#hiring #interview #technical #DanielHindi #business #TechnicalInterview Problem Question? So you need to hire a developer but you don’t know where to start and you don't know how to check if they’re any good This is Daniel Hindi and today I’m going to give you some handy tips to hire a dev when you’re not technical Do you have a project and you're ready to hire your first developer the problem is you're not technical so you don't even know where to begin and if you found developers you have no idea if they're any good. And if you do hire a developer how do I know if their work is any good or not I have 5 techniques Give solution points Define The work you want done Define the person you’d like to work with Gather Candidates https://cogentstep.com

#Hiring #Outsource #RemoteTeams #startup #DanielHindi - "Daniel Hindi" Hiring? How to source your candidates? How to assess their skills? Should I use Recruiters? Where do I find Candidates? Should I outsource? Hiring is the worst. Its only second to firing. Understaffed then, Rushed to hire? There is a lot to go over so we will be creating a Multi-part episode How to source talent, And how not to settle Should I use Recruiters? Bad recruiters vs Good You’ll be paying 18 and 35% Example profiles on linkedin have them Screening Ask your devs Have a tech exam Ask for portfolio Try it yourself, Linkedin, Indeed, Dice Point #2 Always be hiring Whether there is a position or not You may find hidden talent Helps you gauge your current team Have your devs help with the process Point #3 Score your interviews TOPGRADING BOOK! Screen Soft skills Technical Skills Confidence levels Listen to feedback but hear the hidden message Point #4 Outsourcing There are skill ranges that cross borders Dont compare highest in the US to lowest overseas Make sure there is nothing lost in translation. There is something to be gained being in the office Golden ration. Point #4 B - Partners Talk about point If you need a burst of help If software development isnt your core offering like IoT. The hidden costs of managing a team Outsourcing can be with local partners Example BuildFire Point #5 Should I hire specialists Talk about point Early general Latter specialist https://cogentstep.com startup, software development, project management

#Business #Startup #Leadership #Hiring #DanielHindi #CogentStep How to Fire and get a thank you? Have a problem? You have a team that you're on the fence about? is there a particular person that just isn't cutting it? Considering letting them go or give them one more chance? Hi I’m Daniel Hindi Welcome message This is Daniel Hindi and today we are going to talk about How to Fire and get a thank you So you made some Mediocre hires or maybe you and I inherited a team. And you’re reaching the end of your patients. You want things to work out but it doesn't look like it will Define What is an A Player Define roles and responsibilities 5 Pillars of success (Measurable Objective) Ask them for what they need What are their goals Feedback scorecard (trends) Coaching Ownership Teach them how to fish (wait what?) Ask them If you were given more time what would you do better? Why didnt you? Help them define the bar Acknowledgment Performance plans What is an A Player? Talk about point First off if you want A players you need to define what an A player is I don't use I'll know one when I see one technique really put down ink on paper a well defined list of characteristics you are looking for what are the soft skills what are the hard skills What is an A Player? Talk about point Define roles and responsibilities 5 Pillars of success (Measurable Objective) Ask them for what they need What are their goals Feedback scorecard (trends) Coaching Ownership Have them own something they can be proud of Have a portion of your business, product, system whatever that they own they own end to end Have them be a part of the roadmap discussions have them come up with solutions to friction points Suggest enhancements Prioritize Let them have a better understanding the business logic Have them report on success Ownership Have them own something they can be proud of You may ask this isnt part of the job description. Well, ask yourself what is frustrainting with your B and C Player. Do you utter the phrase “They just dont get it”? Well thats why. Its not a wait for their time. Whatever time they are putting in is gained back in the long run because you are iterating less to get it right It gives you your time back. Which I am guess is worth more, no? Meaning Why do we exist Its extremely important they your team understands the meaning of their work and why they matter Moving boxes ??? vs feeding hungry Understanding customer stories And even customer support Teach them how to fish Talk about point (wait what?) When they come to you with questions. Don’t give them Answers. Now this doesn't mean don't have answers Guide them to the answer so they are less depended on you Have them make a decision Allow them to Fail But let them own it. Blame vs Responsibility Define the bar Could you do better? Ask them If you were given more time what would you do better? Why didnt you? Help them define the bar Why didnt you? Now that you know properties and ownership Acknowledgment (prize vs praise) Thank you goes a long way Performance Plan Now that you've defined their responsibilities and breaking it down into measurable KPI's you've coached him on why their job is important you given them autonomy and ownership of a product and you've acknowledged them. And you're holding periodic coaching sessions where you are scoring their KPI's and the data still indicates that they are not doing well then it's time to put them into a performance plan where they have 30 days 60 days 90 days to perform otherwise they are going to: Lose their job vs get fired. There is a difference I want you to keep your job I'm doing everything in my power for you to keep your job but you are losing it. I'm in to your office they know what's going to happen and they know why and they know you've done everything in your power to make it work

