Why You Should Hire T-Shaped Engineers

Start-ups are complex and fast moving environments, that isn’t news… it doesn’t mean that hiring for them has gotten any easier.

The first hires you make into your engineering team will determine the success of the entire product.

We regularly see companies get the hiring right, and excel over the years.

We also regularly see companies go blindly into scaling a team, and come crashing down soon after.

So, what have the companies we have seen succeeded looked for? T Shaped Engineers…

What does T-Shaped Mean?

So, where does this term ‘T Shaped’ come from?

It stems from the almost archaic engineering point of view that people should either be experts in only one area of software, or they should be generalists that can have a ‘jack of all trades’ input in the team.

The truth actually lies somewhere in between, the ideal engineer in a startup environment will contribute deep expertise in one area of engineering (e.g. Backend development) but will also have broad working knowledge across adjacent skills, i.e. DevOps, Frontend, Data.

This means they can bring in expert knowledge to fill skills gaps in your team, whilst also being able to flex outside their core responsibilities.

So why does your startup need them?

You should look to find and hire T shaped engineers, as startups are a turbulent environment at the best of times.

They face challenges such as changing direction, small headcounts and company priorities changing fast.

T-Shaped engineers thrive in these kinds of environments because they:

•Collaborate well across multiple functions

•Can switch context and work without losing team momentum

•Fill skills gaps that arise in the team

•Learn fast and can keep up with the rate of change

•Balance speed in production with good knowledge and reliability.

Early stage engineering teams don’t have the endless budgets and luxuries that larger more established companies might.

When you build your team around T-shaped engineers, they can:

•Write Code

•Review & Test

•Build DevOps Pipelines

•Or at least contribute ideas and assist others

This avoids the team stalling and means you can run a lean, truly agile squad to get the product off the ground.

Engineers with this ‘horizontal’ knowledge can assist with more than just development. They can often understand the different needs of the company including Product, Design and Business Development.

So how does this impact your company?

Okay, so we have discussed what a T-Shaped Engineer can do for the immediate engineering squad. What does hiring one mean for your overall company?

A Quick MVP

First things first, it will accelerate your MVP development. Having engineers that can contribute to multiple levels of your stack make it possible to get from idea, to prototype, to deployment at a very quick pace.

We all know that startups need to get their product to market quick, beating the competition to market is most of the battle. Build your engineering team to facilitate that.

Culture of Learning

T-shaped members of staff will be the best thing that happens to your culture. They more often than not foster an inclusive culture where continuous learning and development is the norm.

They will also encourage the rest of the team to broaden their skillsets beyond their niche, and this in turn will help build a collaborative and resilient engineering squad.

Scale with the business

Looking for people that will develop along side your company? T-Shaped engineers very often grow into leadership roles, system architects or founding managers in tech companies. This is due to their broad overall knowledge giving them the skills and foundation to lead teams, hire people effectively and mentor other engineers.