The Big Nerd Ranch Blog

In this series, we have looked at what it takes to build a great Engineering Team. This post is going to be a little different as we chat with Angie Terrell to get some of her thoughts on the topics shared thus far. Angie is the director of the Design team at Big Nerd Ranch, where she is also a Design Bootcamp instructor. Angie has been leading the Design team for over three years now and continues to push Big Nerd Ranch to excellence in all of the disciplines of Design for Digital Product Development.

In this series, we have looked at what it takes to build a great Engineering Team. This post is going to be a little different as we chat with Chris Stewart to get some of his thoughts on the topics shared thus far. Chris is the director of the Android team at Big Nerd Ranch, where he is also an Android Bootcamp instructor. Chris co-authored the best selling Big Nerd Ranch guide on Android Programming and has been leading the Android Engineering team for over five years.

Part of building something great is building it to last. No one builds a home for a season, and the same is true for your Engineering team. Retaining your team for the long haul is no easy task, but it is imperative that as a leader it is a priority. Let’s take a look at a few things you can do to retain your excellent Engineering team.

Are you hiring with character in mind? Are you too focused on skill and find yourself overlooking traits that clash with your values? Knowing where you are on these fronts will go a long way in helping you build a great team.

When you inherit a team you inherit not only the people but you also get the culture and any baggage that comes along with that. It is imperative as leaders inheriting a team that we assess where we are so we can know where we need to go.

Because a great team is composed of a diverse group of individuals who are all leading themselves well. If you want to see any behavior in your team you have to first see it in yourself. Be what you want to see.