Guide

How to add engineers without creating a review bottleneck

More engineers can mean slower shipping if every pull request waits on one person. Founders asked us how to avoid that.

By the Lyra Capital team · · 3 min read

Why more engineers can mean slower shipping

If the founder or CTO reviews every pull request, each new engineer adds to their queue. One team already using outside engineers asked how to cut review overhead without losing the capacity. Another wanted faster delivery without replacing a capable engineer. Both problems sat in the system, not the people.

Fixes that work

  • Own areas, not tickets. An engineer who owns billing reviews their own changes in context and needs fewer handoffs.
  • Share review duty. Let a senior engineer review others' work so the founder isn't the only gate.
  • Small pull requests. Minutes to review, not hours.
  • Reviews within a day. A standing rule beats heroics.
  • Tests and preview deploys. Reviewers check behavior, not only code.
  • AI review first. Tools like Claude Code, Cursor and Codex catch routine issues before a person looks.

Phase the team

Teams asked whether they could start with two engineers for the first build and drop to one after the MVP. Planning that upfront is smart: the second engineer takes pieces that separate cleanly and leaves docs behind. Adding an engineer later works the same way in reverse.

Triage inherited QA lists

One founder's backlog was mostly fixes from an earlier vendor's QA findings. Triage before you staff it: separate real bugs from style notes and fix by user impact. Otherwise a new engineer spends weeks on the wrong list.

Legacy code needs ramp time

Founders with a codebase they built themselves asked how fast a new engineer could raise velocity. Expect a ramp: reading the code, mapping the data, adding tests around the riskiest parts. A good engineer shows the plan in week one and the velocity after it.

Fit the new CTO's rhythm

If a new technical leader is starting, add engineers into their process, not around it. More in hiring engineers before or after your raise.

Questions founders ask

How do I reduce code review overhead in a small team?

Give engineers whole areas to own, keep pull requests small, let a senior engineer share review duty and agree that reviews happen within a day.

How long until a new engineer is productive on a legacy codebase?

Expect a ramp of a week or more to map the code and add tests around risky areas. Ask for a written plan in week one.

Should I add a second engineer just for the MVP?

It can work if the work splits cleanly. Plan the step down to one engineer before you start.

Based on Granola notes from 46 calls Nam Dao and the Lyra team held with founders about hiring engineers, 6 July to 7 November 2026. Names, companies and figures are left out. AI helped pull the questions from the notes, and each one was checked against its note. Facts about Lyra engineers are as published on lyratechnologies.com.au.