How I Build a Tech Strategy and Team from Zero
Every tech leader faces this situation at least once: You join a company that has outsourced everything to vendors and needs to build up internal capabilities.
Here's how I approached this challenge, avoiding common pitfalls and focusing on what matters.
Why Build Internal Tech Capabilities?
Let's start with the obvious question: Why even bothering building internal tech capacity?
Here are the real reasons that matter:
- Vendor dependency creates strategic bottlenecks
- Custom requirements lead to expensive change requests
- Time-to-market suffers from coordination overhead
But just knowing why isn't enough. You need a clear path forward.
The Foundation: Tech Philosophy
Before hiring a single developer, you need a tech philosophy.
Here's mine:
- Use "boring" technology that works
- Keep boring technology that works
- Have one tech stack for everyone, move slowly there
- Build where it matters strategically, buy where it doesn't
- Minimize complexity at all costs
- Focus on business value, not tech for tech's sake
This philosophy helps tremendously when making decisions later. Should we build our own CMS? Probably not. Custom checkout flow? Maybe yes, if it's a core differentiator.
The 90-Day Foundation Phase
The first 90 days are crucial. Here's what I will focus on:
- Technology audit
- Document all systems, flows, actors, and dependencies
- Identify high- and lowlights of current implementation
- Identify strategic vs. commodity systems
- Understand current costs
- Deliver improvements instantly myself
- Identify quick wins
- Implement, document, train improvements
- Hire the core team
- Define 1-3 initial roles needed
- Create realistic job descriptions
- Spread the word, start the interview process (focus on strategic match)
- Set up governance
- Set up and share technology strategy ("Where do we go?")
- Establish development practices
- Define vendor collaboration model
- Share, get feedback, adjust, repeat x3
The Trap of Moving Too Fast
Don't try to change everything at once. It's tempting to immediately start building your dream tech stack, but that's a recipe for disaster. Instead:
- Maintain working core
- Start change with non-critical systems
- Keep vendors around during transition, but adjust contracts to include knowledge transfer
- Document everything you learn
Measuring Success
How do you know if you're on the right track? Here are the metrics I track:
- Time to deployment: Should decrease month over month
- System reliability: Should stay stable or improve
- Cost per feature: Should trend downward
- Vendor dependency: Should gradually decrease
Team Topology Who would I hire first?
- Pragmatic Senior Full Stack Developer with business acumen (to bridge the gap between today and tomorrow)
- Specialist for vendor software (for maintenance)
The Long Game
Building a tech organization is a marathon, not a sprint. Plan for 24 months minimum to get to a stable state. Focus on:
- Steady progress for inhouse stack over quick wins
- Knowledge building over feature shipping
- Team culture over tool choices
- Business value over technical perfectionism
The key takeaway? Building a tech organization isn't about the technology – it's about the approach. Start small, stay focused, and always tie back to business value.
It's okay to be boring with technology choices as long as you're exciting with business outcomes.