#Growth #Business #Startup #DanielHindi Have a team that is, meh. Good Enough? Want a team full of A-Player Superstars? This is Daniel Hindi and today we are going to talk about how to upgrade your team from a bunch of "B" players to "A" Players So you made some Mediocre hires or maybe you and I inherited a team. And while you don't think you want to get rid of them all and start over you wish you had a stronger team if they were just shape up. More passion more zeal Summary: - Define What is an A Player - Define roles and responsibilities - 5 Pillars of success (Measurable Objective) - Ask them for what they need - What are their goals - Feedback scorecard (trends) - Coaching - Ownership - Teach them how to fish (wait what?) - Allow them to Fail - Ask them If you were given more time what would you do better? Why didn't you? - Help them define the bar - Acknowledgment (prize vs praise) - Teach them Leadership - Performance plans While you're taught your craft through school and experience no one really teaches you management and if they do it's usually through bad example. So it's up to you to really dig through and see what management style works best for you and for your employees. I was in the same boat and so I began really digging into many books that are out there some giving more effective advice than others and then put it into practice to see what worked for me. And while this topic was vast a big portion of it is tied to how you hire and the expectations you set for your employee that should carry-on after their probation. What is an A-Player? Talk about point First off if you want A players you need to define what an A player is I don't use I'll know one when I see one technique really put down ink on paper a well-defined list of characteristics you are looking for what are the soft skills what are the hard skills Talk about point Define roles and responsibilities 5 Pillars of success (Measurable Objective) Ask them for what they need What are their goals Feedback scorecard (trends) Coaching Ownership Have them own something they can be proud of Have a portion of your business, product, system whatever that they own end to end Have them be a part of the roadmap discussions have them come up with solutions to friction points Suggest enhancements Prioritize Let them have a better understanding the business logic Have them report on success Ownership Have them own something they can be proud of You may ask this isn't part of the job description. Well, ask yourself what is frustrating with your B and C Player. Do you utter the phrase “They just don't get it”? Well, that's why. Its not a waist for their time. Whatever time they are putting in is gained back in the long run because you are iterating less to get it right It gives you your time back. Which I am guessing, is worth more, no? Meaning Why do we exist Its extremely important that your team understands the meaning of their work and why they matter Moving boxes ??? vs feeding hungry Understanding customer stories And even customer support Teach them how to fish Talk about point (wait what?) When they come to you with questions. Don’t give them Answers. Now this doesn't mean don't have answers Guide them to the answer so they are less depended on you Have them make a decision Allow them to Fail But let them own it. Blame vs Responsibility Define the bar Could you do better? Ask them If you were given more time what would you do better? Why didn't you? Help them define the bar Why didn't you? Now that you know properties and ownership Acknowledgment (prize vs praise) Thank you goes a long way Some bonuses work Some prizes work for busywork Performance Plan (prize vs praise) Now that you've defined their responsibilities and breaking it down into measurable KPI's you've coached him on why their job is important you give them autonomy and ownership of a product and you've acknowledged them. And you're holding periodic coaching sessions where you are scoring their KPI's and the data still indicates that they are not doing well then it's time to put them into a performance plan where they have 30 days 60 days 90 days to perform otherwise they are going to: Lose their job vs get fired. There is a difference I want you to keep your job I'm doing everything in my power for you to keep your job but you are losing it. I'm into your office they know what's going to happen and they know why and they know you've done everything in your power to make it work entrepreneurship software development project management

