You do both the presentation aspect of a feature, and the backend logic part, but you also do the design, product analysis, research, and follow-up with customers.
In End-to-End Development you actually speak to the customer that uses your feature, and you learn first-hand about the value you provided. I know that this is quite a rare practice in the industry. Taking it a step further, a developer at apiiro is typically on a shared Slack channel with multiple customers, participating in the conversation (or driving it). In essence we eliminated the need for analyzed specs to come from the product team and accelerated our delivery time.
On this note, at apiiro there are no dedicated product managers. There are many developers that take part in product work - analyzing customer feedback, designing, and prioritizing. This way, everybody gets the big picture, and developers can gain a better understanding of the market, the users, and the vision going forward.
As with anything in software development (and life?), there is a tradeoff, of course. Not everyone is best at everything. Jon might have a lousy touch for UI aesthetics, and Jane spent so many years at low-level coding, she struggles with understanding complex systems. There are areas between one “End” to the other, where true knowledge and experience is crucial.
That is why at apiiro, we have truly exceptional people in all areas. You don’t need to be an expert at coding, designing, and market analysis altogether. But you can be certain that for whatever task you are dealing with, you have the best people working with you, helping you get the feature out the door, while teaching you about the areas you are less experienced at.
There are many cultural aspects, and procedures (or the absence of procedures!) that you need to maintain to have the “End-to-End Development” approach working. One of them is the diversity of the team - not for appearances, but true diversity of opinions and capabilities. Gender, race, and age diversity are commonly discussed nowadays (not necessarily practiced though), and at apiiro we also make an effort to bring along people from various backgrounds - academic, and non-academic, with experience from small startups and large corporations, with deep knowledge of different programming languages and technologies, and with different belief systems - tabs or spaces!
I’m excited and honored to be working with such a skilled team that challenges our way of thought on a daily basis. If you’re interested in hearing more about the “End-to-End Development” approach and practices, feel free to reach out to me directly via Email or LinkedIn
We’re also always on the lookout for exceptional people to join us. If “End-to-End Development” is something that you can relate to, I encourage you to send your resume.
