Your Tech Stack Is Only as Good as the People Using It

There’s a popular myth that the right tech stack will make or break your company. And while I acknowledge that having outright bad tech can hurt a company, I’ve found that it’s much more important to focus on finding the right people than the right software.

At Kin, we focus primarily on hiring smart, hungry people and empowering them to effect change.

We believe that our tech — whether it’s the hottest new software or an old favorite — is only as good as the people implementing it. And that understanding tends to keep us ahead of the curve. We don’t chase trends — we chase talent.

We don’t chase trends — we chase talent.

Here are three things we do to get the right people onboard and nurture their talents so that our company continues to grow and be a great place to work.

Hire the Right People

You could have the best tech stack in the world, but if you’re not hiring rockstars, you won’t see the results you want. I recommend asking candidates, “Could you, should you, and would you work at a startup?”

• “Could you” helps us assess whether the candidate is comfortable with a less structured work environment and is ready to try out new ideas — even if it means risking failure.
• “Should you” focuses on a candidate’s long-term goals and whether they align with the trajectory offered by a startup.
• “Would you” helps us ensure the candidate understands what they are taking on when they accept the offer.

These questions also illuminate which candidates have the self awareness and emotional maturity to get the job done.

But how do you find these folks?

Bring All Hands on Deck to Support Your Recruitment Efforts

Department heads and enthusiastic employees make for a more representative hiring process than a few lone recruiters working their beat. Recruiters may know your company’s values and your messaging, but they may not have a pulse on each department and their teams the way that actual members of those teams do.

Your employees’ ability to demonstrate the company culture you’re building is stronger than the message any single recruiter can share. For example, when folks meet your dev team at networking events, they get an understanding of social norms within your organization.

Plus, this kind of active recruitment demonstrates your organization’s commitment to building strong teams. This effort is part of our formula for getting great people on board (and retaining them).

Empower Employees with the Tools to Make Better Decisions

By the time a candidate has reached the interview stage, they’ve already made decisions about your tech stack. Smart candidates will ask about how software is delivered: What tools are used for project management, continuous integration, or devOps? Who is making decisions on what is being worked on during an iteration, and how are those communications delivered? These questions reveal what it’s like to work at a company much more than the tech stack. It’s a positive sign for you when a candidate asks these questions. When you deliver a well thought-out answer, it’s a positive sign for them.

Once you have the right people onboard, give them the tools and tech they need to excel. In some cases, it’s well worth the subscription price of a favorite software to bring a rockstar on board. Having the right tools on hand can mean the difference between productivity and a fast exit.

Get the Right People First, and the Tech Will Follow

Seek out and thoroughly vet candidates, and set them up for success with the tools they need to succeed. When you get smart people onboard at your company, their expertise and talent will help guide tech in the right direction — not the other way around.

About the Author

Lucas Ward is the cofounder and CTO of Kin Insurance. Previously, as CTO of Fundspire, he created a disruptive and innovative product in the financial industry from the ground up. His efforts to define infrastructure in the Amazon AWS cloud and write batch jobs and Javascript code culminated in the successful acquisition of Fundspire. During seven years of consulting for Accenture and ThoughtWorks, he helped large corporations in finance, insurance, aviation, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and logistics; federal, state, and local governments; and various startups improve the way they use technology. His areas of focus include open source, programming practices optimization, architecture design and maintenance, and agile methodologies. Lucas also co-led the creation of Spring Batch, the first and only open source batch processing framework, which is part of the celebrated Spring portfolio.