Ask Your Developer: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century
Jeff Lawson
HarperBusiness (January 2021)

How and why software development has become a natural law of successful business

In this book, Jeff Lawson explains how and why software developers matter more than ever in almost any business, whatever its size and nature may be. Also, how to attract or develop and then retain the most effective software developers for the given enterprise. Only then can almost any organization harness the power of software to deliver the best digital customer experiences.

For example, as Jeff Bezos once insisted, “Amazon is not a retailer. We’re a software company.” That is, “Our business is not what’s in the brown boxes. It’s the software that sends the brown boxes on their way. Our ability to win is based on our ability to arrange magnetic particles on hard drives better than our competition.”

Essentially the same can be said of other companies such as Casper, Harry’s, Lyft, Nike, Nordstrom, OpenTable, Robinhood, Uber, What’sApp.  For them and countless others, Lawson suggests, “Software has moved from being a cost cenbter to a profit center.” That’s why, “To truly thrive in the digital era — either as a disruptor or those fending off disruptors — you need to think like a Software Person.”

Moreover, “a Software Person is not necessarily a developer– it’s anybody who, when faced with a problem, asks the question,: ‘How can software solve this problem?’ That’s because being a Software Person is a mindset, not a skill set.”

Lawson draws upon a wide and deep abundance of real-world, hands-on experience with software development. He is a serial inventor with over 15 years of entrepreneurial and product experience. Prior to co-founding Twilio, He was founder & CTO of NineStar, Founding CTO of Stubhub.com and founder, CEO & CTO of Versity. He was also one of the original product managers for Amazon Web Services. At every business, he identified the fundamental need for a platform for developers and companies to easily build communications-based business solutions. Lawson grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, started his first company in middle school, and earned his BS in Computer Science & Film/Video from University of Michigan.

Senior-level executives need to read and then (yes) re-read this book to understand how to work effectively with the software developer(s) with whom they are now closely associated. For example, identifying a problem that needs to be solved and then collaborating with them on the solution…or at least providing the resources to solve it. Once a specific objective has been identified, ask ‘How best to make this happen?

Lawson suggests, “Think of this book as a toolkit of ideas to help business leaders, product managers, technical leaders, software developers, and other executives achieve their common goal — how to win in the digital economy.” I agree with him that software developers matter more than ever before, that their supervisors must understand them and what is of greatest importance to them, and that there must be sufficient support and appreciation of their efforts.

When working through Jeff Lawson’s narrative, it is important to keep in mind that the suggestion “ask your developer” includes but is by no means limited to those who develop software. On the contrary, leaders must ask [begin italics] everyone [end italics] within the given organization to identify important questions that must be answered and serious problems that must be solved. They are the WHAT. Then ask those best qualified — especially software developers — to become involved in the process by which to answer or solve them (the HOW).

One final point: Everyone involved in organizational transformation would be well-advised to keep clearly in mind this observation by Peter Drucker: “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”