How your technical team can find its soul in a bear market

By Matt Rice

There’s a line that gets used quite a lot in the crypto industry these days that I like: “Don’t waste a bear market.”

As Chief Technology Officer at UMA and Across, for me, that means embracing the quieter times of the bear to challenge myself and our engineering team — and our code.

I’ve come to appreciate times like these, which present the ideal opportunity for your engineering team to find its soul.

I joined UMA in September, 2018 as one of the first hires among a small group working out of a brick-and-mortar office in New York.

Now Risk Labs, the foundation and team behind UMA and Across, operates as a fully remote, international team of roughly 30 people in more than a dozen countries around the world, including a large roster of engineers.

Since those early days in 2018, I’ve experienced the Web3 startup phase, the bullishness of DeFi summer, and the depths of bears like this one. Here are four lessons I can share about surviving and thriving as a technical team leader through the ups and downs of crypto and Web3.

Challenge yourself in a bear

During bears like this, I’ve recognized it’s essential to challenge your team to ensure your code and projects can handle 10X or 100X. It’s also crucial to stress test your user experience and your security.

That means prioritizing audits and other security work, and thinking about what happens when more users or malicious actors start looking deeply at your smart contracts.

Meanwhile, focus on understanding your code, how it works, where it breaks and recognize its limitations so that your team is ready to catch the wave of the next bull, instead of being smashed by it.

Hiring is key

Don’t rush the hiring and onboarding process, no matter the market conditions, or your stage of growth. Hiring the wrong person is tremendously draining.

Hiring should be collaborative and practical. Have a candidate do something the job would require of them as a recruiting exercise. Collaborate with them like it’s a real work environment.

The hiring process should be constantly iterating to identify qualities in candidates that you value.

You should be looking for the right fit in terms of technical expertise, team/role compatibility, attitude, and culture.

This is super important in a remote/international environment because this work arrangement relies on mutual trust, self-direction, and a commitment to productivity.

Trust your engineers to code

The CTO should be helping to solve the hard problems, while also focusing on team building and facilitating a positive, functional culture among your engineers.

Outside of managerial responsibilities, I see my role as a problem identifier and solution seeker. So when things aren’t going well, or something needs to be fixed or dealt with, it’s my responsibility to guide that process and support the team.

Honestly, most people with a software background feel most at home grappling with code, but a leader should be focused on the big picture. A strong technical leader will trust their engineers to get the code right, and should avoid micromanaging or getting too deep in the weeds.

If the things breaks, then get involved.

Resist taking short cuts during bull market fireworks

During bulls, your engineering team will probably expand faster, and interest and investment will surge into fads or ideas that are not meaningful. We’ve seen that before and we’ll see that again.

Fads don’t necessarily feel like fads in the moment, but they are often distractions from your core value-add. Trying to incorporate fads into your product often can make you third-best at somebody else’s idea, and can be a big time waster.

Don’t get caught up in that.

Focus instead on differentiating fads from key innovations, and prioritize your own vision and engineering.

Matt Rice is the Chief Technology Officer at Risk Labs, the team and foundation behind UMA Project and Across Protocol. Matt’s background in TradFi and at Google helped to shape his approach today at Risk Labs.