| Our interviews are inconsistent |
Our interviews depend heavily on the interviewer and their own background and beliefs. Further, our interview notes are not very good. The notes do not help the next interviewer form a good idea of what to expect. They do not tell me how the interviewer was thinking. They do not tell me how the interviewer adapted during the interview. This is a problem for all of us since it affects the kind of colleagues we work with. How can we improve? |
| How do we get better at giving our peers feedback? |
We have a culture of little to no feedback. We don't praise much. We don't condemn much. This was possibly useful in the early days. But as we grow larger, we need to start giving more feedback. How do we give more praise and more criticism? |
| Performance rating stystems and team morale |
We will be introducing a performance rating system in before March 2021. All performance rating systems affect intrinsic motivation. Like many of you, I too expect a dip in the team's motivation levels when QElo goes public. In this context, what you can do to improve the morale of your colleagues? |
| How do we delay the instinct to specialize? |
As companies grow larger, specialization and process improvement become the most popular solutions to problems. I do not like that approach at all because specialized roles end up becoming silos of information. They prevent our engineers from experiencing a wide variety of 'good' problems. Specialized professionals also end up becoming single points of failure. I would like to avoid specialization until we are at least ~70 people strong. Instead, I would like to tackle the problem by increasing our common understanding and exposure. So what can we do to delay adopting specialization as a solution? |
| How do we get better at processing large volumes information? |
I think most of us can handle about 10x the amount of information that we currently handle by developing systems for ourselves. This increase in individual capacity is important for a growing company. There is simply no way to design rules to tackle the challenges that will come our way when we grow. Instead, most of our coming moves are going to rely on shared understanding of situations. For shared understanding to increase, we need everyone to pay attention to what everyone else is doing. I feel like the amount of information an employee processes is the major reason why most companies fail to bring about a state of shared understanding. So how do we all get better at processing more information? What systems can you suggest to your colleagues? |
| What are some unusual sources that we can hire from? |
I'd really like to be hiring from sources that the rest of the industry ignores. Doing so is a mutually beneficial move. It gives us a huge leg up in finding talent without having to compete for it. The candidates we find usually feel grateful to get an unusual chance. So how do we identify such people? |
| Why aren't we talking more to new hires? |
We have been through this situation often - most of you have no opinion about a new hire because you have not had a chance to interact with them. In the initial days, that was completely my fault. But since 2018, I have tried to make the new hire's work visible and open. So what is preventing all of us from paying attention to their work and reaching out to them? |
| What is a good replacement for sprint based work? |
I no longer like sprint based work. We have somehow transformed it to be super task-based and non-incremental in nature. It's almost like we have a to-do item and we just make notes about it and drag along the tickets until we finish. The work is definitely not collaborative enough. I'd like us to move to a different way of working. This is going to require us to think about how our work happens and how we collaborate. Any ideas on what we can try? |
| How do we shorten training and onboarding? |
Right now, we spend ~6 months getting a new hire ready. This includes their training and initial R&D tasks.6-months is too long for a bootstrapped company in two ways. One, we can search for clients only after they are almost ready. Two, 6-months of salary for a senior person is quite a lot of investment. It is even more if the senior person quits and we need to pay the next new hire for 6-months. How can we shorten the time to train and onboard? |
| How to interview a diverse set of talents? |
I love variety in hiring. If you haven't noticed you don't have too many colleagues with backgrounds similar to you. As we grow bigger, we are going to come across skilled candidates who do not have any overlap with our skill sets. I'd still like to hire them. How can we interview such people fairly? How do we know that they are not bluffing when we do not know their domain/skill set? |
| How can we make the first few weeks at a client easier for the QA? |
The initial weeks at a challenging client are brutal. While we do mentally prepare new hires and let them know that the work will be challenging, most people do not realize how challenging until they experience client work for themselves. They suddenly feel lost and out of their depth. I feel like we can do something to make new hires realize the kind of presence of mind and speed and technical competence required when we go to a new client. What ideas do you have? |
| Why do we behave differently when on a client? |
I have noticed this pattern repeatedly. People show good habits at Qxf2. They also seem to show leadership and initiative when it comes to internal work. They speak up when they think something is not good. However, on clients, I notice most people retreat into a shell. They don't speak up. They want to comply with what the client says. This makes me look bad because as part of my sales pitch, I tell clients that our engineers will self-manage and lead. So why are we changing work habits when we go on a client? |
| How to pay attention to many things? |
