Very often, the first and only roles that come to mind when you mention the word software is a designer and developer. Though both these roles are crucial when it comes to both designing the software and coding it, there are a few other roles that are vital when it comes to creating an efficient and smooth-running software team.
The bottom line is that software is more than just a couple of roles, and actually has a specific process through which a great product can be created. In this article, we’ll go over 5 of the roles that you’ll need to fill when hiring a complete software team- let’s get started!
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1. Product Manager
One of the many problems faced by modern product design and development teams is that most of the teams and individuals end up working in silos, giving room for siloed, fragmented work. Designers don’t know what’s going on in the mind of the content writer and marketers of the product, the UI designers are cut off from the UX designers, developers are unaware of the changes made to the design, and due to the presence of multiple copies of the design, many teams end up working on completely different versions until they realise that they’ve messed up the design completely and have to start from scratch.
It’s always good to have a product manager who heads the entire product creation process because they’ll be able to tie all the teams together and ensure that no team ends up working in a silo. For example, a product manager will have to review and revise any design or piece of content before it’s finally handed over to the developer, making sure that there’s a good understanding because he or she can keep the rest of the team on the same page.
Creating a software product that’s successful without the supervision of a product manager is almost impossible because there needs to be one supervisor who can ensure consistency across all the teams who are working on the product- be it the content team, UI team, UX team, designers, front-end and back-end developers, and so on.
2. Designers
Needless to say, you can’t create software without designers creating a solid working design with prototypes to view the finished product. Designers work on two levels during the product design process- they design the interface, which is the appearance and interactive actions of the product (commonly known as UI design), and they’re also responsible for the UX design, which is the overall experience for the end-user who uses the product. They work to create consistency across the product, intuitive design, pleasing appearance, and easy functionality.
3. Content Writers & Marketers
It’s impossible to expect designers and developers to focus on creating good content as well. Every button, banner, text, or word inside the product is crafted by content writers who work to create easy to understand text for the end-users. Content writers often also function as marketers, as they take care of the external marketing activity in and around the product as well. Website content, blogs, social media content, video scripts, and whatnot come under this category of digital marketing.
4. Developers
Finally, the design is handed over to the devs for development. Here’s where you can see working prototypes of the product being built, after which they can be internally or externally tested to see what works and what needs to be fixed before the final product is created and released.
5. Quality Assurance Engineers
Soon after the development of the product, you will need QA engineers to test and identify the existing and potential problems in the product. Checking a product for bugs is a very important step, and apps like TestProject.io helps teams with automation testing and quick bug detection and fixes. Once the QA engineers complete their round of testing, the product can be further refined and made ready for its final release.