#RemoteTeams #ProjectManagement #Business #Start #DanielHindi Being able to manage remote work and remote teams is more important than ever. Unfortunate Current Events Globalization Outsourcing International teams Daniel Hindi explains HOW TO MASTER REMOTE TEAMS So why are remote teams not our go-to strategy when hiring a workforce? I've been dealing with at least a mix of local and remote workforce my entire career so I can tell you the advantages and disadvantages of what I found. Performance / Focus Transparency Availability Misaligned Vision The problem is your process The truth of the matter is these are all signs of a vulnerable process that relies too heavily on environment to self-correct. “Is John working?” All I have to do is look over to his desk What is John working on? All I have to do is look over John shoulder However we all know just because you're at your desk and have a spreadsheet up on this case code doesn't mean you're actually working or at least not working effectively I know this problem. I live this problem. I've solved this problem. Through experimentation research and reading a ton of books I figured out what works best for me and guess what it probably works best for you to I get asked all the time how do you manage so many developers that are thousands of miles away many of which you've never met personally and still get results? And if you see my other videos you know I always talk about the golden ratio of local resources versus remote resources and to be clear I do encourage a mixture of both however we don't always have that luxury. So where do we begin addressing this issue? 1-It Starts with you Yes you Good thing is that you’re already watching this video Own this initiative Discipline for your team starts with you You need to start being Punctual. Start and End meetings on time. Hold up the process 2- Communication Slack, Skype, whatever Remember the part where I mentioned we rely on our environment? Why do we have open office concepts? Its for the Serendipitous information that happens by being on close proximity to others Others are people, not “Resources” All hands meetings Alignment on mission and vision Inter-Department communication Visibility to your efforts end to end 3- Process Do you need a process that encourages productivity transparency and accountability Agile Daily Standups Standardize, Ritualize, Optimize Don’t reward hard work with more hard work Autonomy Accountability Clear and measurable results (SMART) Retrospectives Team Spirit: Win together and lose together 4- Coaching It's so easy to forget to nurture your team and coach them individually when you don't see them face-to-face every day One one One coaching What did you do well What can you improve Pillars of success Challenge them Acknowledgment

