As hackers, we’re familiar with the need to scale web servers, databases, and other software systems. An equally important challenge in a growing business is scaling your development team.

Like many folks in the startup crowd, I’m a reader of Eric Ries' blog (some links), and I’ve read Steve Blank’s Four Steps to the Epiphany. What I didn’t know is that these guys have joined forces to build a movement they are calling “lean startups.” After attending the Startup Lessons Learned conference last week, I now believe this methodology is on its way to making a major impact on the world of entrepreneurship.

One way to subdivide a tech startup is between product (technology, engineering, design) and business (marketing, sales, finance). Or perhaps more bluntly: the hackers and the suits.

A do-ocracy is an organizational structure in which individuals choose roles and tasks for themselves and execute them. Responsibilities attach to people who do the work, rather than elected or selected officials.

Michael Lopp writes about his evolution from a developer into a manager of developers. Lots of good stuff here. For example, on meetings:

Sharing values is the most important part of effective collaboration. If you don’t have significant overlap on values between you and your teammates, you’re going to have a tough time getting anything accomplished.

In a slowly changing society, which is to say almost all of human history, older people, while they may not run as fast or even think as fast as younger people, knew more. So it makes sense to have institutional structures in which, on average, older people have authority over younger people.

The best solutions tend to come from people or organizations that are close to the problem. This is true for any complex system: companies, government, and software.

"[Program managers were] the sort of people who eliminated all bullshit within a 10 foot radius of their presence."