I wrote two articles last year on Growing your Software Team, the first was the more obvious (add bodies), the second was not so clear (grow by skills, career, succession).
At some point, you need to do both.
Growing by Body isn’t hard, you interview, you ask questions, you select a candidate, you make an offer and you hire.
Growing by Skill requires mentorship, guidance, coaching, planning, training, One-On-Ones, discussions, feedback (not validation), and patience.
We default to Growing by Body because it’s easier when we should be defaulting to Growing By Skill, not to overload our team but to ensure they have a path and a way forward.
