You don’t need engineers to build a complex, highly valuable software-driven system. So why do you have them?
Last week I went to a Covid test centre at Heathrow Airport, where hundreds of people every hour made their way through an intricate dance: wait here, wait there, pay here, sit there, clean this, sample that, deposit here, return there, read this, email that. The amazing thing to me was that this very efficiently run process–completely unknown two years ago–was being coordinated largely without any custom software at all: the queues were physical and managed by eyeball; chain of custody was maintained with off-the-shelf barcode scanners; the testers used checklists tacked to a window. Increasing numbers of my clients have some or all of their “software” systems built this way–I just visited an insurance startup whose entire rating engine is managed in spreadsheets, checklists, and Salesforce, for example. Now there are many pitfalls in doing this, and I’m not claiming you can get by without engineers forever. But take a long hard look at your payroll and your hiring plan: do you really need engineering skills in every role?
This first appeared in my weekly Squirrel Squadron email, which goes out every Monday, and was originally posted on 24th May 2022. To get my provocative thoughts and tips direct to your inbox first, sign up here: https://squirrelsquadron.com/