Growing an engineering team without growing the queue
The Ipedis product team grew from 5 to 25 people. A look at the responsibilities, hiring, onboarding and dependencies that needed attention during that growth.
Tech team & organization
Intervention report
A capable team can still be blocked by the way it is organized.
Roles, seniority, ownership, hiring, onboarding: I look at how the team actually works.
Clarify roles, seniority and ownership.
Chapter 1 · Findings
When the organization holds the tech team back.
The lead developer carries too many decisions alone.
Responsibilities between product, tech and operations are unclear.
Hiring is moving, but onboarding stays slow.
Senior developers spend their time fixing problems and have little time to share knowledge.
Chapter 2 · Warning signs
Signs it is time.
Every question goes back to the same two people.
New hires take too long to become productive.
Tension comes more from ownership than from code.
Leadership does not know which profile to hire next.
Chapter 3 · Intervention
How I clarify roles and decisions.
- Step 1
Observe how the team works
I look at how decisions are made, where work gets stuck and which responsibilities remain unclear.
- Step 2
Clarify ownership
I propose a simple split of roles, expectations and autonomy levels.
- Step 3
Structure progression paths
I introduce practices that make the team more autonomous after I leave.
Chapter 4 · Case files
In practice.
- 9 yearsof continuous organic growthFrom a proof of concept to a microservices SaaS platform, without losing a client or interrupting service. A gradual migration organised around business domains. PubliSpeak Architecture & Scale
- 80%fewer production bugs, approximate estimate40,000 properties, 12 tax regimes, banking-grade security. When the machine has to be reliable before it can be smart. Gridky Fintech & Real Estate
Chapter 5 · Inspection
What I look at in your tech team.
How responsibilities and decisions are distributed.
The actual seniority level compared with today’s stakes.
Rituals, reviews, handovers and collaboration habits.
Hiring, onboarding and skill development needs.
What you can expect
- An organization that makes sense to leadership and the team.
- Less dependency on a few key people.
- Better calibrated hiring and promotions.
Chapter 6 · Answers
Tech team organization: your questions.
Do you act as an interim manager?
I can provide part-time technical leadership, with a clear goal: clarity and autonomy.
Is this useful for a small team?
Yes, especially when a few people already carry too many critical topics.
How do you organize a tech team that is growing?
By evolving the organization at the same time as the architecture. At PubliSpeak, the team grew from 5 to 25 people: hiring, structured onboarding, shared responsibilities and continuous upskilling.
How can you tell whether the organization is holding the development team back?
A few markers are easy to measure: how long a new developer takes to ship a first meaningful contribution, PR review time, how many departures would put the project at risk, and whether someone can ship without waiting for a key person. The team health radar covers them in 12 questions.
Next
Does this sound familiar?
A tool to prepare the conversation, a diagnosis to understand the context, and support to take action.
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