. Nevertheless, we built the website, got paid handsomely, and thought life was good. The only problem was, we didn’t know where the next job would come from.
We tried, reached out to friends and family, and decided to make a cold call to a high-end fashion boutique. Both of us arrived at the location on Okada (motorcycle taxis), looking casual and a little unconvincing. And at that moment, looking at the retail store and then looking out ourselves, it felt clear we needed work to prepare ourselves for this. Right there and then, we decided to try out corporate work and come back a few years later to try this again. My friend went off to work with an IT firm, and I resumed at a consulting company. In case you are wondering, we haven’t returned to try again, yet…
Sometimes, it feels like we failed at building a business out of creating websites. Yet, reflecting on the years in between, we strongly believe we made the right decision. In our various jobs over the years, we have learned a ton and made so much more impact than we could have made going from shop to shop building web catalogs. But you really never know… However, for a young entrepreneur thinking of building and launching his/her product, which is easier to do these days. I would recommend spending some time working on the product team of a Fintech product that processes millions of transactions daily, or any other technology product that generates millions of daily core interactions. The learning opportunity cannot be overstated.
On the business side, working in a well-established team allows you to work with people in different roles, such as product managers, compliance specialists, risk managers, marketing executives, business owners, etc. Understanding the motivations and diverse perspectives of these stakeholders on a product is a rich source of learning you would be unable to pick up on your own. At the very least, you learn how not to run or build a product team.
While on the engineering side, working in a team that has used up a few of their ‘9 lives’ while building and maintaining the product, you get to understand how they have made technology decisions (see post), how they pay (or not pay) technical debt, how they brainstorm ideas, swarm problems, and when failure happens, how they keep themselves motivated, pick up a new life and go again.
I advise young engineers seeking freelancing or entrepreneurial ventures to spend substantial time within engineering teams managing products with a significant user base. This isn’t a critique of the freelance or entrepreneurial path – far from it. Instead, it’s a gentle nudge toward a crucial learning ground where individual brilliance seamlessly intertwines with the complexities of teamwork. The journey may sometimes be less predictable or even rote, but the lessons learnt are immeasurable.