VPE at Hinge: scaled eng team to 70 and app to millions
I’ve been consulting and building tech products for 14 years. I was the VP of Engineering at Hinge and spent six years there, building the team and scaling the app from zero users to millions. Before that, I was a Technical Lead at Yeti (a tech consultancy) where I built two apps featured as Best New App on the App Store, and in the distant past I was a Senior Consultant at Booz & Company doing strategy consulting.
Problems I can help with
Strategy
Capabilities and trade-offs. Evaluating what is possible and what trade-offs (quality, speed, cost, etc.) are required.
Achieving scale. Recommending service architecture and data architecture that will allow your company to scale without getting bogged down in over-engineering.
Tech debt and refactoring. Understanding the true cost of technical debt and planning right-sized refactors.
Team and culture
Hiring. Identifying necessary skills for new hires. Implementing a proven hiring process, including conducting interviews and training existing team members on how to hire.
Organizational design. Structuring your team for success at different sizes depending on company goals.
Engineering levels and evaluation matrix. Formalizing levels that will scale with your company.
Compensation. Creating and communicating fair, industry-benchmarked compensation that solves for new hires, existing employees, and tricky equity situations.
Leveling up technical leaders. Coaching and mentoring existing leaders who are talented but inexperienced.
Planning, delivery, and quality
Goal-setting. Identifying KPIs and setting ambitious, realistic goals that marry company value with individual desires and development.
Roadmapping and planning. Setting up quarterly and annual planning processes that have buy-in and utility.
Quality and reliability. Reducing downtime and engineer burnout by improving incident management and diagnosing reliability problems.
Process and communication. Improving collaboration and communication between in-company stakeholders and with customers.
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