1. A senior manager as TopCoder would have to have a unique set of capabilities that would undoubtedly be different from a senior manager at, say, a traditional software development firm. First, let’s take a look at what a senior manager would need to be capable of in the traditional firm scenario. When doing software development at a firm like Google, Microsoft, or Apple, you would likely need a combination of software engineering technical expertise, project management skills, and systems analysis and design abilities. In the traditional firm, combining all of these skills would allow a senior manager to have complete start-to-finish control, management, and visibility of his/her software projects.
Flipping this notion completely on its head is the TopCoder senior manager’s responsibilities and capabilities. Since at TopCoder you’re crowdsourcing your development staff for each of your client’s projects, you will likely only need some of the abovementioned skills from the traditional senior manager. According to TopCoder’s website, they crowdsource every role within the software development process from systems analysis and design, UI/UX/Graphic design, coding, and data science/architecture. With that being said, it’s clear that senior manager at TopCoder would need to oversee these projects differently. Project Management skills are one thing I would imagine to be universal in both of these management types, for in both the traditional and TopCoder cases you would need a Project Manager to just oversee progress and keep things on track in these projects. However, you would likely not need as much the engineering technical expertise or systems analysis and design abilities, because these are the very things you would be crowdsourcing. Instead, a senior management position at TopCoder would likely involve lots of consulting work with the main client. A senior manager here would kind of act as a mini-CEO of the project wherein constant communication with the client would be necessary. The senior manager would learn the client’s needs from start-to-finish and convey these requirements to his/her crowdsourced team. Changes along the way would also need to be passed down to the development team. This whole transferring of information responsibility of the TopCoder manager’s job seems like it would be the most important aspect of their job. Since your entire development team is not located in house, the most important tool you have to keep development humming along is communication. Without constant sharing of information between client, TopCoder manager, and crowdsourced development team, the project would undoubtedly see failure along with the entire TopCoder business model. So in summary, it seems that the TopCoder senior manager would have to take on much more of a management/consulting role rather than all the technical/engineering responsibilities you would have as a traditional software development senior manager.
4. Tech Musing #2
Site: https://www.coursehero.com/
CourseHero is an online educational resource and platform that enables students and prospective learners alike to find, create, and get help with all their education needs. CourseHero uses collective action and crowdsourced information gathering in a few ways. Much like competitor site Quizlet, CourseHero allows users to search for study resources that have been made in the past and shared by other users. In addition, users of CourseHero can create their own study resources by searching for flashcards, practice problems, homework help and more. This pillar of CourseHero’s business model has enabled them to create a massive database of educational resources that are currently being used millions of students across the globe. However, CourseHero’s offerings don’t end there.
CourseHero also has a Tutoring program that is structured very similarly to the way TopCoder’s crowdsourced software developers are. CourseHero allows people to sign up to become a tutor for users of CourseHero. These CourseHero-employed tutors are said to be “available 24/7”, which must mean they have a large base of tutors working different shifts to cover all of those hours. Users can “summon” a tutor at any time to help them work through an assignment, course concept, or set of practice problems. In many ways, this business model of on-demand tutors really is a revolution to the way we deliver education. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been working on a homework assignment and have had absolutely no idea how to solve a particular problem. There are definitely times where the book provides no answers and neither do the lecture slides. A tool like these CourseHero tutors could definitely be of help to someone like me in these circumstances.
This crowdsourced-education business model seems to be working out pretty well for CourseHero. To date, the company has a total of 7.6 million educational resources spread out among study documents, question and answer forums, and flashcards. 5 million members are registered with the site. All of them are incentivized to contribute to the site’s resources because CourseHero will pay contributors and (of course) the tutors who help users. All in all, CourseHero seems to be doing a pretty good job at revolutionizing the way we deliver educational resources.
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