A Formula for Scaling Product Engineering Teams
The Fundamental Equation of Product Engineering
I like formulas. They simplify complexity in systems. They, of course, oversimplify, but like the Fundamental Equation of SaaS, they crisply convey the core problem you need to solve.
BuildersOrg Scalability=
engineering(x) • productManagement(y) • architecture(z)
Another way of putting that is…
Your Performance=
How you build • What your Build • Where you Build
Simply put, it’s the amount of raw engineering throughput applied to quality product decisions implemented on your architecture. To obtain good output in your Builders organization, you need to:
- Write software well
- Know what to write
- An architecture that supports the vision from Product while also provide scaffolding for engineering
The other thing to note in the formula is that the operand is multiplicative, not additive. This means a low level of scalability in any of the terms will impact overall scalability. So to increase throughput, you have to increase scalability… but what does that mean?
