Are you mainstream?

If you're not a technology leader (and if you are, you know it), then you probably want to be mainstream. Being mainstream means that your tools and techniques are used and known by a large number of people, and you will have an easy time of finding talent for your shop. Being out of the mainstream means that your tools and techniques are used by a small number of people (or possibly no people) and you will have a difficult time finding people to work in your shop.

But how do you know if you are mainstream? (Again, if you are a technology leader then you are not mainstream, but you set the technical direction and people want to come work with you.)

To answer this question, you need to know to pieces of information: where you are, and where the mainstream is. Easy to say, hard to measure. There is no simple test, no easy evaluation, no "Cosmo quiz" for mainstream IT shops. But there are a few things you can do.

For programming languages, consult the Tiobe Index. It lists the popularity of programming languages for the past two years. You can look at the trends and also see where your language of choice lies.

For other techniques, read magazines and talk with recruiters. Printed magazines are hard to come by these days, and many are little more than advertising for a particular vendor. Recruiters are not without biases, but the good ones will give you an honest assessment of the market (and also try to sell you people).

You can also ask you staff to draft recruitment ads, listing the talents needed for the team. Be careful with this one, as it is easy for your team to think that you are considering outsourcing or replacing them.

An honest evaluation requires looking at your shop from an outsider's perspective, and looking at the world from an outsider's (at least from your shop) perspective. Only then can you decide how close (or far) is the mainstream.