yegor256 podcast

Building teams that were supposed to stay together for many years, was a good strategy, many years ago. Not anymore. The reality of the modern software development market demands us to work with remote programmers, who in most cases will be individual contractors or freelancers. They will not be emotionally attached to the team or to the company. They will be looking for the most interesting projects on the market and will quit the moment they will realize that your project is not the one they fit well with. That's why, if you want your business to be ahead of the market, you should start learning how to work with freelancers and how to manage projects. Instead of building teams.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/5GfGXhzQb4Y

The current situation on the software development market it terrible: programmers are spoiled by large salaries and very high demand. They know that their managers can't really do anything with them, can't make them work faster or better, can't fire them, and can't enforce any discipline. Large companies, like Google or Facebook, have the luxury of buying 10 times more programmers than they really need, that's how they solve their productivity problems. However, if you don't have that amount of money, you must not manage your programmers the way Google does it. You need a better management formula. Which one? Microtasking from Zerocracy is one of the options. Use it or invent your own one, but don't copy Google.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/XQQoaBZEs38

When a microtask arrives to you, very often you may need some additional information, which is not specified in the task description. Your first intent would be to go and find that information, even if it's not available. This would be a mistake. You should not spend your time, which is a valuable project resource, on something the management hasn't approved yet. You should create a new ticket/task and ask for additional information. It will be provided and you will be able to continue your main task.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/XYXNOOH8q3M

Most managers and business owners believe that programmers are interested in their ideas, in their business, in their vision. They expect programmers to work because they share a global vision. In reality, it doesn't work that way. Programmers work for their own profit and care about their own personal results. If the business fails to align its objects with personal objectives of its programmers, it will get enemies, not friends.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/TvvSQq_c4X8

The business model of Zerocracy by definition requires a pretty big amount of venture capital in order to connect many programmers with many customers and make them attractive to each other. In order to attract VC money, we have to demonstrate them the traction on the market. Zold is going to help us achieve exactly that, by collecting micro-investments from you and showing bigger money people that the market is interested in us. Help us make Zerocracy bigger, invest in Zold!

The video is here: https://youtu.be/sbONYCd5iUI

Microtasking is a great method of managing programmers, but it's very difficult or almost impossible to switch to this new model of work from traditional full-time management. There is a list of five simple steps I would recommend you making with your team if you want to get yourself ready for microtasking in a few months or a few years. First, make sure the use GitHub. Second, make them report their weekly results in a list of completed tasks. Third, make sure their code gets into the repository via pull requests and only after code reviews. Fourth, invite external reviewers and let them submit their ideas only through tickets. Fifth, let them work remotely, from home.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/0mOn9MvuMzU

What do you do as a customer, when you realize the your architect is totally wrong and the architecture is flawed and you have to start from scratch? Most likely, you got aware of that from one of your friends of the experts you invited to the project. What's next? Replace the architect? Start from scratch? Or continue working with the existing team? My recommendation: never start from scratch.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/RWV6f90eHek

How much would it cost to create a Twitter clone? You won't believe how often I hear this or similar questions. There is no such thing as a realistic estimate of a software price if we are talking about a more or less big product. It starts with a few thousand dollars and ends with a few billion if the product becomes successful on the market. Those who tell you that to develop your app would cost, say, $100,000 are just trying to fool you or they don't understand what they are talking about.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/j5uXrY2gttA

A team of freelancers working in a microtasking mode is not focused on your business objectives, by definition. They are doing what they are willing to do, randomly covering the entire scope of the product's functionality. This is why so many customers get frustrated when they experience this for the first time. In order to avoid this frustration, you should do something, to align technical goals with your business objectives and focus the team on tickets, which are important.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/w3HwEtFU2wo

Very often customers of Zerocracy ask me whether we can find them some good UI/UX designers, who will make sure their application looks great and can work together with programmers. We can't do that because UI people are too artistic and their work has no explicit borders. It's better to find them somewhere else, make sure they are managed and disciplined somehow differently and let programmers integrate their code with their creativity, somehow. How exactly you do that, depends on many technical factors.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/dzepTbcQkgU