#GOALS #SMART #Business #Startup #DanielHindi #SetGoals SMART Objectives We all can set goals but are we all achieving them? too many of us set goals for ourselves and our businesses yet too few actually achieve them. And it's not always from a lack of effort. Hello I’m Daniel Hindi Welcome message This is Daniel Hindi and today we are going to talk about How to actually achieve our elusive goals The problem isn't the goal Its a lake of objectives While finding the right goals are important they're usually not the reason why we're not achieving them. Most skip or confuse the next step which is defining your objectives that help you achieve your goal and if they do to find their objectives they're not smart objectives Early on in my career, I used to suffer from the same problem until I finally figured out how to start achieving my goals years later when I really started digging into the wealth of knowledge is available at our fingertips through the Internet and books at large that a man called Peter Drucker Created a system called smart objectives I could've save me years of struggling to figure it out on my own. Hey I'm going to explain this system to you and how to implement it 1- Goals vs Objectives Aren’t they the same? no. Before SMART objectives, Define your goal Goals are outcomes Objectives are how to achieve those outcomes Bad Goals: Make more money Good Goals: I want to be the #1 choice for my customers If you are struggling with this point please do watch “Start with WHY” - Simon Sinek Objectives are how we get there. Example: if our goal was “be the #1 choice for my customers in my category” then objectives would be: Increase trust in my Brand Provide 24/7 support Cut bug log in half 2- What are S.M.A.R.T. Objectives Acronym Specific – outline a clear statement the defines what is required. Measurable – A clear unit of measurement (preferably numerical) that can identify progress and completion of the objective. Achievable – objectives must be challenging, yet achievable. Where you are happy with the outcome and your team is willing to commit to it. Realistic - Managers focus on outcomes let the team focus on initiatives that achieving them Timely - A date of achievement must agree on and meet. 3- KPI’s Key Performance Indicators If you're going to concern yourself with outcomes, and your team with initiatives to achieve those outcomes You need to identify key performance indicators that are easily measured to see if you're on track for each initiative or not. This will help you with your overall measurements. The M in SMART So if one of our objectives was to Reduce bug by half then your KPI would be very easy to measure weekly and even daily If your objective was to increase trust in the brand then you need to break that into a smart objective which is something like getting three customer testimonials and host them on our website You can see how one is subjective while the other is objective 4- Autonomy Own your part If we delegating how do achieve our outcomes to our team we have to give them the autonomy to be able to achieve those outcomes in the way they best see fit sometimes if we Micromanage we get in the way of our team achieving your objectives. We also give them an excuse to blame us even though they would never do it to our face if they don't achieve their objective 5- Accountability You have to hold your team responsible After we read the find our goal set smart objectives clear KPI's and how to measure the initiatives taken to achieve our objectives then giving our team the autonomy to work on their initiatives it's time for us to place accountability on our team it starts with putting a meeting on your calendar at the end of the allocated time whether that was a month or a quarter to review everyone's objectives. The idea is not to have everybody on the chopping block, As your neck maybe one of them. The idea is to make sure we hold each other responsible for our portions of the business Recap Summarize points Define your goal Have SMART Objectives KPI’s for initiatives Autonomy for your team Accountability software development startup cogent step tech project management

#Business #Startup #Funding #DanielHindi #CogentStep How to develop your Idea - Daniel Hindi Do you have an idea burning in your brain and you've always wanted to create a business around it? Do you have a difficult time articulating the idea? Do your friends and family get it? Are you not sure or feel something is missing? There is the Stanford NABC method (Need, Approach, Benefit, Competition ) 1- Problem and opportunity What is the market need Is there demand? Can you generate demand? Think Smartphones Is it your need? Must have or like to have What is your niche 2- Competitive Advantage How are you different? Are there Existing competitors? How will you beat them? You can't be just a me-too How will you gain market share if you’re late to the game 3- Is it Defendable Make it hard to replicate If you have a new idea Is it defensible? Do you have IP Relationships Strategy 4- Go to market strategy How to launch Timing FB, Flywheel vs others Chicken and the egg problem Brick and mortar or virtual Digital Marketing vs Gorilla or boh Freemium or not Undercut price may be cheaper than marketing **** Challenge ******* A town with two successful Italian restaurants Do you A) open another B) open something different? 5- Financials How to make money Is the problem worth solving Good ideas don't always make money. At least not in the beginning Think Twitter and Linkedin If you think you’re going to be the next Amazon or Uber good luck Red, black, green 6- Can it Scale If you’re the secret, you dont scale Is it dependent on humans (you) Do your costs increase, decrease or Plateau What new challenges do you face Can it cross markets and demographics 7- Is it versatile and resilient Think blockbuster, Barns & Noble Think Car alarms, obsolete Think iPhone accessories dependent on the connector tech , software development,cogent step

