In our Medium story Dollarize your way to better decisions, we discussed the importance of: Estimating hard numbers for the parameters that are important in your decisions. Those hard numbers need to be in common terms: dollars. Avoiding point estimates in favor of ranges and distributions. Using those distributions to get realistic estimates about the variety of possible outcomes. That all sounds good, but how do you actually do it?… Read More
Getting technical and business teams together
One challenging decision we often see with software companies is whether to invest in fixing a legacy code base or to invest in adding new features. Usually a company’s business or product management team is eager to keep adding features (because they add value), but frequently engineering teams claim to need time to “make repairs” on existing software. What to do? One client who approached Essilen Research was a technical… Read More
Making great hiring decisions
A software development firm with 80 people (40 of whom where developers) contacted us for help with their technical hiring process. The last few hires had been contentious: the hiring team had polarized opinions on a few candidates, which led them to question what sorts of characteristics they were hiring for in the first place. After discussing with their CTO and head of HR, together we decided on a plan:… Read More
How big should my team be: measuring engineering efficiency
One of the questions we often get asked at Essilen Research is “How do I know if my staff is the right size?”. Companies of all sizes struggle with this. Young companies need guidance on when to slow their rapid early growth. Mature companies wonder if a reduction in workforce would be warranted, and if so, how much is right? One client in particular was an executive at a ~100… Read More