I bet a few of you feel overwhelmed by the number of things you need to pay attention to - constant buzz on Skype/Slack, client work, Qxf2 work, new hires, interns, interviews, technology, market, etc. I know that at some point, most of you just give up and focus on the top 3 things on your plate. While what I listed may sound overwhelming, as someone who pays attention to all of this, I believe it is possible to develop systems for yourself to get good at this. So, what systems do you think you can develop for yourself? |
| How can we multi-task better? |
Multi-tasking and context switching is going to be needed in the next phase of our growth. I know that studies tell you that single-tasking is more efficient than multi-tasking. However, I believe that single-tasking leads to lesser opportunities over the long run. Most productive people (even at super small firms) are multi-tasking. So how can we get better at this essential skill? |
| What habits of Qxf2 can we give up? |
We are not forced to continue habits of our past. Even the ones that helped us or the ones that we enjoy. As this company evolves, it is critical that we keep shedding some old habits. Otherwise, in a way, we are restricting the kind of ideas that we produce. What habits can we give up? |
| What is a fair way to handle a firing? |
Whether we wish it or not, if we grow, I am going to have to fire people for a variety of reasons ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Firings are always a matter of shock within the company. Not everyone will agree with my decision. I cannot make the decision completely transparent because there is another human's livelihood and professional reputation at stake. Keeping this scenario in mind, what do you think is a fair way of firing people? |
| Where are arbitrage opportunities in hiring? |
It is to our advantage to keep looking for hiring sources that the market undervalues. This makes it beneficial to both the candidate and us. We do not need to compete and the candidate gets an opportunity that might otherwise not be present. An example from our early days - we got Avinash because we reached out to talent in Tier 2 cities. Companies in Bangalore were not reaching out to outstation candidates. What are similar opportunities that exist today? |
| Where all are we not contributing enough? |
I have mentioned several times that I do not want to have a pyramid structure. One of the easiest ways to avoid the pyramid structure for a long time is to expose so many opportunities and problems that individual contribution is still possible. And how do we get this long list of problems to solve? In my experience, it is easy to look for areas we are not contributing much and start making a dent. This has the additional advantage of us forming good relationships with people in that area. So, where all do you think we are not contributing enough? |
| How do you ask for a better opportunity? |
If we grow, there will be more opportunity. And when there is more opportunity, asking for opportunity is going to become important. I have noticed early employees suck at asking for more opportunity. What's more, they suffer silently. And when they do speak up, they end up asking for opportunity poorly or ask for the wrong opportunity. I'd really like it if early employees get into the habit of asking for specific opportunities. I will most probably reject your ask (because your ask is going to be out of touch and irrelevant :P) - but that will help you get better at figuring out what went wrong and how you should improve. So how do we bring about a culture in which all of you speak about the opportunities you want? |
| What do you do when you are stuck in a rut? |
Every experienced professional knows this - there are going to be stretches of time (months or years even!) where you feel you are in a rut. If we are all going to experience it, then we should probably share strategies on what we do when we are stuck in a rut. What tips can you give me? |
| Dilution of care and responsibility |
The amount of reponsibility that a person feels tends to decrease as the group becomes larger. Psychology calls this phenomenon 'diffusion of responsibilty'. I have seen this play out in several of our clients now. I have a nagging feeling that we cannot avoid it at Qxf2, but I'd like to try and delay this for a bit longer. Do you have ideas? |
| Deliberate access to senior employees |
As a company grows the chances of a new engineer getting time with more senior employees reduces. This does not happen on purpose. Not is the intention evil. It is just that folks that have been around have a lot more context and therefore a lot more demand on their time. There are always more urgent things to do than checkin on the new hires. And if that is not enough - the first few interactions are awkward. The new hire has not yet developed enough trust to open up to their more tenured colleagues. And even worse - sometimes managers do not want their direct reports talking up the chain. How can we make sure that new hires have access to senior employees? |
| Middle management has different values |
I've noticed at companies that go through growth from very small (5-15) to small (20-50) is that a middle management layer forms. This layer of middle management will have _very_ different ideas of what is important than the company has had thus far. They are far more pragmatic and make short-term calls. They can use 'efficiency' and 'continuous improvement' and 'getting things done this one time' as convenient reasons for changing how we operate. How can you as an early employee make sure we do not slip down this slope? |
| Fighting pockets of specialization |
We are around the size where we will start to see pockets of specialization form. If you start noticing specialization forming, what can you do to fight it? Note: This problem is different from the one asking you how to fight the instinct to specialize. This problem assumes that pockets of specialization have already happened. |