Scaling Mobile Teams from 0 to 25: Lessons Learned

I've scaled mobile engineering teams from zero to 25+ engineers twice in my career — at FactoryPlus and earlier at Petro IT. Here's what I learned about building high-performing mobile teams.

The Challenge

Building a mobile team isn't just about hiring developers. You need:

• The right mix of iOS and Android expertise
• Cross-platform knowledge (Flutter/React Native)
• Architecture skills for scalable apps
• DevOps understanding for CI/CD

Phase 1: The First 5 Engineers (0-5)

What Worked

1. Hire generalists first — People who can work across the stack
2. Over-communicate — Daily standups, weekly 1:1s, async documentation
3. Establish patterns early — Architecture decisions made now affect everything

What I Got Wrong

• Hired too senior initially (ego clashes, no one wanted to do grunt work)
• Didn't document decisions (paid for it later)

Phase 2: Building the Core (5-15)

Structure That Worked

Engineering Manager (Me)
├── Android Lead
│   ├── Senior Android Dev
│   └── Android Devs (2-3)
├── iOS Lead  
│   ├── Senior iOS Dev
│   └── iOS Devs (2-3)
└── Cross-Platform Lead
    └── Flutter/RN Devs (2-3)

Key Hires

• Tech Lead — Someone who can make architecture calls
• Senior+ for each platform — Mentors for juniors
• QA Engineer — Catch issues before production

Phase 3: Scaling (15-25)

At this stage, communication becomes the bottleneck.

Changes I Made

1. Squad model — Feature-based teams instead of platform-based
2. Inner source — Shared libraries across squads
3. Office hours — Replaced some 1:1s with group sessions
4. Written culture — RFCs for major decisions

Hiring Framework

What I Look For

Red Flags

• "I just want to code" (at senior level)
• Can't explain past failures
• Blames previous teams
• No questions about the product

Retention Strategies

Top performers leave for these reasons:

1. Lack of growth — Fixed with clear career ladders
2. Boring work — Rotate people across projects
3. Bad management — Train your leads
4. Below-market pay — Regular market adjustments

Metrics I Track

Team Health:
├── Attrition rate (target: <10% annually)
├── Time to productivity (target: <4 weeks)
├── eNPS score (target: >30)
└── 1:1 attendance (target: 100%)

Delivery:
├── Sprint velocity (stable is good)
├── Bug escape rate (target: <5%)
├── PR review time (target: <24h)
└── Deploy frequency (target: daily)

Key Takeaways

1. Hire for slope, not position — Growth potential > current skills
2. Culture scales through people — Your first 5 hires define everything
3. Documentation is not optional — Write everything down
4. Invest in leads — They multiply your impact
5. Stay technical — Don't become a meeting machine

What's Next?

In my next post, I'll share the interview process I use to identify top mobile talent — including the take-home assignment that has a 90% signal-to-noise ratio.

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Building a mobile team? DM me on Twitter — happy to chat!