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About me
My name is Mauro Bagnato and for over 15 years I have been leading tech organizations.
When I first stepped into leadership, I believed technical expertise was the key to being an effective leader. However, I quickly learned that organizations are living and complex systems and that leading them demands much more than just technical know-how. I believe that curiosity is at the heart of effective leadership. This is what fuels learning and experimentation, both crucial for continuous improvement. This blog aims to explore engineering leadership in all its aspects and to provide insights in a tangible and pragmatic manner. It will also be a space where I will share insights, reflections, and personal takeaways from books, podcasts, and articles that influenced and keep influencing my journey.
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Scaling up a tech organization is a very exciting journey.
It is a sign of a thriving business and offers great opportunities for personal and professional growth. However, I learned from direct experience that it can be very painful if not properly handled.
The hardest part is not “getting bigger” but making the now (or soon) scaled-up organization perform in the best possible way.
So, how to make this whole scaling thing less painful?
The key point is changing perspective. Instead of focusing only on the immediate "here and now" of the scaling phase, we should look ahead and consider what happens when the organization becomes way bigger.
It sounds easy but it is not.
Internal and external pressure can cloud our judgment. It can be extremely hard to step back, look at the big picture, and question the entire scaling strategy.
That's where heuristics come in handy. Heuristics are like mental shortcuts that help find adequate but often imperfect answers to difficult questions (and in difficult situations).
When thinking about scaling up a tech organization, I’ve developed my own personal heuristic which consists of three simple 3 questions that act as reminders to consider multiple angles before and during the scaling journey:
How effective and efficient is our onboarding process?
In other words, how quickly can a newcomer become productive and able to “navigate” the organization?
While a well-organized onboarding process can boost motivation and engagement, an improvised and unstructured one can create frustration and disappointment among newcomers and massive inefficiencies at the organizational level.
What will the overall developer experience look like?
Developer experience is a wide concept that includes many aspects, from tooling to feedback loops to team routines. Scaling up the tech organization without considering the resulting developer experience can be overkill in terms of productivity, motivation, and engagement.
What happens to our company culture when newcomers outnumber long-timers in a span of a few months?
No matter what we do, a culture will inevitably emerge.
It can be a random one resulting from the combination of a multitude of different cultures or the one we want to establish (or preserve).
It is up to us, as leaders, to steer the wheel in the right direction.
Final words
In a nutshell, scaling up a tech organization is not just about growing bigger, it is about growing smarter and more effective at the same time.
A strategic approach combined with proper heuristics can make it easier to navigate this path and increase the chances of success.
