A Full-Stack Web Team Will Provide Much-Needed Breadth And Depth To Your Startup

http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/01/how-to-hire-a-full-stack-web-team/

by vanwilder77 • 14 years ago

18 21 14 years ago

jokull• 14 years ago

Not just for startups. Imagine if companies that have already seen pre-internet growth could attract this talent and apply it to new solutions, otherwise threatening startups ideas. It’s probably easier to ignore the problem of external threats from startups and just raise the walls of market entry.

derrida3• 14 years ago

I call bullshit on recent appropriations of the phrase "full stack".

If you have written a disassembler and known an assembly language, have notable programs in C and what ever higher level languages you are using, and you've written a compiler in the past, cool, I respect that. You are a "full stack developer": any new language is just a tool you pick up. Most technologies become tools you learn to apply from basic principles you have absorbed.

But I see this word get thrown around so often I don't believe people asking for it know it when they see it, or the people claiming they are, are.

mattdeboard2• 14 years ago

And this is the problem with the term. It means something different to everyone. Wordpress ninjas think they're full-stack developers. You've got your definition. I've got mine. Everyone else has their own. It's a meaningless term.

derrida3• 14 years ago

I don't think it is meaningless.

There is a stack.

That stack is in memory.

If you know what every piece of data is doing there and how to access it etc, you know that stack in the context of being able to develop on that stack.

You are a 'full stack developer'.

Or else, have people forgotten what a software stack is? Example: LAMP Linux calls Apache that calls MySQL and PHP/Perl for instance (and for all combinations). "Full stack" here means, you hack kernel code.

Full stack developer is different to full stack user.

adrianhoward4• 14 years ago

There's a phrase in the design world - the unicorn designer.

These are designers needed for the job adverts that require somebody who is a great visual designer and a great user researcher and a great user tester and knows HTML5/CSS and knows JavaScript and knows PHP5 and ...

So called because you're about as likely to find one as you are a unicorn ;-)

There's a need for specialists and generalists on teams. Startups often need more generalists at the start - both because of cost issues and because of the communications overhead that specialists can cause. But trying to hire mythical employees who are excellent at everything is often a... suboptimal approach.

mitchellbryson• 14 years ago

I don't think the unicorn designer myth is true. We exist, there's just lack of people willing to pay for it. I design and develop and still find it difficult to find work. As you mentioned, it's a cost issue.

As an aside, I hate the idea of a visual designer that doesn't know markup, and someone else being responsible for building it - this does not make sense.

philfreo4• 14 years ago

The best designers I've known are also great at HTML/CSS - because great designers should know their medium.

You'll notice in the article I mentioned looking for designers who know HTML/CSS -- but not server-side languages, databases, etc.

swah• 14 years ago

I saw it as a nice counterpoint to frontend people who won't look at server code because they're designers or something.., or backend people who won't care about Javascript because its dynamic...

in that sense I identify with full-stack.

philfreo4• 14 years ago

You forgot... they also have to design the microprocessor!

There's a reasonable limit to every "stack". In this case I'm very clearly talking about "web programming at startups", where assembly programming doesn't have a place 99.99% of the time.

adrianhoward4• 14 years ago

A little bit disappointed that the 'visual designer' is pretty much relegated to making things pretty... UX work is so much more than that. No UX research. No user testing. etc.

The big thing missing from this stack though is what's actually being built? Where are the folk who understand the product and customers and market? Those people need to be part of the team too.

philfreo4• 14 years ago

Yeah - I actually had "UX designer" as a separate role, but decided to leave it out and focus on the more technical / hard deliverable side, since there would also be an argument for including Product Managers, Customer Happiness, Sales, Investors, etc. (ideally all of these roles impact what is built)

mamby• 14 years ago

why are you fighting the reality? where is .NET, Java ...

mcgwiz• 14 years ago

It's hipster journalism. Why are you fighting the reality? ;-)

philfreo4• 14 years ago

there was an "etc." in the original text :)

and this was geared towards smaller startups, where those languages are less popular

A Full-Stack Web Team Will Provide Much-Needed Breadth And Depth To Your Startup

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