
It’s tempting to think that if a person is good at one thing, he or she will be good at other things. Read that as programming and managing. Do not make this mistake. Identify which of your senior folks are ready for leading teams (and want to do it) and which of them want to bury their noses deeper into code. If you don’t identify the two kinds of people, you’ll not only be doing a disservice to your product but you’ll also be destroying a few careers.
…nd having an empathy for the end user are all important, not just to the old hands but to everyone. The best way to kill productivity is to just tell the engineers what to do without telling them why. As for the old hands, do get their input for core product changes.