VP of Engineering

Make Hard Time Easier -- Work With a Sponsor

When the company needed to bring in a more experienced CTO, the Product Development team, including the author, had to go through a difficult transition. The author was able to recruit a technical advisor as the new CTO, and through their relationship, the author was able to learn valuable lessons about asking for and listening to feedback, challenging and disagreeing with their manager, and using what they learned to help turn their next manager into a sponsor.

Creating Impact as One of the First Hires in a Startup

This article recounts the experience of joining a startup as the seventh employee and becoming a VP of engineering. It highlights the importance of self-awareness and adaptability when joining a startup, as well as the benefits of understanding the inner workings of a company. It also emphasizes the importance of being financially responsible when considering a startup job.

Setting Clear Expectations of the Leadership Roles

The CTO of an organization faced a taxing problem of having to address the preconceived notions of what the role of CTO entails. To address this, the CTO set up expectations of what the role of CTO, VP of Engineering, and VP of Product entails, and highlighted the differences between the roles. As the organization grew, the expectations of the team evolved and three specific leadership roles were defined. This evolution has been a major growth point for the organization.

Planning Product Development

The VP of Engineering for Ernit was the first technical person to join the company and faced the challenge of creating a protocol for the device to communicate back to the servers. After questioning the founders and creating a blueprint of the communication flow, they were able to come up with a solution that allowed them to ship the product in the Kickstarter phase. The lesson learned was that even if people aren't technical, they should be able to provide blueprints with communication flows to ensure information is flowing in both directions.

Working yourself out of your role: the succession plan

In order to take on new opportunities and grow in their career, the author learned to create a succession plan to transition their current role to someone else. This enabled them to take on broader responsibilities and move on from their current role. The author recommends writing the succession plan as soon as possible, revisiting it regularly, and having a mutual understanding of each other's roles with their team of managers.

In Need of Extra Hands: Hiring Independent Contractors and External Vendors

When needing to hire additional capacity or expertise, it is important to secure the hiring budget, identify contractors or vendors, vet their quality, and be prepared on the logistical, product, and engineering side. Contracting is a good opportunity to make the right hire and it is important to ensure that the regular team knows and understands what the contractors are building.