In a recent post I mentioned teams of A-players being able to work faster, more agile, and more independent. Of course, those are desired qualities for the team that you’re working on - who wouldn’t want that for themselves? So, a question arises - what does it mean to be an A-player?

Obvious answer: it depends. Everybody has their own set of skills that they’re looking for and you can’t be an A-player to everyone.

Useful answer: think of what kind of team you’d like to be on and strive to be the best fit there. For me that means developers who show:

* a breadth of knowledge that lets them easily grasps concepts across the whole stack

* a depth of knowledge in one or two areas where they can take the lead in their team

* focus on delivery, because code is not useful - solutions are

* communication skills both in ad-hoc verbal situations (calls), as well as in written documentation or tickets, they are able to explain concepts and issues in a concise, clear, and exhaustive manner

* debugging and problem-solving skills

* empathy for the user and understanding of the problem domain

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The longer your own list, the easier it is to find something that you should improve.

Have a good one,

Wojciech

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PS. I have lovingly crafted this email using only the best artisanal keystrokes. If you find come across any typos, feel free to fix them yourself and enjoy this new, unique, kintsugi version.