In today's fast-paced, tech-driven world (hello “Generative AI” in 2023!), the success of software projects hinges on talent and collaboration of the dev team. To build a high-performing growth or product engineering team, it's crucial to consider not only technical expertise but also factors like culture fit and culture add. That’s why personal traits and competencies, cultural fit matter for team formation and performance, and employee turnover.
Developer Team Formation
Assembling a balanced and diverse team requires a comprehensive understanding of individual competencies and how they contribute to the overall team dynamic. This includes assessing technical skills (programming knowledge, domain expertise, and problem-solving capabilities), soft skills (eg. communication, collaboration, empathy, adaptability) and personal traits (integrity, accountability, resilience, a growth mindset and cultural fit).
Diversity of Thought and Working Styles
A high-performing development team should embrace diversity in thought, background, and working styles to foster innovative product work and problem-solving. More diverse teams are able to generate more creative solutions to complex challenges, identify potential pitfalls and biases in software design, improve decision-making by integrating different perspective, and through different Communication Styles and Emotional Intelligence (EQ) be more intentional around human-computer interaction. As effective communication is the backbone of any successful team. Developers should be able to articulate their ideas clearly, especially in written form eg. in Slack. High emotional intelligence can enable devs to navigate interpersonal relationships and manage their own emotions, although most devs are high in disagreeableness (meaning they’re likely to not be high in EQ).
Soft Skills and Competencies
Good devs should have solid soft skills and character traits, such as:
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Adaptability for embracing change, learning from setbacks.
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Perseverance to solve problems.
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Collaboration ie. communicating and working effectively with others on code and product.
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Disagreeableness, where research shows that the best devs are very disagreeable relative to the general population.
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Aesthetics toward willingness to write neat code
Team Culture Fit, Performance, and Employee Turnover
What also matters for devs (and not only) is culture fit: culture fit refers to how well your values, beliefs, and behaviors align with the team's culture and values. A good culture fit ensures seamless collaboration and a shared vision or mission, or passion for product or the customer problem. Cultural fit fosters innovation and aligns dev teams around resilience for the long-term.
If you’re interested in measuring your own or your team’s personality traits and soft competencies - like working style, communication style, cognitive style, emotional intelligence - as well as company culture preferences, try out these free self-development tools by Gyfted to learn more about yourself and become more self aware.
A strong team culture fit has a direct impact on performance and employee turnover. Enhanced performance is achieved through more engaged team members, and reduced turnover is achieved through alignment and connection.
Ability and Programming Skills
Cognitive ability - the capacity to reason, learn, and solve problems - really matters for more abstract tasks and technical jobs, especially for software developers. Cognitive ability enables devs to understand complex systems, troubleshoot issues, and learn new technologies quickly. It’s one of the reasons for an over prevalence of people on the autism spectrum - who are often mathematically and cognitively gifted - to enjoy and perform well in math, engineering and programming. Assessing cognitive ability alongside programming skills ensures that developers have the intellectual horsepower to tackle complex, technical and challenging projects.
Building a successful developer team requires evaluating technical skills obviously, but also: soft skills, character traits, and the balance of culture fit and culture add. By assembling a diverse team with complementary competencies, you can create a collaborative, innovative engineering environment for high performance in the long-run.
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