Building Jam

What happens when you spend months looking for the perfect candidate… And then the engineering team grows by 50% all at once? 

This week, the Head of Engineering at Jam talks about the challenges of scaling and hiring in our startup:

(00:26) Why hiring takes so long— 5 months iterating the process!

(09:30) What’s going to break: the stuff we know, and what we don’t

(11:01) Changing the format of decision-making now that there’s more people (and opinions)

(18:30) The different factors that go into choosing the right candidate

(20:36) What happens when the team goes from 15 people to 20

(22:40) Does anyone know the perfect designer:engineer ratio?

(26:57) More team challenges: unexpected hires and financial planning, balancing strategy with execution, and showing up for the team with a meeting-packed calendar. 

We’re trying something new: hitting record on an unfiltered conversation about what it’s actually like to build Jam each week. 

This week we discuss:
(00:29) This week’s offsite and building in person
(04:32) Bringing up difficult or confrontational topics with the team
(07:18) Choosing what to focus on when there’s a lot going on
(08:02) Finding the right format for team retros
(10:11) Breaking the news that a beta product needs more iteration
(11:51) Trusting your gut vs. data
(12:29) Excitement and uncertainty about an upcoming launch
(14:15) How to make hard-boiled eggs in Bogotá