This is the type of thing where it helps to hire the right people from the start. You hire a bunch of leetcode experts, but never stop to ask if, besides conjuring data structures and algos in their minds they actually can build the thing you want to build. If your people know how to build the thing, you don't need to sacrifice growth, it gets built right from the start.
Sometimes you need engineers that have some other type of education, maybe accounting, maybe finance, maybe biology. I always thought that the most important part of my career was understanding every industry I built for, deeply, and knowing experts in those areas so you could ask the really important questions. That is problem solving and engineering. The rest is programming/coding.
I have never come across a post on HN that was so scarily describing my current day to day and with a comment I agree with so wholeheartedly.
I’ve spent the majority of my career in tech with a finance angle to it, mostly sales and use tax compliance.
What I never fully appreciated was how much those accountants, controllers, and lawyers were rubbing off on me.
I was recently advising a pretty old startup on their ledgering system and was beyond appalled at what it looks like when a bunch of engineers with no finance or accounting background build an accounting system.
We don’t have to find magical accountant engineers either, it will wholly suffice if we sit actual accountants in with our engineering team during the design process.
After my design of their complete overhaul I had a friend who is a CPA completely review my work, we found a few holes in certain scenarios, but by and large we were good.
Money is a difficult engineering problem because with money comes all the human goofery that surrounds it.
In some circles, there is the irritating tendency to believe that technology can solve every problem. Experts are eschewed because innovation is valued above all else.
Sometimes you need engineers that have some other type of education, maybe accounting, maybe finance, maybe biology. I always thought that the most important part of my career was understanding every industry I built for, deeply, and knowing experts in those areas so you could ask the really important questions. That is problem solving and engineering. The rest is programming/coding.