#DanielHindi #AppBuilder #MobileApps #AppDevelopment #CogentStep Daniel Hindi explains the 5 ways to build a Mobile App. Mobile app development is not easy even compare to web development the challenges facing you are much greater. That being said it can be done and needs to be done in this ever-competitive market. I'm going to tell you the five ways you can build a mobile app When I first started building mobile apps they were only two ways to do so and one was for iOS and the other was for android. Today you have many more options available to you. Before we begin I want to explain the landscape: The 4 quadrants As you can see in this diagram there are two major ask is that we are going to write our different techniques to build mobile apps from being extremely technical to savvy, from very customizable to Rigid Type 1: Low-Level Code Swift and Java Difficulty: High Flexibility: High This is low-level code you need to be highly technical the benefit is it's extremely customizable but also extremely expensive to develop Type 2: Hybrid Apps Appcelerator, Cordova, Ionic, React Native Difficulty: Medium-High Flexibility: Medium- High These apps are built usually using JavaScript-based technology that allows you to build your app using a single code base and deploy it to both iOS and android Type 3: RAD Out Systems, Koney, Kenvy Difficulty: Medium Flexibility: Medium Rapid app development frameworks allow you to build mobile applications using a graphical user interface that allows you to drag and drop existing functionality to build custom maps Type 4: Cookie Cutters Good Barber, Bizapps Difficulty: Low Flexibility: Low These are highly user-friendly builders that allow you to use the existing functionality to build mobile apps you basically take what exists and just customize it for yourself the problem there is that if you need something that doesn't exist, you're sort of SOL Type 5: BuildFire Full Disclosure I’m the CTO I don't want this to sound like a shameful plug however the fact that the fourth quadrant was empty for the longest time is why I and my partners built a build fire platform it has all the flexibility of hybrid apps As well as the ease-of-use of prebuilt functionality that you can put together with an intuitive user interface. It really is the best of all options. However, in the spirit of being unbiased bill far is probably not the right platform for you if you're building an app for augmented reality or the next first-person shooter game https://cogentstep.com

#DanielHindi #AppDevelopment #Startup #Business #CogentStep Daniel Hindi points out 5 decision points you want to consider BEFORE building your next app. * Leave a comment for me below on which platform you chose to use to develop your app and give me a sentence or two on why. https://cogentstep.com Developing an app used to be very difficult and you only had a few ways to do it nowadays there’s a lot more tools templates components and options so it’s best to understand the mall to see what’s right for you 1. Platforms Understand the landscape there is iOS and android and now you want to consider a PWA 2. Team You need an iOS developer an android developer and a web developer PWA or other services 3. Infrastructure Hosting your data, authentication and business logic 4. Services There are many services that you can tap into from AWS cloud hosting, analytics, push notifications, CDN's, etc 5. Tools You can buy seems components and frameworks to help speed up your development. You could also use technologies like hybrid apps and when those are best used. You can also use rapid development tools like BuildFire App Development, mobile apps, software development, tech startup, business

#Startup #Business #DanielHindi #CogentStep Daniel Hindi shares his story about his first startup. The humble journey is meant to encourage you in your journey to get out there and try. https://cogentstep.com

#SoftwareDevelopment #startup #ProjectManagement #DanielHindi #AppDevelopment cogent step Daniel Hindi breaks down 10 steps you need to take to build any mobile app successfully. Site: https://cogentstep.com 1- Clear goals This will serve as your functional spec When building any software it’s easy to get lost in the weeds make sure that you set aside clear goals that you want to achieve these can be problems statements that serve as your Northstar anything you’re doing, especially in the early stages that aren’t solving these core problems should be considered a later phase. 2- Wireframes Talk about point Think of it as if you’re building a house before you start construction don’t you want to make sure that you have blueprints User journey 3- High fidelity mockups Just like a house now you want to see a 3-D rendering of what it would look like so that you can hold your contractors to that image and you leave no room for interpretation 4- Tech spec This isn’t the most glamorous back but it’s very important. Think of this as your civil engineering side. This is extremely important to measure twice and cut once because reflecting your code later is expensive. 5- Build versus Buy If it’s already out there no need to build it You can have carpenters build all your doors and kitchen cabinets or you could just buy them Now that you have your technical challenges all written down in a spec consider purchasing any templates components frameworks or services that may speed up your development and reduce your technical debt 6- Start Dev with a process Consider learning an agile development methodology so that you can help manage your developers Do you want to make sure that you put a system with measurable and achievable milestones that are small and frequent to give you agility as well as transparency so you can measure progress 7- QA If you have QA let them test things out It’s extremely important to realize that developers are horrible quality assurance resources. In a perfect world, developers will develop with no flaws in their code however that’s not going to happen so you need a quality assurance owner they can make sure everything is tested before it’s released 8- Deploy Iterations Don’t fall into the trap of trying to have every bell and whistle complete before you deploy to production make sure you have the mission-critical path complete and then deploy often and frequently so that you can get real-time feedback from the ones who matter the most, your customers 9- Measure success Make sure that you have clear and measurable metrics to claim success on every lunch and then actually follow up one of these metrics have been hit or not so that you are measuring how effective your efforts are 10- Gather Feedback Don’t be afraid to reach out to see customers to make sure that you are keeping a close year on what your customers need Don’t be afraid of polarizing your customers you need people to either love you or hate you being lukewarm doesn’t help anyone

