A business discussion about two consultants - a developer and a designer scaling into a team of 21 working together to deliver large-scale WordPress implementations. From WordCamp Miami 2013

1. The Dog Who Caught the Car
Growing a dev team
@nickgernert // Voce
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2. Let’s get started...
• A bit about me
• A lot about the team
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3. A bit about me
• From Winter Haven, FL
• Finance graduate from the University of Central Florida
• Developer by desire
• Head Platforms team at
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4. A lot about the team
• Custom app development team
• 21 full-time / 0 freelancers
• Account managers, developers and designers
• Distributed across Florida, NYC, Georgia, Iowa and Utah
• Sales team of zero
• Always looking for talented people
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5. The tl;dr
• Know yourself
• You can’t do it alone
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6. We’re all chasing
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7. Our “car”
• Create unique experiences
• Empower publishers
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8. Childhood
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9. Childhood
• Be honest about your strengths
• Develop your guiding principles
• Create relationships. (read: find partners)
• Invest. Invest. Invest.
• Find your captains
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10. Puberty
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11. Puberty
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12. Puberty
• Federate the day-to-day
• Specialize roles
• Hire thoughtfully
• Standardize platforms
• Focus on delivering
• Do what you know is right
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13. The tipping point
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14. Young adults
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15. Young adults
• Empower problem solving
• Own development ops
• Invest in account management
• Create new opportunities
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16. The tl;dr
• Know yourself
• You can’t do it alone
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17. Questions?
nick@voceconnect.com | Twitter / Instagram / FB: nickgernert
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