When running a digital marketplace, publishers might eventually need the assistance of a software engineer, or even an entire team of engineers. For example, your business might require an in-house engineering team to build a large-scale marketplace. You may need to hire a temporary external team of only engineers to correct a one-off issue within that marketplace. Or, perhaps you’ll have need of a holistic team –engineers, account support, tailored insights, and more– to build out a world-class marketplace ad program: a group of true partners to assist on every step of the road ahead. No matter your unique business needs, there’s a lot to consider when selecting an engineering team. How do you vet an engineering team’s skills? What capabilities and specialties should you look for? How do you gauge a team’s ability to quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively meet your needs? But identifying a solid team of engineering partners doesn’t have to be a daunting task. We’ve put together a quick and handy guide to the top 4 things you’ll want to consider when meeting potential software engineering partners. Core Skills A software engineer, or team, should first and foremost provide high-quality code for your business. This is a collaborative effort that requires thorough testing and ensuing revision. Without technical expertise on your teams, this may be a challenge to assess. Have your candidates speak to their processes; you should find a strong theme around confidence. A quality engineering team will leave your core code structurally stronger than it was when they started, and will contribute meaningfully to your program’s growth. 3 Questions to Assess Core Skills What are your team’s top two coding languages? What is your process for creating and refining code? Across your team, who does the most coding? The least? How many hours do those people spend per day coding? When they’re not coding, what are their other responsibilities? Variety of Talent An impactful engineering team will likely consist of junior, mid-level, and senior engineers. With varying skill and experience levels, communication across the team is key. You want to be sure your team is aligned internally and is efficient in assigning out tasks. Look for a wide variety of language expertise, architecture knowledge, and full-stack proficiency. Just as important, pay attention for signs that mentorship and standards are commonplace among team members. 3 Questions to Assess Variety of Talent What is everyone working on right now? What’s the most important thing your senior engineers look for when reviewing juniors’ code? Do junior engineers feel comfortable reviewing others’ code, as well, including senior engineers? How do junior engineers learn and grow their skills? Conversely, how do senior engineers continue their own learning and development? A Solid Portfolio What projects has the engineering team successfully completed recently? Who were those projects for? What were some challenges that arose, and how did they solve those challenges? These key learnings from past projects will undoubtedly help you figure out if a dev team’s approach is a good fit for your business. You may even ask the team how they might adapt a past project to fit your needs as a discussion topic to understand their capabilities. 3 Questions to Assess a Portfolio What does project management and flow look like among the group? Do you perform white and black box testing on each project? Why or why not? What metrics does your team use to measure a project’s success? Can you share some numbers from recent projects? Desire to Learn and Grow Inevitably, when new groups of people collaborate professionally, roadblocks will arise. One person thinks a problem should be solved a certain way, while someone else proposes an alternative approach. For a software engineering team to be truly effective, curiosity and a growth mindset are key requirements. It’s okay to approach an issue from multiple viewpoints; what matters is that your engineers can come together to identify a solid solution. 3 Questions to Assess Desire to Learn and Grow What are some core principles that make up a good software engineering team? What’s a skill you’d like your team to develop in the coming months? Describe a project that did not go to plan, and what you learned from it. Keep all of these factors in mind as you meet with groups, and you’ll have a spectacular team in place in no time. Questions? The experts at Koddi would love to help. Categories Featured , Technology