Engineers who can manage periods of sprinting and planning to prioritize high-level business goals in tandem with technical requirements and best practices produce the type of “10x” output that makes many of the top software engineering companies in the United States so valuable today.

In this article, I’ll explain how to recruit people who I consider “10x” engineers (a phrase that’s a misnomer in the industry which I’ll discuss in future posts).

The most talented engineers at any company are usually those who are able to strategically weave business and technical objectives: a particularly important skill at early-stage software startups. These engineers also expand their coding knowledge through a mental reference library of tools and frameworks that allow them to code faster and more efficiently and they’re generally difficult to hire for a number of reasons.