Luc Adamson’s Post

Lottie have hired a number of excellent engineers in 2024 🎉 The team has doubled in size and over this extended hiring period, i’ve been reminded about some of the traits that make great engineers. 👷 Product minded engineers. Its always been a start-up thing… but perhaps even more so now? The added collaboration, ownership and empathy for users, leads to a better product that customers love. With teams getting more agile, they can bring even more value. 👉 One question we’ve been asking: What’s your favourite product? From an engineering perspective what makes it successful and how could it be improved? ➡️ This helps to test their ability to evaluate a products value, its UX and technical underpinnings. 🙋 An emphasis on ‘ownership’. The phrase you build it you run it, is a culture that empowers engineers and encourages initiative, proactivity and (in theory) better delivery in both speed and quality. 👉 Screening for this is key. One way we do it: Can you describe a time when you took full responsibility for a project from start to finish?” What was the business impact of the project? ➡️ Look for details about how they planned, executed, and resolved challenges. The additional focus on business impact, helps to understand whether an engineer takes 'ownership' of their results / impact. 🧠 Passion and a growth mindset. Its a key trait in most start-up functions, but perhaps even more so in engineering. Technology is by definition innovative and a desire to learn new things, technologies, approaches can boost ones own productivity, but also positively impact those around them. This might be a new language, using AI or a different tool. 👉 Something we ask: What was the last new thing you taught yourself? ➡️ Pretty self explanatory. There are of course many others, but in our eyes the above traits really do help contribute to high performing start-up engineering teams. What other questions do interviewers use when speaking to engineers?