Builder, Magician, Color Green or Achiever
Understanding Archetypes to Build High-Performing Software Engineering Teams
When leading an engineering team, we gradually gain an intuition about our people. We know who excels at chaotic improvisation and who prefers a stable environment with deeply focused "building time." Some love rules; others hate them. We have a go-to person for exploring the latest but unstable solutions and another who maximizes quality-related KPIs or software architecture.
As engineering leaders, one of our responsibilities is building diverse, high-performing teams. But “diversity” doesn’t only mean different backgrounds or demographics—it also means bringing together varied mindsets, strengths, and archetypes that complement each other.
In future articles, I will discuss my experiences of transforming from all-male, homogeneous teams to a diversified, gender-balanced, multilingual group. Today, though, I want to explore different archetypes - subtler traits linked to how people naturally think, feel, and respond.
Here, you can find a PDF cheat sheet summarizing this article.
What Is an Archetype
The word archetype comes from the Greek for “original pattern.”
Psychologist Carl Jung used archetypes to describe universal, recurring symbols or character types across cultures, stories, and human experiences.
Archetypes are like “blueprints” for motivations, behaviors, and personality traits that we instinctively recognize—like the wise mentor (Sage) or the disruptive visionary (Rebel). These patterns can help us understand how individuals naturally operate within a team and why they gravitate toward specific roles or actions.
This can be helpful, for example, when working with Teammates who are Resistant to Change.
Why Archetypes Matter
While no single label can capture the full complexity of a human being, when used thoughtfully, these models become powerful tools for sparking deeper understanding and creating balanced, adaptable teams.
For example, the BOSI entrepreneurial DNA framework highlights four profiles: Builder, Opportunist, Specialist, and Innovator. I'm close to Builder, with my drive to hit ambitious goals and pursue systematic growth. Yet, it also leads to some tensions, especially when working with Opportunists (they move quickly between “quick wins”) or Specialists (experts in their niche whose boundaries are constantly disrupted by my ambitious drives).
Defining your teammates’ archetypes can help you in a few areas:
Holistic Hiring – By recognizing different personality patterns, you can look beyond just coding skills and assess how new hires might fit into your existing team dynamic—or identify the gaps you want to fill to make your team more diverse.
Tailored Leadership – Understanding each individual’s strengths lets you tailor your mentoring approach. Some team members may value autonomy, while others crave collaboration or structured mentorship.
Skill Development – You create an environment that fosters growth and engagement by aligning tasks and goals with each person’s natural strengths. Archetype classification can help you set your First Ten Effective 1:1s with your teammates.
Archetypes and Personalities Frameworks
The entire article and PDF/Notion/doc templates are available only for paid subscribers. You can use the training budget (here’s a slide for your HR).
Thanks for supporting Practical Engineering Management!