Ask HN: Who Should We Hire Next? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Who Should We Hire Next?

6 pointschrisrickard7 comments

Hi HN,

Myself an a mate started a small software agency 2 years ago (http://inoutput.io), and have been lucky enough to land some big clients (public transport/insurance/trading industries) building bespoke biz automation apps. We work on nerdy things: Big-data, desktop apps, system integrations.

Things are going really well, hired 2 more devs in our first year - and already feeling like we need to hire again.

My co-founder and I both love programming - and although I have done ok so far - neither of us wants to spend 100% our time scoping, writing giant docs, client management/comms, etc.

My question is, who do you think we should hire next (or rather, what "role")?

Another dev would probably mean I have to take the project manager role full time (or close too), and I don't really have experience with hiring a Project manager (or B.A) that is that technical to be able to fill that role... but I guess they must exist!

Is there such a thing as a magical developer that doesn't want to develop, but instead wants to do technical scoping, write documents and talk to clients? ;)

I don't know if this would work in your specific business sector but when I read your description I thought: Take a page from the Pivotal Labs playbook. They did, and do, exceptionally nerdy things. But they steer their clients with a very deep Extreme Programming, Agile methodology. All of their engineers are also project people. All of their engineers can also talk to clients. But they do so in a very specific way. They plan projects the same way. They write documentation the same way. They interact with clients the same way. They have the "Pivotal Way" and they stick to it.

When they came into a project that I was working on they took two hours to look at what we were doing. They took another two hours to map our a plan to get us where we were going using an XP style story map. They spent an hour getting it into Tracker and having a planning meeting with us. Then they started working. Using Agile Principles they were able to keep up with the scoping, the docs, and the communication in about half an hour a day every day. This was no small project. I can't say how much we paid them for those few months, but imagine a number with seven digits. So, this was not a small project.

I have used this same methodology myself and it has been extremely beneficial and lucrative. We get a lot of work done, we make clients very happy, and we live according to principles we really believe in. It's amazing for business.

At any rate, hopefully this will help you a bit. To answer your question more directly, hire another engineer. Change the parts of your business that aren't effective for your style of work to something that is effective. Good luck!

I think your right, we should probably focus on refining project & dev methodologies, which would free up some "space" (logistically and mentally!)

There are only really two ways to scale an agency, as far as I know.

1. You can charge more.

2. You take on more work in parallel.

The second is usually a thing to some degree, you add devs etc., but it doesn't drastically increase your earnings per head so there tend to be diminishing returns - network costs of a larger team, the need to sustain a flow of more and larger deals. This requires some drastic changes to the company itself, how you work, the type of deals you pursue...it can be profitable, but it's a mess.

Which leaves #1, increasing the value of deals you take on with roughly the existing team. What is stopping you from doubling your next quote? Skills gap? Type of project? I'm betting it's more "type of client" and "sales process" than needing another developer, since (from a once-over of your team section) you seem to have the major bases covered already, and perhaps more so than you'd need with a more narrow project type & target customer.

Re: specific roles you asked about...

There are technical writing specialists & sales engineers. A good sales engineer is expensive if they're any good, and very likely overkill for a small agency. It's usually up to the person or people running the agency to learn sales. There's a spectrum of skill involved, but even the shallow end makes you VERY dangerous in comparison to the median sales-averse developer.

As to a technical writer...how much does documentation affect your deals & billing rate? This can probably be better addressed by process, make improving doc quality a real priority by setting aside time for it every week & comping for training materials on better docs and copywriting.

There are options that aren't mentioned that are worth considering:

1. Don't grow. Maybe this means not at all. Maybe it means slowly. Maybe it means not right now because there isn't a good plan for handling it. There's nothing wrong with a lifestyle business and anyway that's more or less what a consultancy usually amounts to even at 50 staff.

2. Merge. Buy or sell to or partner with with a company which is strong where you are weak and vice versa. This is also a long play.

3. At the size you are, the Owners need to be dealing with clients on important issues. Bringing in another partner, and by partner I mean partner, will allow the client load to be shared among more people.

Good luck.

> and anyway that's more or less what a consultancy usually amounts to even at 50 staff.

I recommend Managing the Professional Services Firm on HN every few months, but it's really good. In the very first few chapters he shows that in a partner/associates model, brining in new customers doesn't actually increase profits for the partners, but only gives you room to promote associates to new partners. Not that that's perfectly true, but it's good to think through it.

Having been in professional services since before recorded time (in internet terms), that's true if the partners are adverse to screwing people over. But profits can be increased by convincing associates that 2% equity is a big deal and deducting an inflated cost of the equity from their salary and then giving a fraction back as bonus (maybe) at year's end.

The reason that's so common is that a consultancy never makes it's owner's Bill Gates and only rarely PG after selling ViaWeb wealthy.

An account executive? If you wanted to spend more time writing code, and less time getting bogged down with contracts etc. Plus, as a service provider myself, there will be dry spells. Having someone pounding pavement will help to smooth that out and continue to help your grow in the good times.

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