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Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

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Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#51
post #46
post #6

I think getting basics of accounts/finance will go a long way. Being able to read a balance sheet/profit & loss statement/cashflow statements will help you understand the health of business. Next I would say, reading up on basic marketing/consumer psychology will help develop/acquire product and sell it. Since you mentioned being CTO, I am assume you have development/programming background. This series [1] is good re…

The CFA has a foundations course that should be more comprehensive than this, instead of focusing just on financial accounting. It's free, online, and you can earn a cert for it.

Keen for a link

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#52
This is what I learned from founding a business and running it successfully for 5+ years:

Business is easy. As long as you are cash-flow positive you are in business.

You improve your business by continually removing bottlenecks stopping you from improving your cash flow (see: Theory of Constraints).

Bottlenecks can be anything from marketing/sales to product development and tech. So you learn as you go directed by the bottlenecks.

That’s pretty much it. It’s easy but hard work.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#53
post #20

Has anybody here had experience with having a technical background, and then getting an MBA? I’m curious just how much this fast tracks someone into leadership

I did it, and it didn't do nothing for me.. turns out brand of college matters a lot

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#54
post #6

I think getting basics of accounts/finance will go a long way. Being able to read a balance sheet/profit & loss statement/cashflow statements will help you understand the health of business. Next I would say, reading up on basic marketing/consumer psychology will help develop/acquire product and sell it. Since you mentioned being CTO, I am assume you have development/programming background. This series [1] is good re…

I second this, immensely. I learned basic accounting at a community college-- Financial Accounting (3 hr course) & Managerial Accounting (3 hr course). I later took Intermediate Accounting 1 which was also super insightful. But those first two... Wow. They really opened up the "black box" of internal financial operations within a business, to me. Prior to those first two courses, I had no idea what happens when I pay…

What resources did you use to learn digital marketing?

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#55
I would add "simple excellence" [1] to the already recommend "personal MBA".

Trying to map your companies products first on a "value proposition canvas" and then whole business on a "business model canvas" is a great way to better understand on a high level whats going on in your organization.

===

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Excellence-Organizing-Manageme...

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#56
post #6

I think getting basics of accounts/finance will go a long way. Being able to read a balance sheet/profit & loss statement/cashflow statements will help you understand the health of business. Next I would say, reading up on basic marketing/consumer psychology will help develop/acquire product and sell it. Since you mentioned being CTO, I am assume you have development/programming background. This series [1] is good re…

"learn business" was mentioned but there seems to be a lot discussion here around accounting and finance - those aren't "business", at least not the core of it anyway.

Accounting for one is recording what has already happened in a business - its merely reporting, nothing more. Its a reporting function of business.

There is far too much focus I feel on accounting and finance in MBA courses. Its not business. An MBA degree these days is sort of an entry price or piece of paper into the C-suite. I don't see that MBA degrees actually teach a lot of business.

Business is finding people and having them pay for value - a product or service. If you have an accounting department or knowledge of accounting/finance, you don't have a business, you have reporting. That's all you have.

Business is far more about sales, marketing, pricing, psychology, product/market fit. Then there is the delivery of that value - the actual product or service.

I'd also say a big part of business is learning about and being about to solve problems in a certain market.

Accounting/finance in a discussion of "learn business" should come way down the list IMO - its nothing more than reporting.

(A lot of the resources here focusing on accounting or finance are great resources - if you want to learn accounting / finance or if you want to get an MBA but they don't necessarily equate to learning "business". Also there is no better way learn business than doing rather than reading about it. I heard someone once say that you'd learn more about business running a lemonade stand than doing an MBA - I tend to agree).

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#57
post #6

I think getting basics of accounts/finance will go a long way. Being able to read a balance sheet/profit & loss statement/cashflow statements will help you understand the health of business. Next I would say, reading up on basic marketing/consumer psychology will help develop/acquire product and sell it. Since you mentioned being CTO, I am assume you have development/programming background. This series [1] is good re…

"learn business" was mentioned but there seems to be a lot discussion here around accounting and finance - those aren't "business", at least not the core of it anyway. Accounting for one is recording what has already happened in a business - its merely reporting, nothing more. Its a reporting function of business. There is far too much focus I feel on accounting and finance in MBA courses. Its not business. An MBA de…

I have to hard disagree on this, but I think it might be a difference in size of company you're thinking vs. other people in this thread. Most companies where a developer will be asking this question have already figured out their product-market fit and sales pipeline. At that point and thereafter business is increasingly about "the numbers". The bigger the company, the more that is true. Understanding what "the bottom line" means for your team, department, and the company as a whole + what drives that is the core of "business".

Put another way, I don't care how great you are at product - if you don't understand what costs and margins are required to actually turn a profit you'll still fail anyway.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#59
I was a part time CTO for awhile and have done a lot of consulting to C-suites. In my experience, you don’t need to know generic “business background”. You need to know the industry your company is in, and the unique characteristics of your company in that industry (both positives and negatives). The CTO needs to understand the industry environment, and the C-suites strategy within that environment, and how technology fits into that strategy.

A CTO can also bring opportunities to the C-suite - it is possible you know about exciting innovative tech possibilities that could materially impact the business that non-technical leaders don’t know much (or anything) about.

Sure, you can learn generic finance stuff. But the real gold is understanding your company and your vertical very deeply indeed.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"learn business" was mentioned but there seems to be a lot discussion here around accounting and finance - those aren't "business", at least not the core of it anyway. Accounting for one is recording what has already happened in a business - its merely reporting, nothing more. Its a reporting function of business. There is far too much focus I feel on accounting and finance in MBA courses. Its not business. An MBA de…

I have to hard disagree on this, but I think it might be a difference in size of company you're thinking vs. other people in this thread. Most companies where a developer will be asking this question have already figured out their product-market fit and sales pipeline. At that point and thereafter business is increasingly about "the numbers". The bigger the company, the more that is true. Understanding what "the bott…

Large companies put people in very "tight"/narrow well defined roles (developers included) and like to hire MBAs in C-suite roles. And yes, I agree they will have well defined sales pipelines and product market fit.

Business is about numbers, yes - at all sizes of companies.

But what actually drives those numbers?

Its 1) value and 2) sales/and marketing. Its not the accounting department. That's my point.

Understanding costs and margins is crucial, yes. But its very much secondary to having a valuable product that people want and that you can market/sell effectively - that's business, not accounting/finance.

A developer asking questions about the value a product creates and the problems it solves or doesn't solve will do far better than learning accounting/finance as far as "learning business" goes or getting an MBA!

I'm not a Musk fanboy, but he has created multiple valuable companies (spolier alert, he didn't do that by focusing on an MBA but rather on creating valuable products) - here is what he has to say about MBAs in large companies:

https://youtu.be/Y6P8qdanszw

"Spend less time on finance and power points and more time on making your product as amazing as possible". Bingo. That's business.

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