🏆 The Luck Cup and Experience Cup

At BASED we're blessed with a team which rages in ages from 30s to 60s. In today's fast-moving "blockchain" world of technology, this could be considered well above average age of a "developer team".

Often developer teams are composed of teenagers, or at most, those in their 20s. Full of energy, enthusiasm and abundant confidence, they rush to develop cool and great things, at least, from the developers point of view.

Therefore we can see many apps which have really been designed by the developers according to their wishes and desires, and for a market which is aimed at their friends, other developers, and other technically savvy teens.

The problem with such an approach, is it cannot be applied to products and services which require use among the broad public or sections thereof, such as professionals, business owners, house husbands and wives, grandfathers and grandmothers, etc.

Depending on who is using the product, it should be designed accordingly, and a knowledge of the use case scenarios, expectations, wishes and needs of the end users, is a must. Rather than being led by developers, we should be led by end users.

Now, obviously, this is not such a clear cut case as that, not black and white. But it does require compromise: or at least, some clever placing of items such that the new user is not overwhelmed, and the advanced user can find or enable things in Settings.

A well rounded team should have experience in as many fields as possible: business, education, sciences, arts, programming skills and knowledge, quality assurance, customer service, communications, management, discipline, and more besides.

Even knowledge of cultures, religions, economics, geo-politics, psychology, which are not typically associated with developing applications for example, are very helpful to being able to meet challenges and markets that would be outside smaller team skills.

Balance is also important: we have to balance our experience with nurturing and patience to the younger ones who lack the experience but are full of energy and enthusiasm, and the young ones should have a healthy respect for their elders.

In this way the team is learning and applying their knowledge and not closed to new ideas, corrections, and improvements. Think of it also like an aircraft crew: they need to work together to get airborne, have a safe flight, reach destination and safe landing.

Again at BASED we can consider ourselves truly blessed to have a tight team that resolves issues together, has patience and respect, as a strong family, based on sound principles. We're very happy with our work and our team, which is a true blessing.

We did not reach here overnight, we had to let go of those who lacked the required skills, did not make the effort, lacked in commitment or consistency, at the end of the day you can not work with everyone in any serious business.

This is also what shapes our decisions on business partnerships or relationships with the BASED Group. We don't rush into things if the other party cannot demonstrate a history of sound established projects or maturity and excellence, as well as stability.

With youth and start ups, there is a lot of risk involved and this can affect reputations. Youth lacking experience are often over-optimistic, volatile. One minute deeply in love, the next committing suicide. Driving 200 mph down the road on a bike without helmet.

Many of us have been there, and so we do understand. We're the fortunate ones who survive the trials and tribulations of youth with a lot of "luck" and make it to old age and thus gained experience. Let us also explain this in a pilot's example:

"My flight instructor told me you have two cups, one full, one empty, when you start out. The first cup is full of luck, the other is empty of experience. As time goes on, you start using up the luck pouring it into the experience until that is full, the other empty."

Every member of the BASED team has sufficient and often extensive experience. So we do not need to rely on a lot of luck. Thus, we do not need to take gambles. We prefer that we are judged by what we do and by the quality of our products.

We cannot embark on joint projects and start ups that consume much time at high risk. If a smoker tells you they gave up smoking, you ask "how long ago?" If they answer, five years, well, you can believe them. "Last week"? OK, good luck. Carry on!

We cover 3 continents, multiple nationalities and languages, areas of expertise with sufficient redundancy, among us a pilot, a data scientist, doctorates, professors, full stack developers, authors, community leaders, quite a range for a technology team.

In this random "BASED Insights" journal, one of our authors, shares some of our insights for those interested in more than just development and technology.

We hope you enjoy it, long reads are not for everyone, and that it benefits you in some way. We enjoy writing from time to time, to give and share some "BASED insight".