Building Dev Culture with Alan Haefele

Play Time 44 min

Alan Haefele

Building Dev Culture with Alan Haefele

In this episode, hosts Guy and Harley interview Alan Haefele, CEO at Haefele Software, about his recent achievements and frustrations, the company origin story, and his vision for scaling culture.

What we talked about:

- Delivery, coaching, and business outcomes
- Haefele’s origin story from 1 to 50
- Culture, past, and future
- What’s next at Haefele

How to Build a Startup: The First 50 Employees

To grow from one employee to 50 in 15 years takes an immense amount of change. What will it take to grow to 100?

In this episode, hosts Guy and Harley interview Alan Haefele, CEO at Haefele Software, about his recent achievements and frustrations, the company origin story, and his vision for scaling culture.

“Our tagline right now is building dev teams that deliver or fixing those that don’t,” Alan said. But what, exactly, does it mean to deliver?

P.S.: Haefele is pronounced “playfully” with an H.

Let’s jump right into the conversation!

“When you understand the business outcome, a dev team’s output is not just about how many developers are thrown at it. It’s process, and it’s environment, and it’s culture.” — Alan Haefele

Key Insights

Delivery, coaching, & business outcomes“Delivery” can sound like a fluffy word, but it’s meaningful to Alan. Delivery means focusing on the business outcome to understand what it is you’re actually building. Many consultancies will simply provide the resource they are asked for without exploring what it is that’s being built. Delivery means different things for different clients depending on their actual needs. It could be five devs, it could be engagement, it could be velocity, etc. To deliver business outcomes that have impact takes coaching. Say you provide a tea of four devs who are merely pairs of hands. They struggle with delivery because they aren’t being used to their full effect. “When you understand the business outcome, a dev team's output is not just about how many developers are thrown at it,” Alan said. “It’s process, and it’s environment, and it’s culture.”

Episode Highlights

When you understand the business outcome, a dev team's output is not just about how many developers are thrown at it. It’s process, and it’s environment, and it’s culture.” — Alan Haefele

“Each door seemed to unlock the next and each project was a step.” — Alan Haefele

“Developers are closer to artists and glass blowers and potters and sculptors than people would like to think… It's about the talent which does make us different.” — Alan Haefele