#DanielHindi #NewBusiness #SoftwareDevelopment #SoftwareCost #Startup Are you starting a new project and getting quotes all over the board? Are you worried that the expensive quote is highway robbery? Or are you worried that the cheap quote won’t deliver? In this episode, learn how to best price out your project when shopping around for developers. Site: https://www.cogentstep.com/ Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/cogentstep/ Follow us on Twitter: @DanielHindi

#DanielHindi #SoftwareDevelopment #Startup Daniel Hindi Explains 5 hidden expenses you need to consider before you build your next software.

#DanielHindi #Business #SoftwareDevelopment #SoftwareEngineering #tech Daniel Hindi will teach you what it takes to build custom software and why software engineering and the costs behind it. Software Developers, QA Quality Assurance, Designers and Project managers all add up. Link to the sheet used in the video https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LqaofDJsoaEzQGpNaxV8WllCWM064cWmjQIYdwGfhKE/edit?usp=sharing Article: https://www.cogentstep.com/post/why-is-software-development-so-expensive project management, software development, new technology 2020

#DanielHindi #Business #CogentStep Learn what you need to consider before developing your next software. Especially as a Startup, you need to ask yourself should I Build vs Buy. Software Development has many hidden costs that need to be anticipated. Daniel Hindi walks you through 3 questions you need to ask yourself when making your decision. - Is it business - Just because I can, should I? - Is there a hybrid solution? Site: https://CogentStep.com https://buildfire.com

#DanielHindi #COVID19 #Business Is your business at a complete stop? Are you ready to weather the storm for 3, 6, 18 months? Next time this happens will you be ready? Learn how at https://cogentstep.com Daniel Hind and his team of experts can help you weather the storm and get through these tough times stronger than ever.

#DanielHindi #Agile #SCRUM Daily scrum meetings can be mundane as a scrum master when dealing with software development and project management in new tech. Daniel Hindi explains 3 simple steps to maximize your daily standups when managing your development team. https://cogentstep.com

Daniel Hindi answers 5 common questions about things that can go wrong when managing your developers using Agile SCRUM. 5 Common project management problems and how to solve them: - Estimates are off - Developers are lazy - Priorities keep changing - Prod support is too big - Lopsided resources #DanielHindi #Agile #SCRUM

Daniel Hindi explains how to run your projects smoothly using a daily scrum meeting for predictably and with agility. Project management is crucial for any project's success. As a scrum master, you need to master this skill when managing software development or any other project for that matter. 5 techniques - Scrum backlog - Steering - Build a sprint - Standups - Retrospective - Scrum Curveballs #DanielHindi #SCRUM #Agile #CogentStep

Learn how to break up your projects into manageable components and chip away at it to achieve your goals. Get motivated for your next software development project and learn project management with Daniel Hindi Site: https://cogentstep.com #DanielHindi #startup #business

Cogent Step is a coaching tool made by an industry veteran Daniel Hindi meant to take you through clear and logical steps to manage your Tech projects, teams, product, and business. Explained in plain English. If you're managing developers or a developer yourself, we have something for you. #DanielHindi #LeanStartup #BusinessGrowth project management software development grow your business